A parent attends classes one day a week with each child enrolled. A parent also serves on a committee or the board where the work commitment is 2 to 3 hours per month. And parents are required to attend parent education classes one evening a month.

Some special advantages of our cooperative preschool are:

• If your child has separation anxiety (cries when you leave him or her), you can come to school and stay with your child every day until your child gets accustomed to school. Most drop-off preschools will not allow parents to stay with their child for even a single day.
• Parents are encouraged to go on field trips with your child. Spending those fun, educational and special moments with your own child will enhance your relationship and give you more things to talk about.
• You learn about how to be a better parent. Through meetings with the teacher and parent education lectures, you learn new ideas, techniques and rules that really work. Your child will spend less time crying and more time cooperating.
• Child to adult ratios are extremely low. Children benefit from lots of parents being at school, helping them and showing interest in them. And children are closely supervised for safety and to assure that their special needs are being met.
• You get to spend time with other children and start a fresh relationship with them. And then send them home with their own parents before they get tired. Remember why you wanted to have children in the first place?
• You get to spend time with other adults. We all need to work together to take care of our children and our preschool. But we're all here to have fun, too. We are a community of parents and we have Parents' Night Out where the parents get together without the kids and become friends.

Some other advantages of a cooperative preschool are:

• We work together to make the school run. You can get involved and make changes.
• We all learn through play.
• You get to be teachers, too.
• You get co-op community support with childcare.
• You get college credit for coming to preschool.
• Children and parents have fun together.

A co-op preschool is not for everybody. A co-op preschool is a community of families. A community where we contribute our own special talents and all help each other out. A community where it's important to believe that the more you put into the community, the more you (and especially your children) get out of the community.

A co-op preschool is for you if:

• You want to learn to be the “best parent you can be.”
• You are willing and able to help out in the classroom and around the preschool.
• You are excited about being on the floor and playing with your children and other peoples children
• You take initiative to help others when you see that something needs to be done (sweep or vacuum).
• You are flexible.
• You don't mind getting dirty and will "dress for mess."

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