3.5 years - too young for playscheme?

[chocolatefudgebrownie]

I'm looking to send my 3.5 year old ds to a summer playscheme from 9-3pm x1 day per week. He is outgoing, but I'm worried he might feel intimidated by the older children. Anyone any experience of sending this age group to playscheme please?

I'm in France and my little one has been going to a playscheme one day a week since he was 3 and more often in the holidays when I have to work.

It works extremely well, here there is a very high ratio of adults to children, the children are split into two groups 3-6 and 6-11 and do activities relevant to their age, however, they are all in one building and share one garden so they play together regularly, and in the holidays all go on an outing together at least once a week.

It's worked amazingly well for both my DC's, their confidence has grown in huge leaps especially DS2 who is incredibly shy and they love their playscheme day. I say give it a go.

Has he been to a nursery or creche before?

i would check what the age splits are. If they have a pre-school section (e.g. age 3-5) then he should be ok. I looked at one for my DD but the age split was under 8s and over 8s. My 5 year old was just about ok, she did a couple of half days in feb half term, but DD2 (3.5) wouldn't have been ok.

He goes to pre school 4 mornings per week and loves it, so hoping he will like playscheme. Will check age splits though.

I didn't know there were play schemes for under school-age children, unless they were run by a pre school that the child already attended. Most I have seen have minimum age of 4.5. I personally wouldn't want my 3.5 yr old to go somewhere for a day where he wasn't familiar with the place or staff. Once they go to school, I think it is easier for them to cope with the newness and the boisterousness of older children.

CrouchingTigger, the one near me takes them from age 3.

this playscheme starts from 3 years too, it is also a preschool and after school club.

I think ds will be fine with older children and generally mixes with older children when we go out.

I'm just not sure about whether a full day would be too tiring for him as he is still quite young.

My children went to nursery from 8.30-5.00 at that age, and they were tired when they came home. One day a week would be fine from that pov though.
Like I said, I would be uneasy about a playscheme for children that young, especially if the age range is great. However, if it is being run by a pre-schoo, I would assume they would have separate stuff for the really small children, and maybe not that many older children would attend as it may not be set up for them as well as a school-based one.
Best of luck.

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