Savvy Source: A great place to start your preschool research

When I started researching preschools, I was amazed by the lack of a centralized resource to find out what was available in our neighborhood. Through conversations with other parents and a dose of dumb luck, we found an ideal preschool for our son, but it was only through happenstance. This particular preschool doesn't even list itself anywhere as its waiting list is already too long!

If you find yourself in the same boat, have a look around Savvy Source. This site catalogs preschools and parent reviews from all over the country. Even better, they have a huge database of suggestions for books, toys, activity ideas, and camps geared toward preschoolers. Folks who sign up for free accounts can vote on favorites, write reviews, and get involved in the community there.

Savvy Source recently launched a new service -- an amazingly detailed quiz parents can take to identify various developmental milestones. It then suggest activities and products to promote development in areas that could use a little help.

This is a wonderful, low-key way to promote kindergarten "readiness" -- and to at least understand where your kid is in terms of the averages. It's important to remember that every kid develops at his own pace (and that pace knows nothing about benchmarks and milestones and national averages), but it's also nice to have a subjective tool for eyeballing your child's growing skills.

Comments

[Sleepycat]

I just did the quiz and was disappointed that after investing the time in the quiz I had to sign up with the site to get the results. I probably would have done the quiz anyway but it really annoyed me to get "caught" at the end.

The good thing is, you don't have to confirm the email you give them to access the quiz results so a fake email will work.

[sarahg]

I just took the quiz and found it super helpful in just knowing what some of the developmental milestones are for kids my daughters age, nevermind the books, toys, etc. geared towards where my child is. What a resource. Very cool. And you can download a list of free activities. Love it. Thanks for passing this along - very helpful.

[lauren in seattle]

Wow. What a great set of resources on Seattle preschools and the recommendations for the quiz were really good. I have stuff to do with my daughter for the next couple of months! Thanks for sharing.

[Jennifer]

I used this website last year when I was researching preschools for my daughter. I like that they include comments from parents. It's a great resource.

[travelers2go]

I had to email Savvy Source for them to include the public schools. Apparently, they used to charge a fee to be listed, now they do not. Hence, public schools are not going to pay a fee and they never went out to update the lists. They have since listed my daughters pre-school which is awesome.

[Christel]

This is awesome, thank you so much. We've really wanted to make sure our oldest is preschool bound this fall, but we've gotten caught up in the extensive waiting lists in our area instead. I'm so glad to have a good source for finding great new options!

[Mia]

Any ideas on where to get this info for Canada? I'm in Ontario...