Hi everyone, long time lurker here but I’ve never posted. Just after some thoughts on my childcare options really.
Background: I have an almost 2.5 year old who attends a private (paid for) day nursery for 2 mornings per week, he stays with my mom for the other 3 (I only work mornings). The nursery is close to work, but not so close to home.
He will be entitled to 30 hours free childcare in Sept 2019, which will make him 3 years and 4 months. The private day nursery offer 7.30-1.30pm X 5 as those 30 hours (but you still pay for school holiday weeks).
Other option is a primary school with a nursery class which is 5 mins walk away from home. They don’t offer any additional hours, just 8.30-11.30am X 5. Now, my work hours clash with this as I work 8.30-12pm term time only so would be unable to take him or pick him up, which I’m not over the moon about but there is a reason that I’m considering this.
I am early on in my second pregnancy, baby is due in May 2019 so I will be off on maternity leave when he starts, if we go for the school nursery, which means I could do drop off and pick up for at least a term. However, I’m unsure of how much time I will having off this time around (had a year off with him) due to financial constraints. My partner has just started a business alongside his job, which is doing well so far but it has only been a couple of months. We are hoping that I would be able to afford to stay off as long as possible, but can’t say for certain. A year off would give me 2 terms of taking him myself, then we would have to find a childminder for the last term - and going forward into reception too.
I’m thinking that bundling him and a 4 month old into the car every morning and afternoon to drive 20 mins there and back to the private nursery near work isn’t going to be much fun, but I still can’t decide for various reasons.
I have worked with children of this age for 20+ years in all types of settings and I know that private nurseries tend to be less about “learning” and more about “nurturing”, whereas school nursery focus more on learning. Both have positives, but I feel that by the time this rolls around he will need pushing a bit more than private nursery can offer (he’s bright for his age). Contrary to me saying this, I also don’t want him to just be “taught at” at school, with no thought for his emotional well-being.
DP keeps saying we can wait but if we want the school as an option, we really need to visit and get his name down there.
WWYD?
In short: I need to win the lottery so I don’t have to go back to work lol.