Nursery for 3.5 year old

[Louisec128]

My 3.5 year old starts nursery this week, 1-3 (annoyingly it's afternoon not morning) every day. He has been going to this school, to pre school for 3 mornings a week for 5 months before Summer so he's settled nicely now.

I have kept his 3 mornings at pre school, but now that he's going 1-3 every afternoon, it means he's going to be doing 3 full days 9-3, and two afternoons. I can't help but feel thus is a lot for his age? What did your kids do at this age?

I'm not sure whether to drop one morning so it's only 2 full days and 3 afternoons, and then I crease it when I return to work after Christmas. I'm currently on mat leave with our 7 month old, and feel guilty sending him 3 full days when I don't have to and I don't want him to rush growing up :( but I'm also thinking maybe they'll be able to stimulate him better than me as I'm often tied to naps/breastfeeding etc. I guess I'm feeling a lot of anxiety / mum guilt, and I guess sadness that he's growing so quickly.

Mine does 730-5 every day no issues

I don’t know any 3 year olds who don’t do at least 9-5 several days a week! They’re all totally fine.

My nearly 3.5 year olds are starting 3.5 full days as of tomorrow, because I am back to work in a couple of weeks. Until now they have only done 2 afternoons so it feels like a lot, but remember that lots of children are in nursery FT at 12 months!

DC does 8-6 four days a week at the same age (has done since 8mths). School will be 8-3 five days a week to start with and then we’ll add aftercare until 6pm for 4 days. He prefers to be around other children so it works but if yours isn’t as sociable keep an eye on him and reduce as needed.

Mine did 5 full days at that age. I was also on mat leave, then didn’t go back. But she loved being with her friends, they did way more in way of activities than I could with a baby to look after and it’s good prep for starting school.

DS did 8:30-5:30 two days a week and 9-4 on a third (third day term time only), which included football class, dance class and Spanish class one on each day, with forest school every afternoon he was there. He was with grandparents 9-5:30 another day and they're not the sitting at home type. Plus gymnastics and swimming. We're also out most weekends. He's fine. He's about to start school and I have no concerns at all.

I felt no guilt continuing to send DC1 two days a week from 8am - 6pm while I was on maternity leave. Not feeling any guilt sending her for a third full day from tomorrow, even though I'm not working. It'll just be me and DC2, and it's going to be great.

She's been going since she was 13 months old and loves it there. It's great for her social skills, and they do far more activities and messy play than I do. Besides, I needed that one to one time with DC2. DC1 had me all to herself 24/7 for 2.5 years. It only felt fair to try to give some one to one time to DC2 while I could.

My almost 9 month old does longer than that at nursery and he goes 5 days a week.

He'll be absolutely fine.

My 3 year old started nursery 3 weeks ago and does 8-1, Mon-Fri.

Majority of our 3 year olds do full school days. Very few only do 15 hours, and of those who do its often over 2 and a half days rather than 5x am/pm.
Nursery/preschool are so play based, it's good fun!

Instead of feeling the guilt about them doing the extra time, think of it that your baby gets some one on one time that second DCs often don't have!

Ahh it seems that he'll still be doing less than the majority his age then, which is reassuring I guess. He is sociable, but can be very sensitive. But as you mentioned @Dyra , I am needing the time with my 2nd born too, as my first had a lot of 1:1 with me, especially as he was a lockdown baby, so it only seems fair to have some valuable time with our baby too. Thanks everyone.