Toddlers: 24 Months+
Mrs.Greg
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Preschool for LOs whose parents both work FT?
Mrs.Greg
member
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??
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Re: Preschool for LOs whose parents both work FT?
I'm not sure how many she's looked into, we haven't actually even started looking for our DD yet. So you or your DH leaves work to take your LO to preschool and then leave again to take her home?
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I think she'll have to look at daycare facilities which tend to start preschool type activities around age 2 & by 4 they are really focused on kindergarten prep. Is she opposed to a facility for some reason?
Also sometimes there are private preschools that have full day options (like where I live there is a synagogue that offers 5 day a week preschool (you don't have to be Jewish or a member) for similar pricing to a daycare facility.
You have a few different types of options that may be available.
-Preschools that feed into private schools: these are programs that are either on site with a private school or sometimes off site but they are associated with a private elementary school. They run as feeder programs to that school and run on a school schedule. Many of these will have full day programs or at the very least are 5 days/week but maybe just mornings. Also, many of these may offer after school programs for an extra fee that would bring it to full day status.
-Stand alone preschools: These are schools that are just for 2-5 year olds or so. They often share the space and do 2-3 year olds one day and 3-5 the other day or something similar. They are unlikely to offer full day care, or even every day.
-Day cares with a pre-school program: These are going to be full time care but whether or not their pre-school program is any good is hit or miss.
If you find a school you like that is not full time you can often find either an in home provider, nanny or even day care center who can provide the rest of the care and often the transportation between the two.
We've been pretty fortunate with our job flexibility. I go into work around 6:45/7:00 a.m. and can leave work as early as 2:00 and DH doesn't need to get into work until at least 9:30 and comes home at 6:00. He does 2 drop offs. He takes DS to my parents (10 min. from our house) and then continues north for another 15-20 min. to drop DD at her preschool. She goes to a Montessori preschool that also has a daycare. That's why she can attend at her age. Then I normally pick DD up around 3:30. It takes me about 20-25 min. from work to pick her up.
I am going to ditto the daycare suggestion. I understand choosing a smaller, in-home provider for a younger child, but if a child is going to be moved twice anyway (preschool and then K), a center is not a bad middle step.
They are created for the purpose of all day care, and most start pre-K activities at age 2. For 4 year olds, it is definitely closer to a school experience than staying with an in-home provider.
I see vans or small buses from various daycares dropping kids off at my DD1's school regularly. Most of them are likely elementary-age, but the issue is pretty much the same, that parents can't be there for pick-up or drop-off because of work.
Our preschool also offers before and after school care, and a full-day program that basically adds a preschool curriculum to daycare.
Your friend may have to switch daycares if the woman who runs it isn't willing to add transportation to and from another school, but just from what I see, it looks like it is a fairly frequent accommodation for daycare centers, for school-age kids where I live.
DD1, 1/5/2008 ~~~ DD2, 3/17/2010
my blog :: the domestic wannabe
Preschools in our area are like this. They are either 2,3 or 5 mornings a week from 9-12 or they are full time daycare centers that have preschool rooms starting at age 3. Sounds like she needs to look at a full day center and see what their 3 and 4 year old programs are like. I would not expect an in home provider to provide transportation to a preschool program. My girls go to a 2 morning a week program and all the children have stay at home parents that is pretty much what these programs were started for, stay at home kids to get some preschool experience before starting kindergarten without going to an all day center.
I know most areas have some private schools that are all day preschools like Montessori Academies. Most parents move out of an in home daycare provider by 3 years old because that is when they enter them in an all day center with a preschool program. Not saying their are not in home providers that have older children it is just not that common. If I decided to go back to work at this point, I would have to enroll them in an all day center that worked with my work hours.