Anyone else mourn the loss of preschool freedom?

[preschoo]

My eldest starts Reception at a UK private school in just over a month, and if I’m honest I’m not feeling excited at all.
What I’m struggling with isn’t the school itself, it’s what we’re losing. Until now we’ve had complete freedom to travel whenever we wanted, make the most of good weather, spend whole days outdoors and go on holiday in term time when everywhere was quieter and cheaper. We were outside for 4–5 hours most days, even in drizzle. The only thing that kept us indoors was torrential rain all day.
I know people often say, “She’ll make friends,” but that’s not really a factor for us. She’s already got plenty of friends and a very full social life, so school isn’t filling a gap in that sense.

I know she’ll enjoy school, but at the moment all I can think about is how tied we’ll be to school holidays for the next 13+ years. It feels like the end of a really lovely, flexible chapter of family life.
Did anyone else feel like this before their eldest started school? Did you eventually stop missing that freedom, or do you still think it’s one of the downsides of school life?

I’d especially like to hear from parents who genuinely loved the preschool years, rather than those who were counting down the days until school started.

It’s like all life stages - some pros, some cons.

I found the early years at (an excellent) primary school great. Lovely new wee friends who I became attached to with some nice parents who became friends, teachers children loved, seeing all my kids learn to read in weeks ( Christmas letter to Santa written by child for first time) and puffed with pride as teacher praised them on pick up, their joy in learning, birthday parties with lots of laughter and good chat with other parents , the rhythm of school life - the sports day, the Easter celebration and craft, Halloween, Christmas nativity and activities etc etc.

These are some of the best days of your life if you’re lucky.

It was nicer before, but youngest is now going into Y8 so not too long before I can holiday whenever. DS is home educated, so if DD wasn't at school we could do that now.

It still bugs me having to pay school holiday prices, going to attractions when it's busy and often missing the best part of summer (weather wise) in a classroom. However mine are thriving at school, so it's worth it. I also make use of inset days to do things. Private schools presumably have slightly longer holidays.

We both worked, although I was part time so the days of making the most if the weather and being outside were not my experience as even on my days off I was usually doing housework or catching up on other jobs and often, the weather wasn’t great. We looked forward to school as it was a reduction in childcare fees!

I feel the same, so worried about the loss of freedom and the joy of spontaneity. We have family abroad so travel for certain life events is non negotiable for us.
We are considering home school or maybe if the school stays undersubscribed, pulling our child out of school a month or so early for summer and then enrolling them for September again. We've already been thinking about splitting our time between countries anyway.
Not sure yet what we will do, a big factor will probably be how well she settles/enjoys school. But I don't love that our lives will be so dictated by the school schedule.