Mon/Tue/Thurs or Mon/Thurs/Fri - please VOTE!

[decafisnotthesame]

Please help an indecisive Mum out - which three days would you choose for nursery (preschool)?

My little boy goes to nursery Mon, Tue, Thurs, Fri at the moment and is moving to preschool next month. I would like an extra day with him before he starts school in Sept25 so will reduce his days from 4 to 3.

Which 3 days would be best for him for settling, making friends, routines etc.?

Would love to hear opinions on this. Thanks!

Is there anyway you could do Tues/thurs/fri?
Then you wouldn't be paying for Mondays on bank holidays (if your nursery still charge for bank holidays)

In theory yes I could do that but I just thought it would be good for him to go to nursery on a Monday to start the week as normal if that makes sense?!

I don't know how the charging works for bank holiday but there are only 4 Monday bank holidays next year so it won't make a huge difference to the fees I don't think. Thank you for the suggestion though.

One of the 'pros' for him not going on a Friday is so he doesn't miss days if we go away for a long weekend but then I realised we do that maybe twice a year!

Tuesday Wednesday Thursday. Nice long chunk and allows you to go away at the weekends.

I would choose the days as a block so either Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

If you then go away for a long weekend you can either go on Saturday and return Monday, or go Friday and return Sunday.

Also your DS would get into a pattern of knowing he goes to preschool on 3 days and is at home on 4 days. (I did this with my DD with her settings. She always did them in a block.)

I would like to break up my working week and keep the Wednesday day off consistent with how it is now. Just not sure which would be better for DS and a routine and not missing out on too much at nursery.

Leaning towards Friday off in addition to Wednesday as sometimes DS is so tired after nursery that on a weekend he doesn't want to do much. Friday off might mean he has more energy at the weekend. But then again Friday's are much quieter at nursery and he seems to prefer it when there aren't so many children there (its up to 30 preschoolers in one room when full during the week!)

I never used to be this indecisive!

Thanks for your advice. I am keen to keep Wednesdays off for both a break in the working week for me but also as that's what DS is used to (he has been in nursery for 3 years already and always had Wednesday off).

We do Mon, Tues, Thurs and it works well for us. Breaks up the week and allows for a long weekend with the Friday off

Thank you - it's good to hear this works for you. Has your little one been ok with these days too and made friends ok?

Although I think DS would like the quieter Friday I worry that would only really give him Monday and Thursday with lots of the other kids and really want him to make some strong friendships to help feel settled.

Absolutely, she is 3 and has a little girl gang! A lot of the kids at her centre go full time so she always has friends there.

@CrunchySnow thank you. It feels a bit crazy reducing from 4 days where he is now to 3 for preschool when he will then have to go back up to 5 when he starts school but I don't want to look back and wish I had spent more time with him.

You don't get this time back enjoy spending time with your child!

Mon/thurs/Fri - Fridays often a lot quieter at nursery which is nice balance to more hectic days.
Plus spreading days out over full week means when they're ill you're more likely to make it back in for the Friday

@Chickadeep good point about sickness. We've been lucky recently with no sickness for ages so I hadn't thought of that.

That's my feelings about Friday and a quieter day... I know Friday is his favourite day where he is now as it's quiet but if he's dropping from 4 days to 3 I didn't know whether to factor in the quieter day or not since he'll have an extra day off.

Lots of mums have Fridays off. I’ve always found having Fridays off handy for arranging play dates.

Mon, Tue and Thur from your options. Nice long weekends together and good if you wanted to go away for a couple nights.

Plus all the full time children tend to be tired and grumpier by end of week!

I'd think of any activities or groups you may want to do together with your time and see which days they are on to decide

He already does football on a Wednesday and the class is available Tues, Wed, Thurs and Fri so pretty flexible there. Plus swimming on a Saturday and tennis on a Sunday. Probably shouldn't add anything else to the schedule for a not yet 4 year old! I do love the idea of the forest school type classes that run though...