I know that none of those words go together.

July 3, 2013 6:12 AM

Boston MetroWest parent filter: I need an affordable full-time preschool in Needham, MA or between Needham and North Waltham. And by "affordable" I mean < $1000/month. My son will be 3 in October.

I'm moving there in September due to the kindness of a person who has a whole extra empty house on his property and is letting me rent it for what I can afford. Lucky, right? So very, incredibly, unbelievably lucky.

Needham is a very nice, safe area with awesome schools. But the cheapest preschool I've found in the area or along 95 towards work is just under $1300/month, which is literally what I will be paying in rent. I'm a single parent and I don't qualify for state vouchers.

My son is very active and rambunctious (see previous question if you want details) and probably will not do well in a home daycare setting. He's thriving in the preschool I have him in now, which is $900/month but which is 45 minutes away from where we will be living in September.

All of that is to say: are you aware of any affordable but structured preschools between Needham and Waltham, or do you know of any sort of programs I've missed that would help me pay for care?

posted by woodvine to Education (5 answers total)

Have you looked into the YMCA's Pre-School programs? It doesn't look like the Needham Y has one, but the Waltham Y does and it looks like there is some financial assistance available.

We send our 3 year old to the Salem Y and are pretty happy with the program. Cost-wise, it's still over 1k a month, though. When we were looking around for care we couldn't find anything cheaper than 275 a week.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 7:54 AM on July 3, 2013

Response by poster: We're on the waiting list for the Waltham Y program :)
posted by woodvine at 8:29 AM on July 3, 2013

Ah, well in that case, stay on top of them and check in frequently - in our experience, those waiting lists can get pretty nebulous depending on the time of year and the director's work load.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 8:54 AM on July 3, 2013

Have you looked at local churches? My family is not at all religious, but I went to an awesome, mostly secular, Presbyterian Church preschool that offers sliding scale fees. Some of my friends now send their kids to the same school and love it.
posted by decathecting at 10:12 AM on July 3, 2013

Response by poster: My ex is militantly anti-religious, so much so that church preschools are out unless I want a court battle. Which is probably more expensive than preschool will be, come to that...
posted by woodvine at 5:13 AM on July 4, 2013