Bored at childminder?

[LillyL122]

My girl who will be 3 in March currently goes to a childminder two days a week and a pre school one whole day plus a morning session. From September she will go two full days at pre school and two days at the childminder.

My childminder has said that she feels my girl may become bored and struggle in September as her current children will be starting school then and her 'best friend' will be gone. So all her current friends will be gone and she will have new younger children there.

Would it be better for my girl to go to pre school more and drop the childminder? Would 4 full days at the pre school be too much? The childminder has been a constant in her life, she's been there since she was 14 months. My girl has only been going to the pre school since Jan. She says she prefers going to the childminder as her 'best friend' goes there.

Those that I've asked for an opinion says to keep her at the childminder so that she has some stability. And some has agreed with the childminder that she will get bored there. Me and Dad can't agree on what to do at the moment. Opinions and thoughts please? Has anyone else been in this situation?

They do tend to get bored when all their mates move and they are left with babies. Do you have reservations about her not being ready for pre school?

No. She enjoys pre school, but she hasn't made any friends there yet and prefers going to the childminder.

I used to be a childminder. I found the children often changed quite a lot at age 3. There was a definite shift from benefiting from the cosy home from home environment to needing to be with similar aged children and enjoying being part of a bigger group.

Could you perhaps do preschool for term time and the childminder's for school holiday care? That would offer a nice balance if your childminder could accommodate that.

That's good to know.

Unfortunately our childminder doesn't do holiday care only, and she also takes some of her annual leave during school holidays.

I've never had one get bored were out meeting in large groups doing forest school etc. in the afternoon it's one to one while Los sleep doing crafts, phonics numbers etc they like being the eldest and helping. I'd see how she is you can always change later.

That is interesting. My little girl does prefer playing with the older children though. She's not the biggest fan of her baby brother 🤣 I'm worried that if I do want to change by then there will be no spaces left at the pre school or other day nurseries due to the new funding kicking in.

We had this exact scenario and decided to do 4 whole days at pre school. DS does miss his childminder but I don’t think he’d of liked it there any more as all his friends moved on at the same time and he does love pre school

I have the same dilemma with my DD who turns 3 in August and I’ll be having another baby early June. My little girl has her best friend at the childminder too but majority of the other children will be starting Reception from September so there will inevitably be a lot of babies, which I don’t think will suit her personality. So I’ve decided to put her into preschool full time from September, or 4 full days plus a morning session only on Friday so she can enjoy time with me and the baby. I think that the preschool will help her transition into Reception year more smoothly, whilst if she stays at the childminder for another year she will be only surrounded by smaller children so she won’t get the same social interaction.
There are pretty long waiting lists for preschools where we are and it will only get worse with the new funded hours scheme, so you are better off making up your mind as soon as you can and securing the additional preschool days if this is what you decide to do.