Preschools for 18 month olds similar to School for Friends?

[Anonymous]

We recently toured School for Friends and loved it. Would love to hear folks' thoughts on:

1) Any potential downsides to SFF (I know there are other threads and have checked those out but wanted to see if any more recent families had thoughts)

2) Whether there are any other places, similar to SFF, that has an 18 month old classroom that we should consider.

Also curious in people's thoughts as to whether there's really a difference between preschool and daycare at that age. We have toured a bunch of daycares and they seemed more just like kids playing independently with random bins of plastic toys, but who knows if that's what's happening at the "preschools" as well when tours aren't coming through.

Thanks in advance!

[Anonymous]

Hi there--current SFF family here. Overall, we've been very happy. The 18 month classroom is particularly great. One of the reasons we chose it (and were lucky to get in) was the fact that they have an 18-month class. We didn't find that at other places we looked.

[Anonymous]

OP here - thank you!! Any tips for the application? We are very happy to be involved in the school community but, like, do I have to make it seem as though we are willing to be on every committee . . . ?

[Anonymous]

Sure thing. I wish I had tips, but I don't really know. My sense is you no--you don't have to volunteer for everything. I'd suggest making sure you let them know how excited you are about it and try to connect with the Head of School if possible. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

I think the difference is purely in type/ duration of care. Generally daycares provide year round, all day care and preschools follow a school year calendar with Spring Break, Professional Development days et al. That said there are preschools that start only at 18mo-2 years such as School for Friends, which don't take infants but do provide all day, year round care. In terms of curriculum, it varies so greatly, you have to tour the schools and sit down for a discussion with the Head of School/ Director to see if it aligns with what you want for your child.

As far as downsides go, I don't know of any. Know people who sent their kids there and loved it. We applied a few years ago right as the former director was leaving and didn't end up going there as it seemed a bit chaotic with the turnover. At the time they were adding a 2-year class and we were told that it was highly likely we'd be accepted for admission (we were)
My sense is that it's somewhat tough to get in at the 18 month/ 2 year age, but older kids easily get in thanks to families leaving for free PK3.