Moving on from nanny

[Sorrento79]

Help me get my head round this. We've been avoiding making future plans as my partner got diagnosed with cancer shortly after our son was born and it's felt a bit uncertain.

we're both working in senior jobs, each on over £125k/year, which counts us out of various contributions to the means tested/tapered free childcare hours

we have a 19 month old and are using a nanny 4 days a week who is fab.

what i am confused about is what we should be doing in regards to preschool and other pre-reception options. He's an only child and will remain so now sadly, so i think he should get some 'practice' in mixing up with kids without us or the nanny before starting reception school age at 4.5.

given similar choices what do people suggest regards him doing some preschool or nursery maybe next year? We'd have to keep the nanny on for holidays/shorter school days/sickness cover etc and are fairly rekaxed about that as although expensive it feels like a back up plan we can rely on with variable partner health etc

i basically feel very dimmo about it and can't work out if it's useful to pop him in nursery one day a week now or if that's not enough to settle in or proper preschool several days a week once he turns 4 waiting to get to reception age (December birthday)

help!

If you can afford to keep paying the nanny, you could do nursery 2 or 3 mornings per week. The nanny can do child’s laundry and tidying during nursery time, and also be available in holidays.

Does she take him to stay and play and other such groups? If so that may be enough. For my kids, we had a nanny, but there was a super cheap morning only playgroup which they attended for a year prior to school. The hours were such (9 to 12) that the nanny dropped them off and picked them up but it gave them a chance to socialise. But honestly as long as they are doing plenty of group activities they'd probably be ok

I'd wait until preschool age, I'm sure the nanny is taking him out and about to toddler groups or parks and things to mix with other children and that's all they need at this age. They don't properly play with other children until they are 3 or so anyway as they just don't have the language skills.

In the year prior to starting school it would then be good to do some sessions at a pre-school to get him ready for school.

Do 15 hours of preschool the term after he is 3 with nanny dropping off/picking up.

Agree with the 15 hours of pre school rather than a nursery. My kids went to a preschool in a church hall, with they were 2-3, for 2 mornings a week and then a montessori style one from 3-4 before starting school. Nanny was still employed all day.