So last year, we decided not to put Evan in preschool. I felt like there are enough years in a kid's life where they are in school, so why start even earlier!? I also feel that play is the best form of education for young children, and so we skipped the rush to get him into "school" last fall. (I felt a bit left out when I saw everyone's photos on Facebook of their kids first days of school, but I got over it!) However, I do feel that a bit of a weaning process is probably a good thing before starting him in kindergarten five days a week, so I figured we'd do a "Pre-K" program for him when he turns four years old.
My belief in play-based education was still on my mind and I was hoping to find a school that would follow that style of curriculum. Lucky for us, the preschool right by our house, and nearly a stone's throw from where they go to daycare now, does just that and had an opening for 3 days a week (MWF).
Choosing this school, though, was still a long and hard decision. The hardest things for me in finding a pre-k program were due to a few reasons: 1) I wanted to find a pre-k system that was still play-based, and 2) we needed to find a system that was either full day on the days that Evan's normally in daycare (MWF) or if it was only half day then it had to provide daycare before and after (if it was on MWF) or else it could only be half days on Tuesday/Thursday (so John could pick him up and/or take him). As it turns out, all of the Tuesday/Thursday options that I considered are just for 3 year olds (i.e "preschool"). Once the kids turn 4, pre-k is at least 3 days a week. So that limited which ones we could send him to Then, when we found a couple options that had "wrap around" care (as the public school option called it's before/after daycare program), a few of those already had a wait list! (Preschool registration for the public schools was in mid-January...geez I am so late in that regard!). So we kind of had to narrow it down to what was available, and the good news is that the play-based school by our house was just that place! So, we signed him up and he'll start August 1st!
One reason I was unsure of this school, however, is because it's a big day care center school and so it was a little bit overwhelming for me when we toured it. And on top of that, given the doozy of a winter we've had with the kids at one and a half and three and a half years old bringing in all kinds of weird viruses, I'm nervous about what will happen next year when Evan is exposed to just that much more in a big center like he'll be in. But, we'll make do and maybe it won't be much worse than this past year. At least he's a bit older and hopefully is starting to learn how to be more sanitary than kids that are Emma's age!
Anyway, come August we'll have to plan extra time to make two drop offs in the mornings and two pick ups in the evenings. We considered putting Emma in this center too, but not only would it be way more expensive (it's already a bit more expensive for Evan to attend, but the cost goes up the younger they are!), the issues I just raised about kids her age not being sanitary made me worry she'd get sick a lot. So, at least her daycare and Evan's pre-k school are so close that the extra stops won't be too far apart/take that much extra time. And really, in another year when Evan starts kindergarten we'd have had to start taking them to separate places anyway, so this will just help us wean into it too.
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