Preschool in Tokyo

As a single-income household, and with a desire for Kaylee to be in an English-speaking environment, our options for preschool were pretty much limited to a handful of International Schools.  These are not cheap.  Some would have cost (for just 5 months of school - January through the first week of June) around US$12,000.  We looked at several, and had it narrowed down to two good ones.  Neither would have been easy on our budget, but one was *just* out of reach, and the other was more, but they offer a scholarship.

We ended up picking based on Murphy's Law.  I wanted to be sure that Kaylee started school on Monday, so I wanted all the paperwork done today, the uniform purchased, the lunch plan worked out.  All of it.  And at 10am this morning, the scholarship still hadn't been confirmed, so we went with J's International School.  Financially, at the extreme upper end of what we can afford (let's not even try to believe it's "reasonably afford" - we admit we're stretching the limits of reason here), but the school is such a fantastic environment that I fell in love with it the second we walked in, and they are just awesome.

The Murphy's Law part is that as soon as all the paperwork was done and we had left the school, celebrating how awesome the school and the teachers are, I got the email from Summerhill that we had been awarded the scholarship (which would have reduced their price to about 80% of what we'll be paying for J's - a substantial amount).  Sigh.  But I'm not going to back out of our enrollment at J's.  The school is just too perfect for us.  And Summerhill (which is just around the corner from J's) is also good, but didn't give me quite the same giddy feeling of it being the perfect environment for us.  Kaylee will be in a class of two teachers and four additional students, with interaction with the 6 or so students in the younger class (where there are three more awesome teachers).  At Summerhill, it would have been 4 teachers and 16 students.  There was something really great about the smaller class size at J's that I loved.  Anyway... I let fate (and Murphy) decide for me.  I can try to justify it, and give all the pros and cons.  But the lists are irrelevant.  I wanted it done.... and I went with what got it done.

While we did paperwork, Kaylee spent time in her classroom.  She loves her classmates, the teachers, and the classroom, and has ever since our tour last week.  I'm so glad we found somewhere she's so excited to be, and where the transition for leaving her there probably won't be difficult at all.