New to Atlanta; General Schooling Question

I have an-almost 3 month old little girl, and I work as an OT in several private pre-schools in the Buckhead/Sandy Springs areas. I don't know much about the public programs, but I am familiar with quite a few private preschools. If you want more info on the schools in those areas or if you want a friend for your baby, feel free to contact me at ____@____.com. I know it is hard to relocate, but nobody who lives in Atlanta is from Atlanta, so you'll be in good company! Welcome!

I just moved to Woodstock, GA 2 1/2 years ago. We moved from Florida but are originally from Massachusetts. I find this area is a happy medium of the two. You get 4 seasons but the winters are much more mild, shorter and the spring is longer and gorgeous. There are lots of options for Moms Morning Out programs, usually at churches, for kids from 18 months and up. Georgia also has lottery funded pre-K schools that are no cost to you but those usually don't start until 3 or 4 yo. My kids go to First Baptist Woodstock and their programs are wonderful. Great facility, great people, great curriculum. We go to church there as well and it's a great church. I love this area and we looked all around before deciding on it. We looked north of here, just south of here and east of here. Alpharetta and Roswell are nice areas, although more pricey and a lot more expensive than this area. I like it because it's still country but close enough to everything you need and the major highways. Lower property taxes in Cherokee county than Fulton also. The area we chose has all Blue Ribbon schools. Good luck.

Hi K.,

Someone above mentioned the GA pre-k program funded by the GA Lottery. It's a great program that is offered both at the schools and at certified private daycare facilities. Both my children attended the GA pre-k program at a private daycare and I couldn't have been happier with the quality of education and atmosphere. What most people don't know is that the "good" ones (great atmosphere, clean, safe, etc.) usually are full and difficult to get in to. A good way around this is to have your child(ren) attend their daycare and then they automatically get a spot in the pre-k program. This takes some research in advance. The web site that you can visit to find out all the GA pre-k programs by geographic area is:
http://www.decal.state.ga.us/
Once you know where you want to live you would search the site and then visit the daycare programs to see which one suits you.
Other web sites you can check out re: schools are:
www.greatschools.net
www.atlanta.k12.ga.us
http://schools.ajchomefinder.com/
http://www.ajchomefinder.com/schools/release_notes.html
http://www.publicschoolsdirectory.com/cobb-county-schools...
www.schoolmatters.com
http://privateschool.about.com
http://newcomeratlanta.com/atlantaschoolguide/atlschoolgu...
I live in Alpharetta, in Fulton county, which is located just south of Forsyth county and directly north of Dunwoody. I'm a realtor and am familiar with the areas near to your husband's job location. I'm going to answer your other post to give you some ideas on areas you might look into.
If you'd like to contact me directly to ask any other quesons please feel free, ###-###-#### or ____@____.com can also search on my web site for both houses and schools www.lisachasin.com.
Good luck with everything, L.

Pre-k is just the year of preschool in preparation for kindergarten. Your child must be 4yo by Sept 1st. That is the birthday cutoff for school registration. Before moving go to www.greatschools.net and research the schools in the area you are thinking of moving to. They rank schools based on test scores, student:teacher ratios and demographics. They also include comments from parents. I spent hours on that site prior to our move from St Louis a little over a year ago. We finally decided on Suwanee and love it here. The schools are great and are really supported by the community and have great parent involvement. I have a 3yo daughter also and she is currently in preschool at Shaodowbrook Baptist Weekday School and loves it. My son is in second grade at Level Creek Elementary and so far we are very pleased there as well. I won't say he loves it, because, after all, he is 8. But he doesn't hate it either.
If you come to this area, look me up. Emma could always use another playmate!