Nursery - how many days and which days?

[anchovies]

Have finally chosen a nursery for ds. Am going to be working 2-3 days per week and was originally just going to send him for 2 morning sessions however am now worried that this won't be enough for him to settle in properly. What do you think? And also which days should I choose, 2 together or spread out?

[jessicasmummy]

id go for a tues and thurs so they dont feel totally abandoned... just my view.

[Lizzylou]

DS goes Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I chose those days to work so we could have long weekends and he is very happy....

[Chandra]

Spread out, otherwise the first day of the week becomes like a first day ever every week. And avoid mondays as you will end up paying for the bankholidays

[bundle]

have always done consecutive days, tu-wed-thur works well for us.

[anchovies]

Forgot to say they are fully booked on a thursday. Am tempted to do tuesday and wednesday.

Mornings or full days?

[Lizzylou]

Could you start off on mornings and then move onto full days after a while?
Ease him in gently?

[Chandra]

Morning or full days... it all depends on travelling times (in my case, If I do just mornings I only have 3 hrs to work once I deduct travelling times. So full days are better but I guess it all depends on the age of the child.

[Chandra]

Though I have to say that in our case, the days we used were dictated by the spaces available at the nursery, it took us almost a year to get a full time space...

[Chandra]

spaces or places (___ the translation, sorry)

[Rarrie]

I think mornings only is great if you can do it. My DD goes mornings, and on the day I work in teh afternoon my Mum collects her and spends time with her in the afternoon. That way, she always gets decent time with family, every day, not just an hour or two at the end of the day!

I'd also say keep the days together, I always found it harder taking DD to nursery at the start of the week, but on the second and third morning she was fine. She still can be a bit grumpy that first session in a week.

Having said that, she goes three mornings a week, and she settled really well, so I should imagine two would be fine!

[nooka]

My nursery said not less than four sessions a week for them to feel settled (we started with three days, I think). That was partly for the nursery staff to get to know the children too I think. dd is in her last term now and does three days, Mon, Wed, Fri. Works well for us, but I'm sure other patterns would also work well. If your ds enjoys nursery then it shouldn't be a problem what ever you go for.