#1 got home cooked puree or fifteen kinds of pouches. #2 got baby birded. Sorry dude.
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Preschool for 3 year olds, yay or nay? I realize this is extremely subject and I’m definitely leaning toward doing SOMETHING, whether that’s actual preschool five days a week or like a two-day-a-week co-op. My older kids went to half-day public school preschool but those seem to be getting harder to find and my situation now is very different. We have a parent home every day and I might miss her if I sent her five days a week? Anyway, just collecting thoughts. What are y’all’s?
I’m actually meant to be researching high schools right now but I got distracted!
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I was home with J1 at preschool age, and chose to cobble together my own program from various community playgroups and drop in programs. We had An Activity every morning, the came home for outside play, lunch and nap.
YMMV, I know a lot of parents like a half day away from parents program, but this worked for me.
Oh also, ‘intentional play’ in the afternoons after nap time - ie we’d play with blocks and make patterns, or paint and mix primary colours.
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I’ve thought about this a lot since Pipsqueak has been in full time care since she was 2.
Around 3-3.5 she started developing pretty real friendships in her classroom at school. If course, there were also kids in the classroom that she didn’t get along with. But developing independent friendships has been something pretty cool to see. (I didn’t go to a classroom-based learning environment until highschool so I don’t feel especially biased in either direction).
Going 3 days a week/half days can be a nice way to practice separation but it can also be much longer phase to get used to separating (aka months of crying at dropoff vs a week or two).
I don’t think you can really go wrong (this is assuming you aren’t plopping her in front of the TV for the entire duration that preschool would cover…which I wouldn’t judge if that was your only option but it would sway me towards preschool if that was the trade-off)
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Where you live, decent odds there’s a forest preschool near you! That can be a super fun play based compromise for that age, less rigorous/rigid/structured than a classroom setting just by virtue of the environment.
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If you can do part time, I think it’s an all around win. I’ve done a T/Th 9-1 program for both boys (MWF is an option but long weekends and cost more).
That time to myself is amazing and if I recall with the current set up neither parent in your house has fully off time. Things like sewing where you can only do it in nap time… you get a chance especially with naps ending. B2 did great in the EarlyON programs (like Star described) but B1 didn’t. It’s also guaranteed enrichment on the weeks I might need a break/more TV. The socialization and listening to other adults is good.
But ours are very play based. According to a plaque I found the other day, they are Waldorf inspired.
Overall I agree with the fact that there is probably no wrong choice for your family.
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I don’t know about your district but in mine there are many more 1/2 day spots than full day. Like, my girls school has 4 classes of 18 kids for half day and has 2 classes of 16 kids for full day. Until this year there was only 1 full day class.
D1 did half day and especially for her first year that was the right choice for her. But this is D2’s first year and she THRIVES in full day school and doesn’t want to go home and cries on the weekends because she doesn’t get to see her friends. This is definitely the right choice for her.
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I’m a big fan of something regular with other kids by 3ish. For Spore I think he really started to connect with other kids by age 2.5-3ish, and I’ve mentioned in other threads how close he is with his daycare friends. At almost 4, he loves pre-K and is happy to be there 5 days a week. My 16 month old I think would thrive on less than full time (shorter days? fewer days?) and more bopping around in the forest with us.
If you’re neutral about the 2 full vs. 5 half day schedule, how do you feel about the vibes of each option?
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Thank you to everyone who is weighing in! More thoughts welcome!
@Economista - I was surprised too but it looks like the # of full day 3yo classes is going up and there are fewer half days, or maybe it’s just my part of town? There are 2 schools in walking distance and they are both full day only.
@Bracken_Joy - Looks like we have a couple but they are a serious distance away in rush hour traffic and also not in our budget, boo.
@ElleP - You are correct, we do not have much off time. Cuckoo is a good napper and we spell each other and also LB will usually give me a half-hour on his Wednesday early release day for $5, so, like, enough time to take a nap or do a Jazzercise video. But, even public sliding scale preschool is going to strain our budget enough that we will have to ask if the tradeoff is worth it. We bought a house that we could afford reasonable well but not what I would call “easily” on our previous 73 hours a week combined of paid work, and then we cut back to 50 hours.
@Ferngully - I have no actual specific programs in mind! The only options I specifically know about are half day and full day at the public schools, both 5 days a week- I haven’t looked into options outside of the public schools.
I will keep mulling it over! Really I should find her SOMETHING structured to do this year I think. Even if it’s just really committing to a library program.
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Does the cuckoo still have a speech delay? (I know you already know this) If she qualifies for a speech IEP they will find her placement at a 1/2 day program.
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No, I am pretty sure she is going to be evaluated out at her check in November. BB got a free half day but I don’t think that’s going to work this time 
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The money is such a huge piece! We are lucky that heavy subsidies kicked in for us - but it also factored into 2vs 3 days. Ours is $17/half day and covers morning snack and lunch. If it was un or less subsidized I’d have to be really committed to at least a few activities a week
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Yeah, calculated per day our rate isn’t bad at all but the only option is to do 5 days- it’s $272/month at our income level. $547 “full” day (actually like 7:30-3 or something like in that range).
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Parents with ADHD children. How many books do you keep around for them? We are probably headed towards some kind of diagnosis in that area. Ravioli is in a phase right now where he pulls every book off of the shelf at bedtime and frantically turns all of the pages while “reading” them to himself. I want to instill a love of reading but he might be overstimulated/overwhelmed. There’s one shelf with maybe…40ish board books on it. 5 are from the library.
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Idk what flavor Latte’s brain is exactly, but yes we def have to limit book access at rest times. Until very recently (she’s nearly 5) I couldn’t do more than probably 10 books and 1 “type” of toy in her room (usually a small handful of magnetiles). The Yoto was boss for this from 3 til now. Keeps her in bed.
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Argh alright I’ll try 10. This makes me sad bc there is no other place to store them except in a box in the basement 
ah well
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Limiting books at this stage is fine. Or have another shelf in another room where it won’t interfere with quiet time.
For Kiddo he loves visiting the library for the computer games (all educational) but he also likes being able to pick books and we say yes to everything.
Now that he’s older I also try to make a note of random topics he mentions and her books on that even if they’re not exactly at his level - he asked what Obama did after being president, so I got a copy of Obama’s book (which is from before he was president but all well) for him to see and also a copy of Who Is Barack Obama (“Who Is /Was” books are a kids biography series and now a Netflix series too). And it’s all free so even though he only looked at Obama’s book aimed at adults for thirty seconds it’s fine.
The librarians are rock stars at finding stuff he might like too - he wanted a book on real magic so they got a book on magician tricks, a book about crystals and herbs, and a book of “magic” kid science activities. Plus a ton of graphic novels he’s liked.
This is my very long winded way of saying it’s fine to limit books at quiet time now for the sake of rest. The love of reading ship has not yet sailed.
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God I wish lol
There are no more shelves/rooms
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Basket? But taking a break for a few months is fine.
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Yeah basket in the living room is what we did for ageeeees (slash pile on our coffee table is where all library books live currently). She legit would not sleep if we had to keep stuff in her room 
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