Working Moms of Pre Schoolers

Brougham7-15-06 · February 2011

Since most pre schools are 2-3 days a week and are usually just a few hours each days, how do you get them to pre school and then home or to a sitter if it is during your working hours? Is your job flexible in letting you leave?

I only work 2-3 days a week, but if I am working those days I can not leave work, and DH can not guarantee that he can leave as well.

What is your plan?

Anyone not planning on doing pre school at the age of 3? It seems like so many people are, and I honestly had not thought about it until I saw a post on here and someone on FB mentioned it.

Meg41208 · February 2011

We have DD enrolled in daycare so she'll be doing preschool there. When she's kindergarten-aged and older, she will attend one of the programs that our daycare transports to (the public or catholic school).

JLPT830 · February 2011

When DS was going to a sitter, she had 2 preschoolers that she took to preschool and picked up. As the mom of the infant, this ended up being one of the things that made us decide to stop using her....but that's a story for another time. Our plan for DS is to have my mom take him and pick him up 2 days and his 3rd day is one of my off days so I'll take him. We are blessed that my mom is the sitter. Can your sitter do it? Do you know anyone at the preschool that you could arrange a carpool with?

escape1st · February 2011

We are not going to place DS in a pre-school at 3 years old. One reason is that he does go to a sitter and gets plenty of socialization there, plus she does a little "school" each day for the kids. Second, is the curriculum for a 3 year old at pre-school is not all that different that what I work with him on at home...letters, numbers, shapes, colors, etc.

We may look into something at 4 years so that he is in a more structured environment, but that is not for a while. Smile

Good luck with making your decision! It's tough to get on here and see all the things that the SAHM get to do with their kids during the day and I have to admit to having a touch of jealousy from time to time!

Ttimes3 · February 2011

A number of factors contribute to our being able to swing it:

1. My mom watches the boys 2 days/week

2. I have flexible hours at work (plus, I go in relatively late)

3. DH gets home from work relatively early

buckeyethor · February 2011

I am not a working mom of a preschooler but I used to drive my BFF's boys to preschool from their sitter and back for a nominal gas fee. I also currently take her boys from chorus practice to latchkey a couple times a month. Do you have a trustworthy SAHM friend to do it?

doodlebug914 · February 2011

I'm one of the few not planning to send Ethan at age 3. We're planning to wait until next school year. I agree with pp regarding curriculum and we already work on and he knows most of those things. I feel like kids get pushed into everything so early and we only feel like he should go for one year of preschool. I may look into doing a Mom's Day Out program near our home for one day a week just for socialization or do another class or activity together with him. I'm in the same boat as you as far as work schedule

My grandmother does watch Ethan though, so we are lucky in that aspect that we wouldn't have to worry about transportation whenever he does go into a program.

adamsbabble · February 2011

I'm not a working mom, but DH is a working dad and he works all over the area, os he's out anyway and it just works out better that he is the one who takes her and picks her up from school most of the time (just because pickup is right in the middle of Charlotte's naptime, and this way she doesn't have to wake her up early for me to go get Ava... and now with a newborn it's a lot to get them all in and out of the car just to take Ava in and out of the building). Anyhow, her school hours are from 9:30-1:30. DH doesn't have a set schedule, so on her school days he just starts work around 10 and then takes a lunch when she needs to be picked up. If he can't do it, then I just do it. It seems that a lot of the kids in her school have grandparents or sitters pick them up as well.

mrs.george2be04 · February 2011

We enrolled DS in a preschool in our sitter's district and they provide transportation within the district. He will be going T/Th mornings.

alisonada · February 2011

We're able to send Piper to pre-school 2 afternoons a week (and will be sending both girls in the Fall) by using a combination of grandparents, their in-home daycare provider (who has an assistant teacher present and lives 2 minutes from the preschool) and me using my lunch break when needed (since I luckily - just barely - work close enough to do this).

Another alternative we looked into was just using a daycare center that provides a pre-school curriculum, like Goddard or Little Red School House (they even have a specific part of the day set aside as the pre-school portion, which I kind of liked). I also found one local preschool that offered before and after care. These options would be much simpler logistically than using a traditional "preschool" while still providing the social benefits and structure of preschool (We just decided to stick with our current daycare/preschool combo because we're so incredibly happy with both places we figured why mess with a good thing.)

kel716 · February 2011

We haven't ironed out our details yet. However, DS is going to a daycare parttime. that has a preschool program. We like the daycare. So we'll continue that.

Also, DS may qualify for a speech IEP, in which case he will go to our local elementary. If he qualifies, he would be bused to/from our house and/or his daycare. We will see.

So, we'll either continue with the daycare or add the school district option in addition to the daycare option. At this point, we don't know if he qualifies. When we figure that out, we'll be able to work out our details.

allobosc · February 2011

we'll be starting next fall, so DS will be close to four. my home-care sitters husband provides transportation and DS will actually attend the preschool where I work for one year and then we'll probably switch the next year to a full time preschool for two more years before kindergarden.

AgathiP04 · February 2011

I'm a working mom! Last year my son was 3 and went to a 2 morning a week program. DH drove him and my mom picked him up. It was quite chaotic and also DS just wasn't ready. This year he is in Montessori school 5 half days a week. I have to be at work before school starts, so he is in an early care program there. He could have stayed after for the after school program, but I pay my mom to continue to baby sit him the rest of the day, including picking him up from school. With DS having an Aug birthday, I wish I would have waited...he wasn't ready at 3 yrs old and If I could do it again, would have just done classes and programs with him. At 4 he was much more ready. He'll be attending preschool one more year, then K at 6.

jerseygirl81 · February 2011

Charlie's daycare center has a preschool program, so he'll just be going there. They've actually expanded their curriculum through 2nd grade now, so we might get lucky and just be able to keep him there for a while before we have to worry about the school-age drop off/pick up issues.

MrsMoher · February 2011

Meg41208:
We have DD enrolled in daycare so she'll be doing preschool there.

This. When he's in kindergarten, I have a gf who works as a 1st grade teacher at a private school in Alexandria. So Eli will go there and go home with my gf (she already offered and of course this is assuming she doesn't change her mind).

shawnsweetie · February 2011

Not a working mom, but I just wanted chime in that we only send our kids to 1 year of preschool, so if you opt not to do 2 years it really shouldn't be that big of a deal. Out of the 12 kids in Rylee's preschool class 5 of them are first time students

andailey · February 2011

escape1st:
We are not going to place DS in a pre-school at 3 years old. One reason is that he does go to a sitter and gets plenty of socialization there, plus she does a little "school" each day for the kids. Second, is the curriculum for a 3 year old at pre-school is not all that different that what I work with him on at home...letters, numbers, shapes, colors, etc.

We may look into something at 4 years so that he is in a more structured environment, but that is not for a while.

Good luck with making your decision! It's tough to get on here and see all the things that the SAHM get to do with their kids during the day and I have to admit to having a touch of jealousy from time to time!

This is our situation as well. We are not planning on enrolling DD in preschool next year (she'll turn 3 next month), because she goes to an in-home sitter where she experiences a rich learning environment that's age-appropriate with other toddlers. She also gets great socialization there. My sitter doesn't transport kids due to obvious liability factors, which is fine with us.

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