What’s the big deal about applying to kindergarten? This was my mindset for some time.

I was so naïve.

When we went to our first “new parents” reception, there was of course the excitement and relief of our child (and by extension us) having been admitted to a school with which we were thrilled — but our conversations with the other parents also felt a bit like group therapy. Our most immediate connection with every other parent was the seeming post-traumatic stress disorder of weathering the kindergarten application process. We were survivors.

I remember thinking that the written application would be no problem — and then finding an increasing furrow in my brow as I read the essay questions and one-by-one realized that I did not have answers for any of them, nor did I even have a general idea of what the answers were supposed to sound like. I soon became accustomed to the feeling of cold sweat, next invoked by the idea of sending our young child, who seemed to us to be on the shy side and who seemed to us to have been an infant looking up wide-eyed from the crib just a day or so ago, off to an “assessment” interview or whatever the heck it was, outside our presence.

I remember searching out the answers and information I craved through Internet searches. To my dismay, there was very little information out there. Little that I really found useful, at least. And what there was took an inordinate amount of time to find and came in unorganized snippets across multiple sources. That’s why we started this website.

This website is for all sorts of parents and families considering private school kindergarten. The ones who are worried about affording private school and are hoping they find their local public school to be “not so bad.” The ones who belong to a country club and have always known they would be going to private school. The ones who are worried that private school will be full of rich kids to whom they won’t relate. The ones who are already hoping that their child, currently age 4, will get into Harvard, Yale, and Stanford. The ones who are interested in private school with hopes of finding innovation and an environment that fosters a lifelong love of learning. The ones who are convinced every decision they make about their child has vast and permanent ramifications and find themselves paralyzed by over-analysis.

Many of us have facets of all of these stereotypes within us. We know we do.

We’re just two people, and we’re not private school admissions officers or anything like that. One of us has a master’s in education; and much more importantly, we’re parents, probably with at least some similarities to you, if you’ve read this far. We’re going to share everything we’ve learned, cobble in some stories from our friends where they’ll share them (and from you, if you'll share!), and add in information from publications and other sources, building up this site over time. Please let us know what topics you would like addressed here — and please feel free to share information or experiences that you are willing to have put up on the site!