Anonymous wrote:Preschool teacher here. Skip it.

Ditto. Especially if she's already a risk-averse rule follower, all sending her to preschool during Covid will do is give her anxiety!

Anonymous wrote:I would try to send her. Preschool nowadays is what kindergarten used to be, and kindergarten nowadays is what first grade used to be.

A good preschool program would be a better introduction to school for her than kindergarten.

I disagree. I spent almost $15k/yr on part time preschool at a private k-12. She socialized. The next year I spent about $2,500 on a part time church preschool program. She socialized. When quarantine hit I bought some homeschooling material and the 4 weeks to read program. Now both my 4.5 and 2.5 yo are reading, writing and doing some math.The older one could easily test right in to first grade and the younger into K, but that was all me. I put in minimal effort and I'm very confident they are both way ahead of the curve. Have you looked up the requirements for early entry into K? They set the bar low, in my opinion.

Preschool teacher here. Skip it.

I would try to send her. Preschool nowadays is what kindergarten used to be, and kindergarten nowadays is what first grade used to be.

A good preschool program would be a better introduction to school for her than kindergarten.

Sounds like you're pretty well off. Preschool won't do anything you can't do for her

In the same boat myself. She'll be fine. Every other kid will be out of school quite a bit this year

She’ll be fine.

—preschool teacher

Anonymous wrote:Way TL/DR

Preschool is just enrichment, not a necessity.

+1
-preschool teacher who skipped it for my own kid

Exactly the same situation here. I could have written this myself.

My main question is, will the total absence of any peer exposure until next year sometime be an issue? Is being exclusively around adults a problem for such a ling time?

Have a few friendS who skipped for all of their kids on purpose and loved it. FCPS, at least, usually has a 3 week summer camp for rising K kids who did not attend preschool to practice standing in line, circle time, raising hands, and all that.

Normally I would advocate for pre school but it sounds like your daughter would be just fine skipping if thats what you decide to do. I wouldnt worry about it. And she certainly wont be the only one!

Anonymous wrote:Way TL/DR

Preschool is just enrichment, not a necessity.

Yup, I'm the OP and even I agree that it was way too long. Just trying to provide as much context to get some good feedback.

But I do like that thought that preschool is enrichment, not a necessity. Thank you.

I didn’t read the entire post but got the gist. My son is 3 and we were planning on sending him to preschool in September. We’re not now. I’m not paying for a virtual preschool, at least for this year. Certainly not ruling out preschool all together (like you are) but it’s not worth it right now.

Way TL/DR

Preschool is just enrichment, not a necessity.

My daughter, an only child, will be turning four in early August. She had been with a nanny (first in a nanny share for one year, then by herself for two years) before our nanny stopped coming in March. Since then she's been home with me and my husband and really thriving.

The plan was always to send her to preschool at 4. Despite not being in school, she's a pretty social kid. She talks a ton to both kids and adults after warming up to them. She's very risk averse and a rule follower. In some ways I wish she was more adventurous, but I attribute this to not being around kids all day every day. As social as she is, she's also kind of attached to us in that she's social if she knows we're closeby. Our nanny had been great with her in terms of teaching her things, but I knew it was time for her to have that school environment with other kids and give her the opportunity to be more independent.

She was very active going places with our nanny before everything shut down. They were at the libraries/storytimes 1-2 times a week, parks/playgrounds, and a learning center-type place that did things like circle time two times a week so she did see the same kids on at least a semi-regular basis. My nanny brought her to everything though - none of these were drop-off. In some ways, when everything shut down I felt thankful that my daughter hadn't been in school because she didn't know what she was missing. I think she loves being home with us.

We're now deciding between bringing our nanny back (she's open to it) or moving ahead with our preschool plans in September. Before this March, preschool was a given and I do believe that she could use some time with kids, but the pandemic has me questioning whether this is really the best time to put her in a whole new environment and whether the benefits of socialization outweigh on the risks. Some other factors are that with aftercare, she'd be there from likely 9-5:30. The thought of dropping her off at a strange place to people she doesn't know after never being in a childcare setting, us not being allowed to go inside, it being all day, and then of course all the risks and considerations that come from COVID are all factors I'm weighing.

I know there are a lot of individual circumstances (risk level, cost, work situations) that can't all be fit here, but in terms of socialization my thinking (or rationalization?) is that though socialization was the thing I was most looking forward to for her, at least she will be in the same boat as many kids when things finally get back to "normal" in terms of not having a ton of social interactions for a long time. And even without a pandemic, I know there are some families that skip preschool altogether for a variety of reasons. My kindergarten teacher friend says she can tell which kids those are at the start of a school year, but that the gap narrows within a few months.

Are there other factors I should weigh?