You will walk through the front door, and someone kind will meet you. The rooms will be bright. There will be art on the walls and a rug with letters on it and a bin of blocks in the corner. Everything will look, more or less, like what you pictured. And then you will get back in your car and realize you have no idea whether that was a good school. This is the honest problem with preschool tours. They are short, they are friendly, and they are designed to make a good impression — which is not the same thing as designed to tell you the truth. Most parents walk out with a general feeling and very little information. The feeling matters. But you can do better than a feeling. Below are the questions worth asking. Not a script to read off your phone — just the handful that tend to produce real answers instead of brochure answers. ## Start with the people, because the people are the school A preschool is not a building or a curriculum. It is a small number of adults who will spend more waking hours with your child, some weeks, than you will. Everything else is downstream of that. **"How long has my child's teacher been here?"** This is the single most useful question on the tour, and it is the one most parents forget to ask. Early childhood education has high turnover industry-wide. A school where the lead teachers have been in place for years is telling you something that no mission statement can tell you: that the adults in this building want to stay. Ask it plainly. Listen to whether the answer comes easily. **"What happens when a teacher is out sick?"** The answer reveals how deep the bench is. A school with a real answer — named substitutes who already know the children, a float teacher, a director who steps into the classroom — is a school that has thought about continuity. A school that gets vague here is telling you that your child's Tuesday might look nothing like their Monday. **"What's your ratio, and does it hold all day?"** Ratios often look best at 10am and worst at 4:30pm. Ask specifically about early morning and late afternoon, when staffing thins and rooms get combined. If you are picking up at 5:15, the 4:45 ratio is the one that applies to your child. ## Then ask about the ordinary days Anyone can describe a good day. What you want is a description of a normal one, and an unglamorous one. **"Walk me through a Tuesday."** Not a special day. Not a holiday. A regular Tuesday in the middle of a regular week. You are listening for rhythm — whether the day has a shape the children can feel and predict. Young children do not thrive on novelty. They thrive on knowing what comes next, which is what frees them up to be curious about everything else. (We wrote more about that here: [Why Routines Matter for Preschool-Age Children](/why-routines-matter-for-preschool-age-children-and-what-they-actually-teach).) **"What do you do when a child bites, or hits, or won't share?"** This is the question that separates schools. Every preschool has children who bite. The question is what the adults do next. You are listening for a philosophy, not a punishment. Does the answer involve understanding what the child was trying to communicate? Is there a plan for the child who was hurt *and* the child who did the hurting? Does the school treat a hard moment as a formation opportunity or as a discipline problem to be suppressed? If the answer is essentially "we separate them and call the parents," that is a school managing behavior. If the answer describes teaching, that is a school forming a person. ([More on what that looks like day to day.](/gentle-guidance-what-a-thoughtful-discipline-approach-looks-like-in-preschool)) **"How much of the day is outside?"** And the follow-up that actually matters: *what happens when it rains, or when it's 98 degrees in August?* North Texas weather takes a real bite out of the calendar. Ask what the indoor alternative is, because in McKinney you will be using it often. ## Ask the questions that feel slightly rude These are the ones parents skip because they feel awkward. Ask them anyway. A good school will not mind — a good school will be glad you asked. **"May I see the room my child would actually be in, during a normal activity?"** Not the empty room. Not the room at nap. The room with children in it, doing something. Watch for thirty seconds. Are children being spoken *to*, or spoken *with*? Is a teacher on the floor at eye level, or standing over? Is a child who is struggling being attended to, or waited out? Thirty seconds of the real thing beats twenty minutes of description. **"What's your teacher turnover been like the last two years?"** Harder version of the earlier question. Some schools will not have a clean answer. That is itself an answer. **"What would you tell me about this school that isn't on the website?"** Watch what happens to the person's face. Some directors light up and tell you a story. Some deflect. Both responses are information. ## Ask about faith directly, whatever your answer is If you are considering a faith-based preschool, this deserves a real conversation and not a polite nod on either side. **"How is faith actually woven into the day?"** There is a wide range here, and schools are not always precise about where they land. For some, faith is a chapel time on Wednesdays and grace before snack — a thing that happens *in* the day. For others, it is the frame around everything: how conflict is handled, how children are spoken to, what it means that this particular child is known and loved. Neither is wrong. But they are different, and you should know which one you are choosing. Ask for specifics. Ask what your child would actually say, at dinner, about what they learned. We have written at length about what a Christ-centered approach looks like in practice — [here is a day-to-day picture](/what-christ-centered-early-learning-looks-like-typical-day) — and about [the myths that tend to get in the way of a clear conversation](/five-myths-about-faith-based-preschool-set-straight). ## The practical ones, before you leave **"What's the total cost — everything?"** Tuition is rarely the whole number. Ask about registration fees, supply fees, enrichment add-ons, late pickup charges, and what happens over the summer. Ask when tuition increases typically land and by how much. A school that answers this crisply is a school that respects your household budget. (Our [tuition guide for McKinney families](/faith-based-preschool-tuition-mckinney-what-to-expect) lays out what's typical in this area.) **"What's the waitlist situation for the class my child would enter?"** Enrollment for fall moves earlier than most first-time parents expect. If the answer is "we're nearly full," you want to know that today, not in August. **"How will I hear from you?"** Daily note? App? A conversation at pickup? Nothing until there's a problem? Communication style is a personality trait of a school, and it will either fit your family or grate on it every single day for two years. ## The question you ask yourself in the car Here is the one that is not on any list. *Could I picture my child here, on an ordinary Thursday, being fine?* Not thriving. Not flourishing. Just — fine. Safe. Known. Comfortable enough to be bored and then to find something to do about it. If you can picture that easily, that tells you something the tour could not. And if you cannot, no amount of good answers will fix it. ## Come see ours We would rather you ask us hard questions than easy ones. Bring this list. Bring the ones that are not on it. Come see a Tuesday. Watch a teacher on the floor with a child who is having a rough morning. Ask us how long our teachers have been here, and let us tell you. **[Book a tour at The Academy at Craig Ranch.](/book-a-tour)** We will show you the real thing.