Sending a 2-year old to preschool or keeping at home with a nanny?

[Anonymous]

We are trying to decide if we should send our child to preschool in the fall. He will be 25 months old. He is currently in a nanny share, but the other family is sending their child to preschool in the fall, so we 1) keep the nanny and look for another child for the share, or 2) send our son to preschool.

We have looked at a number of schools and have a slot at one where we absolutely love the teacher he would have next year (and also have very good feelings about the school.). The only hesitation is that it feels like such a big jump, where he will be expected to handle certain activities (snack, lunch, potty, nap) in a group of children rather than with one other child and a nanny. On the other hand, we love the social aspect of it and feel that he is ready to experience different children and activities.

I would appreciate it if others could share their experiences regarding sending their children to preschool at 2 vs 3 or 4. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

We switched our son from a nanny share to a full time preschool when he was 26 months. It was a tougher transition than I expected, but that said, I'm really glad we did it at 26 months instead of waiting longer. He is absolutely thriving there now. But it took about 12 weeks for him to get comfortable -- and that was a lot longer than I expected. The teachers in his classroom seemed to think it was totally natural for him to have a rough time at drop off for a while and repeatedly reminded me that he was going from basically one-on-one care to a compeltely different environment. And they were wonderful about giving him some extra TLC early on and wonderful about me calling once a day to check on him. It was very naive of me but I assumed my super-confident easy going boy would have no trouble with the switch and boy was I wrong. He cried every morning at the drop off for a month. We didn't have another option b/c we had moved to be close to this specific school so we stuck it out but it was a terrible feeling. After he the first week or so he stopped crying after we left and would be fine for the rest of the day. But it was literally 12 weeks before he got to a point where it was no big deal at the drop off time. Like so many things with kids and transitions, I'm glad we stuck it out through the tough time because he loves the school and the benefits are numerous for us - he eats better (more veggies) at home, he learns things I wouldn't have thought to teach him, he shares better, he sleeps better. So it was certainly the right move for us, in our situation, but took some getting used to. Good luck. I will say that if you've found a school you really like, that means a lot.

[Anonymous]

13:01 poster here - shoud have also mentioned that I too was worried about forcing the structure of the daily snack, naps, circle time on him but that didn't seem to phase him. He fell right into their schedule. I was worried he'd need his milk at his nap time to get to sleep and asked his teachers to give it to him. He didn't want it when he was there - which really surprised me.

[Anonymous]

I transitioned my twins from full day nanny to full day preschool when they were 27 months and it is working out great. They transitioned very well - it took a month, but they absolutely love the social aspect of school and I can tell they are having a great time.

Some things you should consider: It is much easier to get to work in the morning with a nanny than get kids ready for preschool and drop them off. The other thing you should consider is the sickness. My kids have been sick a lot, as every one predicted, but DH and I have also been sick a lot also. 2 weeks without a sickness is a good 2 weeks for us. I guess this will happen sooner or later for you, but just be prepared.