afternoon or morning sessions at nursery

[pattymc]

Hi my ds has afternoon sessions at nursery for september when he will be 25 months. What disadvantage is there to sending them in the afternoon rather than the morning? There are no places for morning,I was never organised to get his name down in time. He sleeps from 12.30 until about 2pm at the moment so going to nursery at 12.30 is probably most inconvenient for lunch time sleep but will he still need one at 25 months?

[merryandmad]

Hi Patty,
My two dd's attend nursey three afternoons a week 1pm-5.30pm. My eldest (who has just turned 4 also has her free nursey place on the other two days aswell and attends the two other days 12.45-3.15.
As you have mentioned the main disadvantage is sleep- my youngest is 28 months and has only just stopped having an afternoon sleep. Before that it was a race to get her to nursery before she fell asleep and they would settle her down for a sleep there. The problems with this are:
a) trying to get a tired child to eat lunch.
b) trying to get a tired child to nursery (pack car etc and get ready for work etc)
c) she cries every time she leaves because she is tired and upset.
d) paying for a nursery and then she is sleeping their for the first 1.5 hours, rather than taking part in all activites etc.

Do not understand what you mean though about not getting his name down in time- do you mean for the free place- or just being more organised for going back to work and working afternoons instead?

[pattymc]

Thanks MAM, I was just disorganised about getting his name down in time and missed out on the morning sessions, only afternoon available. I didn't think about whether he would sleep at nursery, will have to find out. thanks for your help

[sagacious]

Both dc's started slightly later (2yrs 5 months) on afternoon sessions. (at our pre school the am sessions are always grabbed by the people in the know way before newbies have realised they should have asked for them) I had dropped the afternoon nap by then (sooner than i'd wanted to but because of pre school)and both coped fine. The first few weeks were tough.. overtired and whingy but they never slept at pre school as it was all far too exciting for them.

In the end I prefered afternoon sessions (dd is now 4 and has 3 afternoons and 2 mornings) as we can go out in the morning and I get a break in the afternoons iykwim.

[pattymc]

thanks sagacious, I know the lack of sleep will be a problem but have to agree, I think I would prefer to have the mornings to potter and go to the playground and leave the afternoon (all 3 hours of it!!) free to work/shop/me time.

[MrsMattie]

I have to be honest - I found afternoon sessions a nightmare (ours were 12.15-2.55). It was difficult to get my son to have lunch before we went and get him there on time, and his behaviour suffered because he was tired. He has been like a different boy since he started mornings. I also found it an annoying time from my perspective. I could never plan much for either the morning or afternoon, as his nursery session was bang in the middle of the day.

However - most of the other children doing afternoons seemed fine, and I was always the only one moaning about it - so it may all work out fine!