send the 2 year old to preschool or have him continue with his nanny--recommendations?

[Anonymous]

My child just turned two and I am having trouble deciding whether or not to keep him at home with his nanny (he's quite attached) or send him to preschool (full day). Hi nanny is pretty good on the socialization front--he has multiple play dates a week. I did not expect to get the acceptance to the preschool (I had originally planned to wait a year).

What would you do--keep him at home or send him to preschool?

[Anonymous]

Wait till 3.

[Anonymous]

He will get more out of being with his nanny at this age. Wait a year, maybe 2.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait till 3.

+1 Why the rush?

[Anonymous]

My DS is 2.5 and still doing very well staying home with an au pair. I'm stunned by how well he's speaking, counting, etc with no preschool. I think we will have him start preschool part time at age 3. Staying home longer is less stressful on a child.

[Anonymous]

neatest kids I know have parents who wait until 6 years!! there is no rush. 2 and 3 year olds do a lot of hitting, grabbing toys, etc. no need for your child to learn that in a setting with a teacher child ratio of 1:12. better for your kids to have playdates with closer adult supervision, while they are so little.

[Anonymous]

NP here. Our child has been in a nannyshare and is just about to turn two. Our nanyshare arrangement is ending and we are putting her in a preschool (full day). My preference would be to do partial days and continue with the nanny in the afternoons, but that's not possible for several reasons. Based on the responses above, I'm afraid that we're making the wrong choice and that we should be looking for a new nanny arrangement. Is it just too overwhelming for kids to be in full day preschool at this age? I know plenty of kids do it, but would it be better not to?

[Anonymous]

To the PP who's is nervous about sending their child to full day preschool -- we had our son in a nanny share until just about two, but then transitioned him to full day daycare/school. I was very nervous about this, but my only regret was not doing it sooner. His language development in these past few months has been amazing and he has really enjoyed being around other kids. The first week was rough, but after that he did great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait till 3.

+1

[Anonymous]

I'll offer an opposing opinion, though it may not work for you. I thought DD was doing excellent w.r.t. language etc with her nanny who also took her out a lot. But DD actually asked me if she could go to school and play with friends, so we started her in half-day pre-school at just before 2.5. I was expecting my second (who is now 1 mo), and we wanted to get her acclimatized to something of her own before he arrived.

I'm shocked at how much she has matured since she started school. She was already extremely verbal, but she can now hold fairly complex conversations. She's also become much more independent around the house. Maybe this would have happened anyway, but after only 2 mos of school the change in her is already remarkable. I probably would not want to do whole days yet, and half-days work for us since we are keeping the nanny for DS. But all of this is to say that even with a great nanny pre-school can have benefits if you are leaning toward it.