the Cost of Private Preschools

We signed up our oldest child (at 3 years old) for a local private school. Prior to his first day because he was enrolled after the school session for the year started, we understood that his tuition includes lunch and a snack. So we were all very excited he would be going to school and will have lunch, snack and play with other children and learn new things.

After his first day of school, my husband told me that our son came home crying saying that they wouldn't give him any lunch and he wanted to go back to school to get lunch. I didn't understand what happened. I immediately called the school, but the administrator was already gone for the day.

I called the next day and spoke with the administrator. She said that we didn't pay for our son to have lunch at school -- it was an additional charge. And the difference came up to $60 per day. Our son had lunch the same day at school.

We agreed to pay it. Our son had lunch at school for a few weeks and said the food was no good so we changed his school schedule to remove lunch from his program.

I guess every bit of money counts to private schools. We didn't know that private schools would start to "nickel and dime" for everything and they are very strict about their contracts. I still think that what we are paying is too much, but it is cheaper than a babysitter. I know that the same type of school about 300 miles away charges about $90 less. The price might have to do with location. To say the least about private school, we know our son is at school and becoming educated everday and not at someone's house being "babysat" and bored.