Morning vs afternoon preschool

[katy1310]

Hello

Just after some opinions really. I can't decide whether to put Sophie down for mornings or afternoons when she starts preschool. I have been making some lists of pros/cons for each.

Mornings - pros:

Gets us up and moving nice and early
Gets us used to the morning routine for school
She'd be home around 12 and we'd have the whole rest of the day to do things together
FIL can help with getting her to and from pre-school 2 mornings out of 3

Mornings - cons:

Sophie can be slow in the mornings, pottering with her toys and doesn't like to be rushed and it's nice to have that time when she doesn't HAVE to be rushing for school
She totally hibernates in the winter and doesn't even get up till 9 sometimes on the cold dark days - I know she'll have to when school time comes but right now it's not compulsory and I feel it's a shame to force it
The session is an hour longer and I'm really dreading her going at all - it's DH who is pushing for her to go

Afternoons - pros:

It's only 2 hours, we'd have till 12.45pm to do things and she'd be home by 3.15 so we could still do things
It might not feel as "school routiney"
The sessions are quieter and apparently really lovely (according to another mum)


Afternoons - cons:

I might feel like I'm hanging around all morning waiting for pre-school then by the time she's back home again, that's the day gone
We would probably continue to be slow in the mornings so we'd end up just losing our days altogether
Problems with transport - FIL works in the afternoons and there are no buses at the right times, and it's 2 miles so quite far to walk, although do-able.

I think at the moment I'm leaning towards mornings - the big thing that's kind of putting me off though is the thought of the early school-y routine when I feel like she's still little and shouldn't be worrying about things like that till she absolutely has to! But then it would get us moving and as it is, we never do much in the mornings, it's usually lunchtime till we are getting round to doing anything and I guess I could at least use the time in the mornings to clean and get everything organised so I could devote the afternoons entirely to her, rather than trying to fit in cleaning when she's here, and feeling guilty for not playing all the time!

I would appreciate any opinions - thank you

 

[_Vicky_]

Mornings for me 100% - but then I and my boys are morning people I used to be out walking the dogs at 6.30am pre children lol so probably not the beat person to ask.

Are you doing every day? If not then a few mornings would give her slow and fast days? Or if you are going every day then can you mix it up? X

 

[seoj]

I was pondering the same with my LO starting day care in July. Just two days a week (1/2 days)- but her nap time made that decision easy. LOL. As I can either take her when I leave for work- and MIL will pick her up at 11:30 (right before nap) or drop her off at 12 and pick her up on my way home from work... obviously I don't want to drop her off right at her nap time. So mornings it is!

Personally, I would pick mornings also- just so the day get's started off with a routine, and isn't broken up so much- if that makes sense. Then you get her and have the rest of the day to do stuff Plus, although I understand your concern about getting ready in the am and what not- I think, for me too, we will get into a good routine and just prepares them earlier on for that change in the future. But it's just a few days to start. Just my two cents though.

 

[Natsku]

I would pick afternoons because me and Maria are really not morning people but I think mornings are probably the better option when I think about it (laziness wins with me though!)

 

[katy1310]

I would pick afternoons because me and Maria are really not morning people but I think mornings are probably the better option when I think about it (laziness wins with me though!)

We are totally not morning people either - my instinct says pick afternoons but then mornings would give me a kick up the bum to get moving and then we could actually do something constructive in the afternoons! I can just imagine us continuing to be really slow in the mornings, doing nothing much, showers late, lunch, preschool and all of a sudden it's 3.30 and where has the day gone?! I think afternoons would work well for me if we lived really near the school and if I could guarantee myself to get up really early!

DH wants her to eventually go 4 mornings/afternoons a week but we will start off slow and build up to that over quite a while. If I had my way I'd probably leave it at 2-3 just to get her used to being away from me and used to the school atmosphere etc xx

 

[louandivy]

I def recommend mornings - Ivy goes two afternoons a week and it is kind of a nightmare, its impossible to get her to nap properly before a session but she often gets so tired just after lunch, plus its harder to do activities in the morning!

 

[Nats21]

We picked mornings for Callums school nursery and luckily got them, hes due to start september. I just thought it'd be easier as we'd have the rest of the day to do what we liked and not have to rush back from something cos nursery was due to start. Also even though he doesn't nap in the day anymore he will occasionally still have one and if hes tired after nursery then the morning session means he can still have a nap if needed. Plus he'd be more alert for the morning session whereas in the afternoon he may be more tired xx

 

[Jchihuahua]

I chose mornings for Daisy and it works well for us. I didn't want afternoons at all.

 

[Jade--x]

Me and my LOs are not morning people either so my preference would normally be afternoons, but my LO starts school in September and my other LO starts nursery so I've chose mornings because I'm going to have to be up, ready and out to take my oldest anyway and it saves me having to make 4 trips a day.

 

[x Michelle x]

I'd pick mornings but we are morning people and do most of our activity in the mornings, it fits in well around her brothers nap.
Tabitha is starting at play group one morning a week next month, then we will be slowly building up to 5 mornings once her funding kicks in next year. As much as I'm looking forward to it, for her to have some more interaction with others and for me and her brother to get some alone time I'm dreading it at the same time!
I mean I am more than happy for her granny, auntie, my friend to have her for a morning, afternoon and they even spend a night away a month at my parents but it just seems different going to an actual group on her own lol!
On a side note, I think you should attach a camera to her when she does go cos I can only imagine the amount of hilarious things she will say to the other kids lol!

 

[aimee-lou]

Any ability for her to stay all day? Earl hated doing mornings/afternoons as it meant leaving his friends or only getting a short amount of time to play. He'd been used to going to a CM for 8-10 hours a day so going 9-3 with a lunch box suits him brilliantly. He only does 2 days a week too, so we get the rest of the week to be completely lazy lol

If i had to choose though I'd go for mornings but only for 3 days a week. It's not compulsory at the moment, so sending him full time really makes no sense to me as he's not even 4 yet and has a whole year until he starts school...may as well make the most of it!

 

[babydevil1989]

We are really not morning people but chose mornings for toby as it means he finishes at 12 twice a week so we have the whole afternoon together.
Xx

 

[RedRose]

We chose mornings because Lily gets tired in the afternoon. I think that you should go for afternoons to start with as it sounds like it would suit Sophie better. If you find it's not working as well as you'd like then I'm sure you can switch it to mornings or a couple of full days in the next term

 

[katy1310]

Thank you for all the replies.

Aimee-Lou - I'm not really keen to send her for full days at all, because she's never been away from me at all really, apart from an afternoon with her grandparents here and there (which feels so different from sending her away to preschool ) I don't want to send her at all, it's DH who is insisting. I want to enjoy our time together before education is compulsory! I do take her to groups and she does ballet, so she has interaction with other children.

I know pre school will be good for both of us, to get us used to being apart before proper school starts, and not be straight in at the deep end, but I would much rather she just did a couple of afternoons I think. DH is saying that "four days is what we agreed" but I don't remember agreeing to that! I wish I could convince him that a couple of afternoon sessions would be fine and that plenty other people do that....

DH doesn't work Mondays so I'd be happy for her to do Monday afternoon so we could do the food shop without her getting bored, then Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons and that would feel enough.

I don't honestly think I'm ready to do mornings and the whole schooly routine before we have to but I know that would get it out of the way and give us the afternoons free...I really just don't know.

I definitely like the idea of attaching a video camera to her so I can see what Sophie-isms she comes out with!

I'm just not ready for her to go at all

I'm also stressing about how to get her there if we did the afternoons (FIL can only help in the mornings) because there's no way she could walk two miles each way without being carried half the time - would the buggy still be acceptable for taking her to preschool even at 3.5? If it was only a couple of afternoons, my parents would help but I don't want to tie them down to every day when they're retired and meant to be doing things for themselves by this point!

I think if I had a car, the afternoon sessions would be the obvious choice for us but it's the thought of how to get there and back without taking up half the day!

She already goes to playgroup there on Friday afternoons 1-3 but I'm with her for that.

x

 

[katy1310]

We chose mornings because Lily gets tired in the afternoon. I think that you should go for afternoons to start with as it sounds like it would suit Sophie better. If you find it's not working as well as you'd like then I'm sure you can switch it to mornings or a couple of full days in the next term

Ooh are you allowed to switch if you find it's not working?

I do think afternoons would suit Sophie a lot better. I just wish I had a way of getting her quickly there and back so it didn't take up the entire day. x

 

[katy1310]

Oh and the other thing is, I am wanting to try to train to be a primary school teacher (even though I'm 37 - hope it's not too late!) and the head teacher has said I can go and help in some of the classrooms to get some experience, so perhaps if I put Sophie in the afternoon sessions, I could spend the time in a class in the big school rather than trailing back home in between and that would work in nicely? I really would love her just to do 3 afternoons, it's just getting DH to see that it would be ok that's the issue! He already wanted her to start after Easter as soon as she turned 3 (she was 3 in March) but I managed to talk him out of that because I felt it was far too soon - she was 13 weeks premature and I already had to hand her over to other people to look after her for the first 3 months of her life, and I just wasn't ready to hand her over again when she wasn't even meant to be 3 till the middle of June!

 

[AP]

We picked afternoons for the first year and moving to mornings for the second. It's only because her support worker is moving to mornings but the pro is that she might be ready from school. (we will probably defer her for a year though )

 

[Rachel_C]

We're not morning people at all but LO goes to the morning sessions at nursery, 5 days a week (no option to do fewer days). It has worked out really well - it is sometimes a pain to get up early enough but I make sure we all wake up around 7am and we only have to leave at 8.40am so it gives the kids (and me!) plenty of time to be sleepily stumbling around. When LO gets home at 12, we have lunch and then we have the rest of the day free which is lovely. At the weekend, we do so much less because we laze around all morning, then start getting up and by the time we're actually ready to go anywhere it's nap time for my youngest! We used to be like that every day so nursery has really helped energise us.

I was worried about how LO would cope with suddenly having to wake up early as both of the kids used to sleep till 9-10am every day. I planned to slowly start getting her up earlier but she was ill so spent a lot of time in bed the week before she started, but she was still fine when we suddenly started 7am wake ups.

 

[special_kala]

We do mornings.

I think its all good practice for school which will come around very quickly and i would feel really limited in what we could do in the day if i had to think River starts preschool later today iykwim.

 

[special_kala]

River only does 3 days a week 9-1. She will only start doing 5 days when she has to start school next september.

The pushchair thing is completely up to you, dont worry about people judging you for using a buggy, thats a long walk for a little person especially as pre school will knacker her out too.