Pre School Question

[raccioc]

Ladies of M35+

I am just trying to make a decision regarding the 5 free pre school sessions Rhiannon will be allocated from January, and am wondering what to do for the best.

At the moment she goes to pre school on a Tuesday and a Thursday morning at our expense and this works fine. From January she will get the 5 free sessions, and my question is this. Would I be better to send her for 5 mornings, or would I be better doing 2 full days and 1 morning? That way she would get 2 full days with me in total, enabling us to do something else. However, if she does the full days I will have to pay for the lunch club in the middle, which Rhiannon has said she would like to go to at least one day as she wants to use her Peppa Pig lunch bag like her friends!

Just want to know what others have done and how you found it? Is it too tiring for them to go eveyr day all be it just for a couple of hours, or is all day too tiring for 3 year olds.

Advise me please! What do you think?

Rachel

[@@lisa@@]

I had a similar dilemma when Poppy got her 5 sessions in September
I umm'd and ahh'd between the day nursery that Poppy already attended, and the school nursery attached to the school she will attend.

In the end, I split the funding, and she goes school nursery 3 mornings, and the day nursery all day Tuesday (using 2 sessions and me paying for lunch and tea which costs me £12 pw), and nothing on a Friday (but we both still enjoy going to mums & tots so it works well)

She loves going to the day nursery, and goes from 9.30-6pm. She has friends there that she sees outside of nursery and loves going.
She is always tired when she gets home, but I don't think it's too much, and means I am able to get things done on that day (either o/t at work, or shopping/visiting etc) things that I wouldn't be able to do in 2.5 hrs

She does occasionally miss out on things, if they happen on a day when she isn't in, and sometimes she doubles up on things (eg 2 Xmas parties )

It feels like such a massive decision, doesn't it!
Hope you work it out

Lisa xx

[SharonR]

Hi Rachel,
We had a similar decision to make when Daniel got his funding. We decided that, rather than going 5 mornings or afternoons, that he'd have 2 full days and one afternoon, the rest of the time he's at home. It's working well, he has some really good friends who go the same times he goes, and he thoroughly loves being there.

For us, him going 5 days a week, was too much like school too soon. It's going to be hard enough next September when he goes to school all day, every day.

Good Luck with your decision.

Sharon.

[raccioc]

Hi Sharon and Lisa,

Thanks for your replies. I had booked her for 4 mornings starting in January but am now questioning whether I want to get her up and give her a 30 minute walk to school for just a couple of hours four times a week. I think your idea is great Sharon, and am leaning towards 2 full days plus one morning or afternoon.

That way I still have 2 full days off with her, and she only has to get up early 2/3 mornings. An added plus would be that she gets to use her Peppa Pig lunchbag twice a week!! I think I'll change and I shall have no problem changing as the afternoon sessions are underbooked and there is a waiting list for the mornings!

Rachel

[Mrs Bear]

Hi Rachel,

When Sam was at nursery he went 3 full days and a half day on a Friday. We paid extra for the additional hours but he loved it. I found that often when I picked him up at lunchtime on a Friday he would have like to have stayed for another session as his friends were still there!

I never found that he was particularly tired out by the full day sessions and certainly he did not used to fall asleep in the car on the way home or anything like that.

It also helped when he went to school this year as he was already used to being at nursery for long days. He now is at school from 8.45am until 3.30pm five days a week, it does not seem to have phased him too much if at all and I am sure that the time he was at nursery helped him adjust to being at school all day. I have an idea he was in nursery for longer hours than he is at school, as some days I would not be able to pick him up from nursery until almost 6pm!

I think you will find Rhiannon will adjust well to the longer days and as you say, she will still have 2 days off with you AND get to use her Peppa Pig lunchbag twice a week. Bless! She may be a little more tired when she first starts, but they soon get used to the new routine and I just used to make sure I got Sam into bed early if he'd had a long day.

Let us know how she gets on!

[katieml]

Hi Rachel, just posted a reply and got cut off by my comp. Emily started the free sessions when she was three and two months. She went five mornings a week and that was plenty. She was tired when she got home and had a rest over lunch then had lots of energy and time to do something with me and Oliver in the afternoon.

Five little sessions is good too, gives you plenty of time to chat about it all and follow up what she has been learning at nursery. She looks forward to going each day and has really thrived there.

Katie