Can you tell I am new to this parenting thing?
How was I suppose to know that January means you have to get your kid registered for pre-school or all the good time spots are taken?
We don't even know if we are going to send her to pre-school yet.
Little Girl is almost 4, her birthday is in March.
So that means she misses the cut off for Kindergarten this year, not that I would have sent her anyway,
but that means she can go to pre-school instead next year.
We already did not send her this year, you see both my hubby and I work full time, our children are in a lovely day home with an AMAZING care provider.
There were some (and still are) logistics on getting her from day home, to pre-school and back again.
Day home provider is not able to do this since she is alone and does not want to cart little ones to and from school (in a Canadian winter I might add).
So we skipped the age 3 pre-school, but Little Girl is shy.
We feel like pre-school would be a great introduction to the whole world of school before we throw her into Kindergarten.
So I start my calls, one day care tells me kids that are in day care do not need pre-school - it gives them too much stimulation.
Other people have told me that the Kindergarten teachers can totally tell what kids have or have not been to at least one year of pre-school.
So what is the right answer?
Should we bite the bullet, pull both (or one kid) out of our day home, put them into a day care that also has a pre-school attached? Pay A LOT more money per month for this?
Will my child be forever behind the rest of the kids if I do not do pre-school?
Just how bored will she be next year if we do not do some kind of schooling for her?
That is a really tough call! With a great day home already in place, but the need for just a wee bit more to ease the transition... Tough call. Good luck in your decision making process!
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of these opinions. My personal opinion is that she will probably be okay without having attended preschool. We've made the decision about preschool a purely financial one - We can't afford it so the kids aren't going. Megan's starting kindergarten in fall and I think she's ready as she's been attending Sunday School and a Story Hour for the past couple years. I think she will do just fine in kindergarten without having gone to preschool.
ReplyDeleteGreat new blog!
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is a tough call with the whole preschool thing. We have had Dawson in preschool for 2 years mainly because he is at home with me everyday and REALLY needed to do an activity outside of his home.
Honestly, I would say it sounds like you have such a great dayhome provider that it would be a shame to move the kids. What if you put her in a summer day camp the summer before she goes to kindergarten, that way she gets a chance to try going to something on her own.
I never thought these parenting decisions would be so difficult, I totally understand. I have wrestled with whether to put Dawson in kindergarten next year, because technically being a november baby he could stay out another year. But he has a few friends going in september and I really think that will make the transition easier. Are you friends with Donelda on Facebook? She is a kindergarten teacher and I was able to ask her some questions about putting Dawson in at 4 and what her opinion was. What she told me was that the parent ultimately knows what is best for their child and if I feel he is ready then most likely he is. She also told me that in Sepetmber when all the kids start the diffence between those that are maybe ahead more academically and socially is obvious, but by January everyone seems to catch up and be a the same level.
Hope this helps.
Best of luck making this decision!
Thanks for the comments everyone.
ReplyDeleteAnd Karalee and Jocelyn - thanks for the imput.
You just want to do what is best for them and gives them the most advantages - hard to know what that might be in the future though.
If you are happy with your dayhome I would not move the kids!! In my opinion, preschool is mostly for stay-at-home moms (like me) who want a break from their kids. They learn to sit in a circle and play with other kids. Which is probably what they also learn at the dayhome! Kindergarten assumes no preshool. Actually grade 1 also assumes no kindergarten, as it's also optional.
ReplyDelete