Navigating the Bookend Years of Homeschooling

“If we dare to be different and persevere in our homeschooling, we can provide our children with rich educational experiences and hope for the future.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. My friend, who was into the seventh month of her pregnancy, had camped out all night. Why? To make sure her child got into just the right preschool—three years later. This baffling conversation sent me on a journey to find out if this was normal American behavior. Here is what I found.

Preschool Mania

In an article in The Atlantic Monthly, author Sandra Tsing Loh says: “But even at the preschool level parents now fight to be the last family in . . . . Why? Because getting into that $25,000-a-year preschool is now seen as a toddler’s de rigueur first step down the yellow brick road that winds from preschool to private school to Harvard to Goldman Sachs. In their book The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers & Fathers Are Going Broke (page 39), authors Elizabeth Warren (Harvard law professor) and her daughter cite a study that indicates “the annual cost for a four-year-old to attend a child care center in an urban area is more than double the price of college tuition in fifteen states.”

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