I’ve been struggling with the decision to move my daughter from a full-time family day-care into preschool. Lilah has loved her secure “home-away-from home” since she was 5 months old. Developmentally she appears to be progressing at a normal pace – at 2 ½ she knows the letters of the alphabet (and their sounds), can count to 15 and knows many colors and shapes. We have been working on her ‘basic skills’ at home and her day-care does offer music time, craft time, and intermittent teaching – but mostly they play. I am confident she is gaining healthy social and emotional skills in this situation, and I certainly don’t want to push her to excel academically at this point – after all, you only get to be a kid once! My question is “When to make a change? I certainly do want to keep her challenged!”
On a day to day basis there are 3 other children that are within 4 months of her age, while the rest are much younger. One of the ‘older children’ made the jump to preschool a few months back, while others are like me – trying to weigh the decision whether to move our children from a secure, happy environment to one that might offer increased opportunities for learning and interaction. It would be great to move Lilah along with some of her ‘peers’ – especially one little boy who lives near our family. His mom also seems unsure when to make the jump!
Lilah is probably “ready” for preschool – but this is a big decision for our family. Our routines will change; there will be increased costs and most certainly a ‘period of adjustment.’ Can anyone share what they have done and how it worked out? I have heard that it is optimum to spend at least one year at preschool before kindergarten – so our deadline will be by age 4. All of my friends seem to be doing something different with their children, and every parent seems to have opinions…but this parent needs more information. Help please!
Le Top blog 
I didn’t think much about what would happen with Miranda in preschool. I just did it. She went from a part-time daycare provider to part-time preschool going Tuesday and Thursday mornings. She really loved it, and she THRIVED!
Research is key to finding the right school. Miranda’s preschool was play-based (vs. academic-based) and had very loving teachers with 20+ years experiences. The importance of preschool (in my opinion as a former school teacher) is to learn how to socialize with other kids and to learn how to listen and follow simple directions from the teacher (sitting at circle time, listening to a story, doing a craft).
The 1st year (or 3-year old) class was mostly play time, with 1 craft prject. The 4-year old class was when the kids were introduced to numbers, letters, shapes, etc. but it was still play-based. The “homework” was very simple. The teachers were very knowledgeable and knew how to prepare them (without overwhelming them) for Kindergarten.
Miranda enjoyed preschool, and loved all her teachers. I’m glad she went for 2 years. Good luck with your decision! (And make sure you do your research!!!)
Jamee-Thanks so much for your feedback on this especially coming from a former teachers perspective. I do need a full day (until 5:30) preschool and cost is a factor which is one of the reasons I’m not jumping her up now. I do think sometime in the first half of her 3rd year would be good. It’s hard to leave the friends she’s known for so long especially since it’s difficult to reconnect with those kids/parents outside of school with everyone being so busy. I guess it’s just part of life.