starting preschool

[Anonymous]

To those of you who work part-time, do you send your child to preschool on the days you are working or on the days you are off? I work 3 days a week, so she is in a home daycare for those days. But I may consider a nanny for the future who could pick her up from preschool and then stay with her until we get home.

[Anonymous]

I work part time, but mine are in a KinderCare. I looked into the preschool options, and just decided to keep them where they are. We do lots of reading, counting, etc. with them at home and they get the socialization at day care. We are just too happy with the center and the teachers to move them. We intend to go the public school route, so I'm sure that between what they get at day care and what they get at home will be perfectly fine.

FWIW, if I would have moved them, it would have been to a preschool that had aftercare (like a Montessori), and would have sent them on my days off. MAYBE I would have done the morning even on my days at home to give me some individual time with my younger child.

[Anonymous]

I tried to send my DD to preschool on the days that I was working so that I would have my day off with her. HOwever, the school ended up putting her in class on my day off.

In retrospect, I'm very happy with how things worked out. First of all, her preschool is only half a day, so we still had the afternoons together. I got to know her classmates, teachers and other class parents because I was there for drop-off and pick-up once a week. Also, I could attend some school events, which was very special. I was really glad to be able to be involved in that new part of her life.

We do have a nanny, so on the other days, the nanny took her to school, or cared for her at home on the off days. Not sure how it would work if we had daycare in the mix as well.

[Anonymous]

I tried to find her a spot ina a preschool on short notice as I didn't know for sure I COULD quit my FT job until mid-May. I needed at least half of my 20 hours a week covered by her being in preschool. I found nothing a) close to my house or b) within reason pricewise (the montessori school wanted $660/month for 3 half days - we just can't swing that with me only PT). While I much rather would have her in a half day program, it just didn't work out for us.

She is going to Minnieland 2 full days a week - she had been in an in-home daycare up until then. We are paying $118/week, which is slightly more than we wanted to spend, but I get 16 hours of work in and only need to find a couple extra hours a week to meet my 20 hours.

Hope this helps!