I'm currently going mad stewing over a pre-school dilemma in my head.
Currently I work 8.30am-12.30pm. DD attends a day nursery 8ish - 1ish. DH takes DS to school for 9am and then goes to his work arriving at 9.20am. He is meant to start at 9, but his work are ok for him to do this and take a shorter lunch.
DS's school has an attached nursery which takes children from the September after they are 3, which is this September for DD (3 in a couple of weeks). Nursery is mostly a standard pre-school which offers 5 2.5 hour funded sessions in either the morning or in the afternoon. However, they have a limited number of places for children to stay for the opposite session and lunch time (not funded) which basically means 9.05am-2.50pm (school is 9am-3pm).
So my dilemma is: do I move her to the school nursery for this year before she starts school, or leave her where she is? As a catchment sibling she'll get offered a school nursery place if I apply for one (top of priority order).
Pros of school nursery
- one drop off, which I can do (work will be ok about me changing my hours to 9.30am-1.30pm) so DH can get to work on time (he currently has to reschedule all his early meetings) and we don't have huge problems when he has to work away
- no more rushing round in the morning to get out for 7.45am. Might actually get to say more than 2 words to DS or DH.
- children in the same place at same times in school holidays
- she'll meet children who she'll go to school with (75% of DS's year went to school nursery)
- she'll become used to the school people/grounds before she starts school (although she probably will anyway on account of DS going there)
Pros of leaving her where she is
- she is happy and settled and I know and like the nursery (although I know and like the school and have heard nothing but good things about nursery)
- she has (already) a close knit group of friends I am loathe to separate her from (although this may be a pro in disguise as it'll be harder for her to separate prior to starting school as she'll have known them for longer)
- the main one. I get 2 hours with her each afternoon before DS finishes school. We'll have much more limited time together if I do go for the school nursery option. Some of the stuff we do (e.g. mother/toddler group, meeting friends with toddlers) we won't be able to do at all or will be much harder to organise
I know there is probably not a right answer, but would welcome any opinions.