Some of you are worrying where to send your kids to pre-school.

As a former childcare worker, I am here to let you know a few things you should pay attention to but may not know to ask:

Here's a behind-the-scenes report.

Warning: This article is quite candid. You may learn things you wish you didn't know.

1. Naptime: Naptime is a very important part of the day. Why? Not just because the children are tired. The teachers are tired too. In the school I taught in, the kids got cots. Well, so did I. My co-teacher and I used to take turns napping.
   
   **Question to ask: When the kids nap, how many teachers stay awake?
   
   
2. Lunchtime: I taught with a starving artist named Wendell. Mothers overpack their children's lunches. These kids' lunches were stuffed full of raisin packs, juice boxes and peanut butter sandwiches, Fruit by the Foot, snack pack puddings, apple sauces, carrot sticks, little tuna cans, fruit cups, Hawaiian punch.
   
   Wendell was starving. (Nursery school teachers are not highly remunerated.) What the kids didn't eat, Wendell did. He took home a bag stuffed full of goodies every day. The kids' leftovers were his dinner. He was particularly enamored of one kid's lunch, which consisted of a daily corned beef sandwich.
   
   TIP: If your child's lunch comes home empty every day, it's not a good sign. Find out who is eating your child's lunch.
   
   
3. Activities. I was not a trained teacher. Therefore, I did the one activity I knew. We danced. We danced in the morning and we danced in the afternoon. We cha-chaed, we mamboed, we lindy hopped, we square danced.
   
   TIP: Are your children coming home dancing a lot? If so, I would check the teacher's credentials.
   
   
4. Class Trips: Our class trips consisted of going on walks. We'd walk to the library, to the fire station, to talk to the postman, or gather leaves or rocks or stones, which we would then use in art class. But we did not go on organized formal outings.
   
   TIP: If you want your children to go to the museum, get a list of where they go on school trips.
   
   
5. Punishment: Once a boy bit another boy. We told Harry he had to stay inside when the rest of the class went out to the playground. When the teacherleft him to use the bathroom, Harry opened each lunchbox and ate half of everybody's food. (Wendell was not happy.)
   
   **Question to ask: What is the school's philosophy on punishment?
   
   
6. School Resources: Our school did not have an abundance of art supplies, so we filled in with what we could. Of course, we used the traditional household stuff: milk containers, toilet-paper rolls, cereal boxes, paper-towel rolls. Wendell was especially fond of cotton balls and dryer lint.
   
   TIP: Check the supply closet.
   
   
7. School Philosophy: Our school's director stressed our school's ability to help the child realize his individual potential and fully express his inner essence. We teachers stressed lots of fresh air -- fresh air in the classroom (especially with the diaper-clad toddlers) and fresh air outside. We spent lots of time in the playground so we could flirt with each other and discuss the novel that Duane (class 3b) was writing, Wendell's student debt and how to dance the marangue.
   
   **Question to ask: How is the school's philosophy expressed in action?

A final word.

Remember: As my sister-in-law Marcy told me, (she's a certified teacher) it's not the school that's most important to the child's development if the child is in a normal family that provides educational opportunities. It's the parents who are most influential.

So, in all truth, you don't have to worry so much about your kids' preschool if you're normal and the school's halfway decent -- like ours was.

(I do, however, recommend popping in to make sure that at least one teacher is awake during naptime.)