Help! Choosing a nursery,: travel time vs ethos

[soneill]

So I'm looking for an early years place for my soon-to-be 3 year old. The nursery in town (5min drive) can't confirm numbers yet and have been a bit rubbish about communicating. They seem to send emails that never arrive, and rarely update their Facebook page. We visited a forest school nursery in the middle of nowhere (20min drive) and he loved it. They can sign him up immediately and gave me pages and pages of info on their ethos and policies, all of which sound right up our street.
My issue is whether, on balance, being close to home is of more value to us than having an amazing preschool that takes 40mins out of our day (80 mins for me, by the time I've gone home and back again). His grandmother could pick him up from the one in town, and there's a Playpark next door that she can take him to after, which gives me more time to work!.I work from home, but would really only have 1 1/2 hours to do any work if he went to the forest school. No internet and no cafés out there! And his granny is not prepared to drive out there! I just feel really disappointed with the offering and effort of the one in town...I want the forest school ethos, but is it worth the extra effort?

I don't think 20mins is a massive distance to travel. We walk to nursery but that's about the length of our walk and I consider it to be quite close by. A bit annoying about grandma though, that's the bit that might put me off.

They are windy country roads, so I understand. I guess it's convenience or ethos. The closer one uses words like 'does your child have an impairment' which rings total alarm bells for me!

If the forest school can take him now, you could enrol him there and stay on the waitlist for the other nursery. That will give you some time to trial if you can make the longer drive work.

Do you have a partner who could do drop off or pick up? Even if Grandma won't drive there for pickup, could she come to your place after you get home and look after him there for an hour or take him to the park? Could you use the parts of the drive without your son to listen to a work-related podcast or dictate some notes so that some of the drive time is productive?

If you need a spot soon then take what is available which unfortunately happens to be further away. Normally I'd say go to where is closer and more convenient on a day to day basis.

Definately go for the ethos and feel that you liked. It’s a big thing, trusting a nursery enough to leave your child there and if you liked the vibe I would take it. It’s a really good idea what a pp said- could grandma come to you and keep him occupied for a few hours afterwards so you can work longer? Are you doing half days?

How many days do you want him to do? Could you do forest school two days and the close nursery three days, for example? Lots of children go to two settings and especially if they're very different like in this case, it can provide valuable experiences.

I would go for the close by option. All that travelling will really start to grate after a while.

Ethos! We did a twenty minute each way trip for an outstanding outdoor nursery and it was 100% worth it.

As PP said, use both the settings. You can split funding for more than one setting and they claim for the hours taken at their one.