Pre-school is still considered &quot;optional&quot; if you &quot;make too much money&quot; (at least in Los Angeles County &amp; Ventura County).  My daughter was denied access to pre-school even when my wife would only enter her income, my daughter would get denied.  Together, according to the IRS, we&#x27;re in the top 10% of income earners (though it sure doesn&#x27;t feel like it).  She turned 5 in July and was very excited to start Kindergarten in September.  For the last year or so, she&#x27;s had &quot;Pre-school-like&quot; daycare.  Playful learning I would call it.  Identifying animals by type (aquatic vs. aerial vs. terrestrial), basic colors and geometric shapes, matching (all the blue items on left, all the stars on the right), Alphabet &amp; Phonics, Numbers, basic writing implement handling (pens, markers, crayons, paintbrushes), writing &amp; recognizing her first name, counting (forward and reverse, counting items), lots of sharing and socialization (no touching, fighting, biting, etc.), manners (please, thank you, excuse me, etc.).  So far, I think she&#x27;s advancing well in Kindergarten and is learning addition, words and sentence structure&#x2F;grammar, writing, reading, arithmetic.  She&#x27;s beginning to read very well for her age.  But, like I said, she&#x27;s had some pre-school like work, lots of Leap Frog video watching.