To think nearly 4 is still too young for school nursery?

[Slightlyneuroricnat]

Always considered myself lucky in that my daughter wouldn't be starting school nursery until nearly 4 as her birthday is September but as its nearing the sick feeling still isn't shifting.
Aibu?

Wilson,
Thankyou, that made me smile :)
Mrs,
She is out at so many groups parks play centres etc she's actually had most things already!

Gosh, you say you wanted to be her main carer - you know that it doesnt have to mean 24hrs a day 7 days a week right?

And also, this website alone is proof and support that we dont have to parent our kids the way our parents did with us.

My dd is 2.1. Aside from the fact she isnt potty trained yet she is more than ready for school nursery. She will go January, about three weeks after sje turns three.

My son had to go to SCHOOL at 4 and 3 weeks. He coped.

Same for my DD Dance

I would have been a lot more worried about starting formal education too young. As it happened, both my children were a lot nearer 5 than 4 when they started in Reception, so that was OK. With five terms of nursery education behind them, Reception class was a breeze.

wishful75 your local school nursery sounds awful. That is not true of all school nurseries though. I manage a 60 place nursery and we certainly don't put pressure on the children to grow up fast. I feel the children benefit from the low staff turnover (salaries are higher), high level of funding from the local authority (no pressure for us to make a profit) a qualified teacher is always on hand and ultimately our children settle happily into reception due to good transition arrangements. Of course there are many excellent private nurseries, my own son attends one but ultimately parents need to go and look around the provision in their area and there shouldn't be some sort of assumption that school nurseries are stuck in the dark ages.

I think the school nursery has the benefit of many children attending will go into reception together and also the familiarity of the grounds etc.

The nursery children have their own playground that isn't shared with any of the reception / older children.
Thankyou for all your comments, you've really helped me realise they are my fears, not hers and I need to deal with them.

My DD (also September birthday) started private nursery at 3 for a couple of days a week. I'd no plans to send her until then because I was a SAHM and didn't "need" to but I saw that there were advantages for her to go. Obviously not all children are the same but she'd started to "tune me out" and not listen properly if she didn't feel like it.

It did her a lot of good to have to follow instructions from another adult, to be in a group of her peers so she realised that she wasn't actually the centre of the universe and that other people have needs. She had to make herself understood and start to learn to resolve problems and cooperate with other children without mummy always being there to fight her battles.

She loved her nursery and I'm sure it's made her more independent now she's at school. For the last year before school I also found it increasingly more difficult to find groups to entertain her. A lot of toddler type activities are aimed at under 3 year olds so if you've got someone 4 rising 5 then they don't "fit" any more.

My youngest didn't start nursery until he was 5 and then started school just shy of 6. But I'm in Scotland where it's easier to do that.

He has always been a real homebody and I just didn't think nursery was right for him at 3 or 4. But he done so well since starting at 5. All his teachers commented on how ready he was, confident and mature.

He's done really well both socially and academically so if you do keep your DD home a little longer there's no automatic worry that she won't learn to socialise well or any of the other problems people seem to think will happen.

Im happier about it now with all your responses :)

Your situation and children sound very, very similar to mine. My oldest dc is now in Yr1 and I am amazed at his progress, particularly his relationship with the adults in school. The school are fantastic, the staff have been wonderful and we have been very lucky that it has suited him very well. The first few weeks will be tough but once he settled in that was it. A few kids settled straight away and then had issues after a few weeks/months.

I had never left ds1 with anyone other than my mother and DH for longer than a few hours and he's now telling me to drop him off at his friend's parties because he doesn't want/need me there!

Natural,
Thankyou for your encouraging post!
I'm not about to start leaving the children with friends etc just for the sake of it, but I hope she does settle well.
7 months is a long time and I'm sure she will be fine by that point