Pre-school
February11
I’ve mentioned in passing that Sabrina will be attending pre-school next school year. (Deep breath.) I have mixed feelings about it – as demonstrated by bullets (or little arrow thingies because my blog doesn’t seem to like to do bullets).
- It is expensive! The free option in my area is through the local school and the program is tiny compared to the number of kids in the area so they accept applications and do interviews to determine who needs to be in the program. Criteria are murky. And they don’t inform you if your child has been accepted until June. Around here, you need to commit to a pre-school before that or they will all be full so you can’t wait around for that. The free option has to be Plan B. Plan A is only 2 days a week because with momma not working that is all we can afford.
- It means my baby is growing up (WAH!). I struggle every time I stop and realize what a little girl she is now – the baby-ness left her long ago but it still makes me catch my breath when I see glimpses of the person she is becoming. Also, this will truly be the first time other people will exert steady influence over her. Her world has been 90% Mommy and Daddy for the past 3 years. Now I’m supposed to allow teachers and other grown ups to influence, teach, and guide her. GAH! AND what about Mean Girls? I die a little every time I think of the first time other kids are mean to her. I don’t want her to get her feelings hurt or want to change something about herself to fit in.
- She is going to LOVE it. I know this and it makes me proud. She is such a social creature that I completely expect her to flourish in her new school. She is already excited about it and cried a little when we told her we had to leave after our tour of the facility. She asks daily if she can go to school yet.
- It will be good for her in so many ways (see above: Mommy & Daddy = 90% of her world). She doesn’t seem to have a strong intrinsic motivation to learn and I think keeping up with her peers and pleasing her teachers will give her the extrinsic motivation and hopefully kick start a little ambition/love for learning.
- Her new school is wonderful. It just opened and was started by 2 moms, previously elementary teachers, who were looking for pre-schools for their children and couldn’t find one that had it all (see above: expensive). It has an indoor playground for days that it is too cold/hot/raining. Each class has a pet and a garden. The outdoor playground area is quite nice. And the art teacher is bilingual so she teaches Spanish while doing art projects daily. (So wish we had a Spanish immersion pre-school around here.)
- Honestly, we love it so much that if the free option would be offered we would have to think about it. Free is good but there are so many great things about the school we have chosen. Plus, the free option is 5 days a week and I Sabrina might need to be eased into school so the 2 days a week is a good start.
- The first boy she dubs her “boyfriend” better watch out. Daddy won’t take kindly to sharing her affections.
- And to be totally honest, as much as her starting school makes me hyperventilate, it also makes me do a happy dance. Six hours, twice a week, with only 1 child sounds blissful!
Good for you! I know she’ll like it.
Yes, they are growing up. We unfortunately have to put Tabi in daycare 5 days a week…unfortuanately we need the 2 incomes. We chose a daycare with a Montesauri program so it’s sort of like preschool. You are right, it’s expensive! She loves it though and has learned more than I could have taught her. Sabrina will love it and it will give you some one on one time with Tessa. Good luck!
Preschool is the best thing that happened in this house. We enrolled Oleg the year after we had him home. He’s been in preschool since right before he turned 3. Part of the reason was that he needed to learn social interaction with children the right way. Previously he had lived in a Lord of the Flies setting. He has learned so much in preschool and is very ready for Kindergarten. I also like the free time, but overall it was for him, not me. She will love it and you will too.
Sabrina’s new preschool sounds wonderful! You’ll both love it for different reasons. The one thing Alexis has shown us she is a leader and not a follower which is okay since she is a only child. But luckily she is making good choices and those mean girls don’t stand a chance. Oh and by the way they don’t get “Princess” valentines either. Her choice not mine, but while doing her class valentines she told me who got which ones and lets just say there are a few girls getting Nemo 🙂
I’ve had Hannah in daycare/preschool part time (20-24 hours a week) since she was 20 months old…. and I enrolled her not only so I could get some work done (I work from home – so I have double guilt that I’m home and she’s not!) but because she’s such a social little thing I knew she’d benefit from being around other kids. She loves it – and Sabrina will too 🙂 Never feel guilty for giving her the gift of being able to spread her little wings a bit 🙂
We must be living parallel lives with the same kid! We just toured a preschool today and while I’m sad to be sending my girl off to someone else, I know she’s going to love every minute of it. And I hope we get a few years before we have to deal with the mean girls crud!
Awwww. She’s going to love it and you will too! 🙂
I’m surprised there isn’t more available to you(other than one public school) that’s funded through the state though! Here, there is a program called VPK that the state funds and there are a lot of options that take advantage of that and are subsidized. So, even if you send them for more days that the state pays for(usually 3 or 4 depending on the hrs), the part you pay is considerably less. Many of the church preschools here are in the program and it’s great. She will be going 4 days a week next year to the same school she’s in now for 1/3 of the cost of the 3-days a week she goes now.
You will grow to love this!!! But, I know how you feel, and I also have been there. Reese goes to school four mornings a week now. It is only three hours, and often just enough time to not get anything done, but it has been so good for him. I was worried about how much trouble he would get in, but surprisingly, he has done well–for them!! He askes to go, and just can’t wait. He talks about his friends and is more out going. It is so hard to see them grow up.
Just wait until Tessa starts kindergarten……oh, that was rough for me when my second baby left the nest……..
OMG, it’s been a while since I’ve read my reader and I learn Sabrina is starting pre-school. Wow!