Preschool for LOs whose moms work FT?

Mrs.Greg

I'm not having this problem just yet but my friend who has a 4-year-old is.  Our girls go to the same in-home daycare.  It's very structured for an in-home daycare, the lady who runs it does a preschool for the 3- and 4-year-olds.  My friend's DD is doing the preschool now but she would like her to go to an actual preschool in September. Problem is, all of the preschools she has looked into are only 3 days a week, only 3-4 hours in the morning. And my friend works full time.  She's so stressed out about it, it's stressing ME out because DH and I also want our DD to go to an actual preschool when she is 4.  How would this even work??

cougarlicious

Yes, are you part of any Seattle area mothers groups?  They usually are good at keeping track of all the preschools in the area.  In my area (CA) there are full time preschools but the wait lists are high if you want the hours I need (7-6) so I actually have to enroll my son when he's two in order to guarantee him a spot each year.  

Jelliebean1982

Try looking at a private school that has a preK program.  There are lots of schools that go up to 8th grade that start with a full time preK program that caters to working parents. 

carlab44

Are you set on staying at your current in-home daycare? There are a good number of daycare centers in the area that also have a pre-school program. DS is in (and DD was until she started kindergarten) a daycare that has a fairly structured preschool program. Are you in Seattle proper? We are, and if you want to PM me I can talk more to you about it offline.

There are also a lot of neighborhood yahoo groups. If there is one near you (if you're comfortable telling me what part of Seattle you're in I could look for you), you could post a question and I'm sure others in your neighborhood would have recommendations.

hansa11

My friends who have kids of preschool age send them full-time to a daycare center that has a preschool curriculum.  They do all the same things as kids who go to a stand-alone preschool three mornings a week do, they're just there longer.  And parents who have more than one child will usually switch all the kids to the daycare center when the older one needs "preschool."  They don't like paying the higher center rates for babies, but it helps to have all their kids in one place.

Angela814

Does the local school district have a 4K program? Ours has a formal 4K which runs 5 days/week for 2.5 hours/day. You are assigned to either morning or afternoon, and there is busing to and from school every day.

naflmj

One of the reasons we are switching to a nanny or Au Pair. I read your other post so I know that you don't have this option with your current nanny but if you decide to drop to part time maybe you can send DD the days you are home and then leave with the nanny the other days? I hate that pre-school is structured for stay at home moms. The other option would be a pre-school type program within a daycare center where they usually do a 1/2 day pre-school and then aftercare. Many of the parochial schools around here offer pre-school with an extended day component as well. 

semdkm

We had the same problem.  I found some really great preschools out there to which we would have loved to send our child, but they all catered to stay at home moms, or at least, parents with REALLY flexible schedules, so our options were to hire a nanny and send her there, or keep them in daycare and utilize the daycare's "preschool" program (Goddard).  Do I love the Goddard preschool program?  No, but I don't feel like our child has been disadvantaged in any way from it, either.  I got so wrapped up in the fancy schools around us that I lost sight of the fact that all she NEEDED (as opposed to what I WANTED--bells, whistles, learning the difference between Monet and VanGogh plus others, Mandarin as opposed to just Spanish, etc....) was a caring environment, exposure to other kids, getting along, etc., plus the "basics"  (number, letter recognition, sorting, etc).  And guess what?  Turns out she's doing more at what I assumed was a "substandard" preschool program than what's expected by our local school kindergarten.  Plus, I've learned from elementary school teachers that what counts most is just being around other kids, learning to wait one's turn and follow instructions, etc. is all that's really needed, so try not to buy into the madness I drove myself into over nothing --and we're having more fun as I'm now finding ways to incorporate the other stuff (more music and art appreciation, etc.) with her on weekends.  Good luck!