Skipping preschool due to COVID-19 concerns- SAHM

[Anonymous]

My 3 year old is supposed to start full day preschool in the fall but given the pandemic and that I’m a SAHM I’m thinking the benefits of preschool do not outweigh the risks, given that I’m a SAHM and can take care of child at home. I have a young baby at home so older child won’t get my sole attention. Curious what others in this situation are planning on doing.

[Anonymous]

If I was a SAHM, I would skip preschool. I know we call it "school," but in reality it's just daycare to me.

[Anonymous]

Doing the same here- I am high risk. If I wasn’t high risk it might be a harder call.

[Anonymous]

I have a one year old and a three year old. Pulled the three year old out of preschool and am home schooling him. Downloaded the busy toddler playing preschool and we spent about an hour doing the activities a day. I am privileged in that I am a SAHM and I have a nanny come in to watch the one year old, but if I had to deal with both two kids I would probably do activities around the others nap time. Three year olds don’t need hours of activities, the rest of the day DC just plays but I have been astounded how quickly he is learning his letters and numbers. He is probably learning more than he did in preschool. Don’t expect him to go back to school till fall 2021.

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[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 3 year old is supposed to start full day preschool in the fall but given the pandemic and that I’m a SAHM I’m thinking the benefits of preschool do not outweigh the risks, given that I’m a SAHM and can take care of child at home. I have a young baby at home so older child won’t get my sole attention. Curious what others in this situation are planning on doing.

I agree. It’s fine to skip preschool given the circumstances.

[Anonymous]

SAHM, I would say 3 is a good time to start but if I had a three year old I would keep them home next year and wait till age four.

[Anonymous]

With all due respect, you are not going to be able to give him what a preschool can provide especially with a younger one. He will miss potentially one year of classroom engagement and gains if you keep him at home. BTW why would he have to stay home for the year? Nobody is saying COVID will last the year. Also, you will likely burn out. This all seems so ridiculous. If it wasn’t safe, the governor and health departments wouldn’t open up preschools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With all due respect, you are not going to be able to give him what a preschool can provide especially with a younger one. He will miss potentially one year of classroom engagement and gains if you keep him at home. BTW why would he have to stay home for the year? Nobody is saying COVID will last the year. Also, you will likely burn out. This all seems so ridiculous. If it wasn’t safe, the governor and health departments wouldn’t open up preschools.

Lots of people are saying COVID will last a while. I would be surprised if COVID was somehow gone in January. Even if a vaccine successfully completes trials in January it's going to take a long time before it is distributed and given to people.

Does that mean keep your child out of preschool? That's a personal decision. It's not riskless especially if you have someone high risk at home. It may be that children don't catch or spread the virus amongst each other but we really still don't know enough. Spending hours each day in a room with other kids does create a situation where the virus could spread based on what we know now. When we send DD back to daycare we know it means she can't her grandparents until everyone has a vaccine. We have to balance our own mental health, which of course impacts DD, with the risks of the virus.

[Anonymous]

I really wanted to send my son to the special ed preschool this year, however, we will probably just keep him home to be safe.

[Anonymous]

I would skip if you easily can.

[Anonymous]

Speaking as a parent who lost thousands of dollars in care/instruction/cash I would recommend looking at your contract very carefully. It might be a good idea to start at 4. Do some classes instead--less money on the line.

[Anonymous]

As someone who had to do “distance learning” preschool for my four-year-old for the past few months, I say you should definitely skip it. If we had not already signed our contract and paid the tuition for next year, I would have considered keeping him home from Pre-K as well.

[Anonymous]

It’s pre-school. Yes keep your DC home. Play, read, get outside.

[Anonymous]

Your child will not get one on one care at preschool either. You can easily cover the academic portions of preschool within each week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With all due respect, you are not going to be able to give him what a preschool can provide especially with a younger one. He will miss potentially one year of classroom engagement and gains if you keep him at home. BTW why would he have to stay home for the year? Nobody is saying COVID will last the year. Also, you will likely burn out. This all seems so ridiculous. If it wasn’t safe, the governor and health departments wouldn’t open up preschools.

They are making a risk-benefit analysis that may or may not align with your situation or, as some states have shown, with reality.