Preschool mania has started in our town. Has it hit yours yet? The open houses are hopping and applications are flying everywhere. Many of you may be applying for preschool for the first time with kids who are two or three. But I would bet some of you are applying to get both kids in this year. Ok, this can be tricky.
My kids are one year apart in school. For me, picking a school was all about the overlap of the two schedules. For many cities, part time preschool means the kids go the number of times a week with correlates to their age (three years old = three times a week). Many schools are nice enough to account for this and will have consciously adjusted their 2-year old program to match the 4-year old program. Since the MAJORITY of people space their kids in this two-year gap. (Ahem, that was not us.) So finding a preschool program that catered to moms with kids a YEAR apart in school was a bit tougher to find. Two year olds go two days a week (Tuesday and Thursday). Three year olds attend three days (Monday, Wednesday and Friday). Yeah, my idea of preschool doesn't mean shuffling everyone everyday with no time to myself.
(Note: My hat is off to Cara for going this route this year with her Bunch.)
No, I purposely looked for a school that allowed for this overlap both last year and this year when I had kids in three and four days a week. Unfortunately, I still couldn't get the perfect schedule. I ended up still driving to school five mornings a week, but at least I had a day (or two) alone with each kid, and still had some time to write or run errands.
The dilemma when you're working almost solely by schedule is you may not be in the "perfect preschool." Something has to give, right? They way I rationalized it in my head is that preschool is about them having fun and socializing. It's all learning. And eventually, come kindergarten, when they're chained to their desks/tables they'll be forced to endure the American school system.
So here are a few things to consider:
1) Figure out what preschool means for you and your kids. If it's time to run errands, perhaps having one kid around is still easier than two. If it's time to yourself then that's another story.
2) Get the schedules from the directors BEFORE you start attending open houses. If the schedules won't work with your lifestyle, don't waste time driving all over town visiting schools if the times are inconvenient. I wasted almost an hour visiting the school when the director finally handed me the schedules (3-year olds go two days and 4-year olds go four--and never the two shall meet).
3) Realize it is what it is....it's just preschool. It's a time for your kids to socialize with others beyond their siblings. This is a good thing. My kids love each other, but they get tired of one another. A break from the other makes afternoon playtime much more fun for everyone.
4) Similar pick up/drop off times/locations are important. For a brief time, I pondered sending them to different schools to get the "perfect" schedule. Let me just say that three hours of time is not a lot time, and even less if you are spending that time shuffling kids to different schools with different start/end times.
So what I ended up doing for my kids, the past two years, was find a school that seemed loving and safe enough for them hang out and play for three hours to learn the basic social things and a few extras like the Pledge of Allegiance. All of this AND overlapping days. Bonus! This gave me time to run some errands, go to a doctor appointment, workout, do some writing, or clean the house.
Let us know how you dealt with the preschool scheduling issue, especially if your kids are one year apart in school.
I'd be interested in knowing if there are any people out there who would consider putting their kids in the SAME class.... or is this taking the "twibling" thing a step too far? The reason this popped into my head is that my son has an August 27th birthday, so he is one of oldest in his class, but there are kids (mostly girls) in the class that are as much as 14 months younger than he is. If your school is really flexible and your kids are pretty young, this might save some sanity. Seems like a lot of these schools have their various classes spend a lot of the day together anyway....
Posted by: Rachel S | Feb 05, 2009 at 02:54 PM
I'm going crazy trying to figure this out. I'm almost positive that I want my oldest to stay in his school next year, which means that he will be in school MTW in the mornings. To send my younger child there would mean he went ThF and we would be there every single day. I could send him to the same school he goes to this year for his pre-preschool class and have both kids in school on MTW, but that would mean LOTS of driving back and forth, since the schools are 6 miles apart. I think I'm settling on sending my younger son to a different preschool than his older brother and than the one he goes to now. That will be TTh mornings, leaving our Fridays free. Though both schools get out at the exact same time...but they are only an 18 second drive from each other, so I'm hoping it will work out...unless...ugh, I can't figure it out or work out the best option. It gives me a headache just thinking about it.
Posted by: Michelle | Feb 05, 2009 at 02:58 PM
add in the fact that you might hold a child back from kindergarten and that really throws a wrench in.
Posted by: feener | Feb 05, 2009 at 04:53 PM
To answer the question about putting the kids in the same preschool class, my two are in the same class. It works great for us. The kids are the same age, but they play with their own friends, and I've even had teachers comment that they forget that they are siblings because they are so independent. It makes my life much easier as I only have one set of teachers to get used to, one list of school supplies, one holiday program to attend. I'd love it if they could be in the same kindergarten class as well, but I doubt that the school district would allow it.
Posted by: Jenifer | Feb 05, 2009 at 06:48 PM
Ugh, we're in preschool hell right now. My son's school had enrollment for returning students last week but we're trying to move him to someplace closer (it takes 25 min to get there and it's not worth it for a three hour stay). I would have lost $300 if I reserved a spot and then didn't enroll him so I didn't. Now it's full and I'm hoping to get into a closer school but the lady told me yesterday that I'm really far down on the waiting list. Ugh. Who knew we'd ever be the preschool hunting moms?
Posted by: Casey | Feb 05, 2009 at 06:49 PM
I wish I could put both of mine in the same class. But next fall one will got MWF and the other will go TTH.
Posted by: beth | Feb 05, 2009 at 10:18 PM
Hi! Thanks so much for linking to my reflections on this difficult issue. Can't stop writing about it ... just relayed our recent disastrous tour of another school over on Philly Moms Blog at http://svmomblog.typepad.com/philly_moms/2009/02/preschool-unwelcome-tour-draft.html
They may not want us as students after our decidedly weak first impression, but wonder of wonders, the girls can both go T and Th mornings, so we are signed up for now!!!
Posted by: Sue | Feb 05, 2009 at 11:09 PM
Luckily for me, my kids will be two years apart in school even though they are closer than that in age. (If my 3 year old, who has a summer bday ever gets held back though it will be a different story!) I finally decided just to keep my two-year-old home with me for one more year even though she could go two days at the same school as her sister next year. I made this decision because the twos don't get taken out of the car by a teacher in carline like the fours do. So I would have to park, get out and walk both of them in with my OTHER child and I decided it wasn't worth it. When you have three kids under 4, as I will come May 1st, some decisions have to be made purely on convenvience.
Posted by: Lauren | Feb 06, 2009 at 01:24 PM
These types of discussions make me want to just keep my Bunch at home until they're old enough to ride the school bus. I can't believe that preschools make you go through such hell and jump through all these hoops and CHARGE you significant amounts of money to do it.
Posted by: Jenny P | Feb 06, 2009 at 03:56 PM
I am thinking about keeping mine out of preschool until just one year before Kindergarten. It is just a whole lot of trouble for quite a bit of money! I like the idea of paying myself that tuition. I don't have to worry my girls aren't getting socialized because they are being socialized at home together all day long!
Posted by: Susan Smock | Feb 07, 2009 at 02:31 PM
Mine (2 years apart) are in a great daycare/preschool that goes from 3 months through preK. This is full time, of course, so no scheduling issues. Choosing a preschool that offers full time, so caters to working families and offers every day of the week might be an option (you can often pick and choose days since if you don't both work you may not want to have your kids in 9-5 care!) .
Posted by: maria wilson | Feb 07, 2009 at 08:44 PM