A good education is the key to any child’s future success, so naturally, parents are greatly invested in finding the best schools for their children, as well as day camps for summer break. The best schools in the area may offer a variety of extracurricular activities, clubs, and more, and they will be well-funded and boast expert staff, including counselors. Children aged three to five may be enrolled at preschools, and the best preschools around will also have age-appropriate extracurricular activities for the young students. Finding the best private schools around or finding highly rated public schools will take some effort, but it can be done, and is absolutely worth the effort.
Finding Good Preschools Nearby
While preschool attendance is not mandatory in the United States, more households than ever are enrolling their young children in pre-primary programs like these. A preschool is not just a day care; it is an academic setting where the young students will learn how to learn, get used to following teacher directions, and meet their peers. All of this can better prepare them for their K-12 education, and preschools offer many different extracurricular activities, especially the well-funded schools. In 2015, for example, some 87% of five-year-old children were enrolled in pre-primary programs.
When a child becomes old enough for preschool, or when the family moves to a new city or town, it is time to look up the best preschools (and with the best extracurricular activities) online. The parents can search online based on their city’s name and the type of school they need, such as “best private preschools near me” or “top rated preschools in the area.” In a larger city, it may also help to enter the ZIP code to keep the results local. Doing all this will show a whole list of preschools of the desired type (public, private, or both), and the parents can strike out schools that they feel will not work out. They can then compile a short list of promising schools.
The entire family can visit these schools one by one in person, and get a fair impression of what each school is like. While there, the parents can consult the staff and review the available extracurricular activities and programs for the students, while also reviewing each teacher’s credentials. And of course, the parents can double check that their child feels comfortable at that school and gets along with the staff, to be sure their child will enjoy being a student there. Private preschools do charge tuition, but they are robustly (and privately) funded and offer many extracurricular activities and expert staff. Public preschools vary in funding, so parents should take extra care to check that a preschool offers everything their child will need. The family can tour any number of schools like this until they find one that suits their needs, and enroll their child there.
Other Schools and Enrollment
A fairly similar process can be used to locate good elementary, middle, and high schools in the area, starting with an online search. These K-12 schools can also be either private or public, where private schools are privately funded and and run. Private schools have expert staff and many extracurricular activities, and studies show that private school teachers report much lower rates of student apathy than public schools. What is more, private high schools offer more college prep counseling than public ones, and so, over 90% of private high school grads go on to college. Still, a high quality public school may also be well funded and offer seasoned teachers, and may be nearly as good as some private ones. Such schools can be found after a thorough and careful search.
Either way, the family can visit local schools and review the extracurricular activities offered there, and the prospective student may later explain why they did or did not like a school they toured. The child can also describe what sort of extracurricular activities and clubs they want a school to offer, anything from arts programs to a marching band (high school) to a soccer team or a swim team. Overall, a good school is one where the student is accepted by their peers and is properly challenged by the coursework.
