Care by age
Preschool, three to four years
Before anything else on this page: if your child was born in 2023 and lives in this city, there is a free full-day 3-K place you may be entitled to. Check that before you read our rate.
This is an awkward page to write, because the honest version of it starts by pointing at somebody else. New York City funds free, full-day 3-K for every resident child of the right age, without a means test and without regard to immigration status. For a family who fits it, that is worth many thousands of dollars a year that they would otherwise pay us.
So: apply. Then, if the hours do not cover your working day, or you could not get a place you can reach, come back and read the rest of this. Both of those are real and common situations, and neither of them is a reason for us to have led with the fee.
Why families here pay us anyway
Hours, most often. A free place covers the school day. If your shift starts at seven or ends at six, there is a gap at each end and something has to fill it. A good number of our preschool families use us for exactly that and it is entirely sensible.
Not getting a place that works. Offers depend on what is available near you, and being eligible is not the same as receiving something you can actually get a three-year-old to on a Tuesday morning in February.
And continuity. A child who has been through our infant, toddler and twos rooms with the same adults has something real, and some families judge the last two years here worth paying for. We think that is defensible — we just think it should be a decision rather than something that happened because nobody mentioned the alternative.
What the day is
Long stretches of uninterrupted play with materials that do more than one thing, punctuated by two read-aloud sessions in small groups, singing, a cooked lunch, a rest period and two periods outside. That is genuinely most of it.
Three-year-olds do their real work in the long stretches. A day chopped into twenty-minute activities produces children who are good at stopping, which is not on anybody's list of objectives. Protecting the length of a play period is a deliberate and slightly unfashionable choice.
There is no worksheet, no letter drill and no timed anything. Children who are reaching for letters get everything we have; a room full of three-year-olds being drilled regardless is the thing we decline, and there is a page arguing it properly.
Friendships, which are the year's difficulty
Three is when children start having a particular friend, and therefore start being excluded by one. It is the source of most of the genuine distress at this age and most of the difficult conversations at the door.
We do not engineer friendships or forbid preferences, both of which fail. We stay close, we name what is happening, and we make sure no child is systematically alone — which is a different and more achievable goal than making sure everyone is friends.
If your child is having a hard time socially you will hear it from us in the week it is happening rather than at a review. That is the whole point of writing observations down.
Getting ready for what comes next
For most children here, what comes next is a City pre-K place or our own pre-kindergarten room, and either way the preparation is the same: stamina, independence, and being able to ask an adult for help.
We will help you with the 3-K and pre-K application if you want it. Sunita does this with families most weeks and keeps the current dates in the kitchen, including for families whose fees we would lose by succeeding.
If your child is three or four, the City may do this for nothing. New York City gives every resident three- and four-year-old a free, full-day place in 3-K or Pre-K for All, regardless of family income or immigration status. For the 2026-2027 year that meant children born in 2023 for 3-K and 2022 for pre-K, with applications open from 14 January to 27 February 2026. We are raising this before we quote you a weekly rate, on the pages where you are most likely to be about to pay us, because a family paying for a four-year-old's daytime hours without having applied is usually spending money the City would have covered. Families still pay us for these ages for good reasons — hours beyond what a free place covers, or not getting one — and neither of those is a reason to leave the question unasked.
Included as standard
What is included
An honest conversation about 3-K first
Before we quote you anything. It is the second step of our enrolment process and it costs us money on purpose.
Long, uninterrupted play periods
Protected deliberately. A day chopped into twenty-minute activities teaches children to stop, which nobody wants.
Read aloud twice a day in small groups
In English, and in the home language of the room where we have the staff for it.
A cooked lunch and two snacks
Made in the kitchen here. No meal supplement, no packed lunch, no premium menu.
Two periods outside
In our own enclosed yard, with the published weather thresholds.
Written observations, shown to you
What we actually saw, rather than a score against a scale we invented.
Help with the 3-K and pre-K application
Sunita does this with families most weeks, whatever it costs us.
No worksheets, no drills, no premium tier
One curriculum, everybody gets it, and there is a page explaining why we will not change this on request.
When to make an appointment
Signs this is worth an assessment
- You have applied for 3-K and need cover for the hours a free place does not reach.
- You applied and did not get an offer you can realistically travel to.
- Your child has been here since the infant room and you would rather not break that now.
- You want long play periods rather than a timetable of short activities.
- You want to be told in the week if your child is struggling socially, not at a termly review.
- You want help with the 3-K paperwork from somebody who will still help when it means losing your fee.
Preschool — what it costs
- Full-time, five days. Quoted for families who need care beyond the hours a free 3-K place covers, or who cannot take one — not as an alternative to applying.$365 / week
Every rate on this site is published in full on the tuition page, including the ones that make us look expensive. Meals, snacks, nappy changing, settling-in sessions and the whole curriculum are inside the weekly fee — there is no premium tier and no outside provider invoicing you separately for a music class. The two charges that are not in the weekly fee are registration, at $75 a year per family rather than per child, and late collection after 6:15pm at $1 a minute, which goes to the two members of staff who stayed. If your child is three or four, read the 3-K page before you read this one.
Questions we are actually asked
Preschool — frequently asked
Should I be paying for preschool at all?
Possibly not, and that is why this page starts where it does. New York City funds free, full-day 3-K for every resident child of the eligible age with no means test. Families still pay us for good reasons — hours a free place does not cover, or not getting an offer they can travel to — but those should be reasons rather than an accident.
What does preschool cost here?
$365 a week full-time, with breakfast, a cooked lunch, two snacks and the entire curriculum included. There is no premium tier and no outside provider invoicing you separately.
Do you teach reading and writing?
No, not as a taught subject to under-fives, and we will not start because a family asks. Children reaching for letters get everything we have. There is a page setting out the whole argument, including what we do instead and where we would be wrong.
What if my child does not have friends?
You will hear from us in the week rather than at a review. We do not engineer friendships, which fails, but we do make certain no child is systematically alone — that is a different and far more achievable goal.
Can you help with the 3-K application?
Yes, and Sunita does it with families most weeks. She keeps the current dates in the kitchen and raises them unprompted, including with families whose fees we lose if it works.
Related programmes
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Pre-kindergarten
The year before school starts. Mostly about being able to manage a day away from you, and much less about letters than the brochures suggest.
$345 / week
Twos room
The year with the most change in it and the most patience required. Language, toilets, friendships and a great many strong opinions.
$395 / week
Play-based learning
The approach with the best evidence behind it for children under five, and the one that photographs worst. We chose it anyway.
Included
Kindergarten readiness
Managing a coat, a lunch, a toilet, a queue and six hours away from home. Reading is not on this list and does not need to be.
IncludedTuesday and Thursday mornings, while the children are here
Come and see the room
A tour here happens during a session, in the room your child would actually be in, at the time of day they would be in it. You meet the person who leads that room rather than only the director, and you see the noise and the mess that are genuinely there. It takes an hour. If your child is three or four we will ask whether you have applied for free 3-K or Pre-K for All before we quote you a rate, because a good many families should not be paying us at all.