Using 2 nurseries to cover full time childcare?

[Monstermuncher]

Hi - I'm looking for some advice please. I have been working part time hours (3 days per week) and my son went to nursery those days each week. I now need to work increased hours, is full time hours 5 days per week. My nursery is very popular and has a massive waiting list for places so getting the extra 2 days cover would not be possible. I want to keep his place at nursery as it feeds into what will be his primary school so my only option would be to use a different nursery for the other 2 days. Has anyone else done this? Does it work or does your child get totally confused by it all?

Sounds OK to me. Similar to 2 days at school (15 hrs for post 3s, spread over 2 school days) and 3 days at nursery which my 4 yr old does (and did from 3.5).
You don't say how old your child is, but I'd go for it, but go on the waiting list for current nursery for those 2 days a week.

I had a variety of childcare. I had a childminder, 2 preschools on different days and my MIL regularly caring for the kids. Was a nightmare to remember exactly where each child was and I did occasionally turn up at the wrong place to collect, but my older 2 DC's are both fantastically confident and happy. I'm sure it would be absolutely fine.

Thanks for your replies and reassurance! It is going to be a bit of a logistics challenge to say the least, but thankfully it wont be for too long as he will be at school next year

One preschool actually had a specific form to complete for children who were split setting to share progress and targets between preschools / childminders. It must be reasonably common if that is the case :-)

Thanks Gintastic that's good to know

Consider a CM for the extra days too-My DD goes to a childminder 3 days a week and has just started at nursery for the other 2 days, as I also went from pt to ft hours. I think 5 days at 2 different nurseries would be very tiring tbh

Hi Monster. My dd goes to 2 nurseries for various reasons which I won't go into now. She prefers one off the nurseries more than the other (so do I) but is settled in both. I'm very happy with my decision. I don't think she is disadvantaged in any way. In fact probably the opposite as her week it's more varied and she sees more friends. She copies well with the slightly different pace and routine in the 2 nurseries. I hope this helps.

We used 2 nurseries when we moved house as the new one didn't have space for my DS for the 4 days a week i wanted. Thankfully they were both within easy driving distance.

DS started off with the one day they could offer and i took up the extra days as places came up. This was over a 2 years period and it was when he was aged 1½-3½ years old.

*of, not off.

I would try and do a cm and nursery if you can

2 nurseries is a lot of other children and carers to get to know. A childminder for the other days would probably be less full on.

I did something similar with my dd a few years ago.
One nursery was privately run and smaller, but they got more 1 to 1 attention and felt more like a family environment. The other was a nursery school, much bigger and rated outstanding by Ofsted, the structure of the day helped dd get used to the idea of primary school. It worked out fine for us as dd got the best of both, and the staff visited each other's nurseries which was really nice. Dd did prefer the first nursery as she had been there since 1 and joined the second nursery the year after, but she settled fine.
We did consecutive days at each nursery so dd knew where she was going on certain days. Also if one nursery was closed for some reason such as staff training the other one would be flexible enough to cover childcare which was really handy!