preschool dilemma - 4 or 5 days a week?

[snoopy5386]

I'm debating what to do with DD1's preschool in the fall and I need some help.
She'll be 4.5 this fall, is very outgoing, very extroverted. We basically do something with friends on a daily basis right now. In the fall she'll be attending two preschool programs. The 1st one is Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:45-3:15 pm at a local nature center. She attended this program last year one day a week and they are now expanding it to turn it in to a preschool. It is really a wonderful program and we love it. The only con is that it is 30 mins away which is a lot of travel and time away from home for my new baby and that is why we're not doing this program more than 2 days a week.

The other school is a local, play based preschool - she would attend in the afternoons from 12-3. They have a M/W/F program and a T/TH program or children can attend all 5 days. Right now I have her signed up for 2 days - Monday and Friday (I asked if I could do only two days of the M/W/F program and they agreed but asked if it could be M/F and I agreed). I'm on the fence as to whether or not to keep her schedule as is -
Monday - local preschool
Tuesday - nature preschool
Wednesday - off
Thursday - nature preschool
Friday - local preschool

or to put her in the local preschool on Wednesdays as well and have her in school all 5 days. My thinking is if she is only there 2 of the 3 days she'll miss out on some continuity aspects of the school, if she is there all 3 days then that won't be a problem. I had only wanted to do 2 days at each school to have 1 day off a week to do fun things with her and get a chance to see other friends that she wouldn't get much of a chance to see once she is in school. But I looked at the school schedule and she'll end up having off on a Monday or Friday at least 2 or 3 times a month every month (they follow the public school schedule) so we'd have those times to do fun/special things and I could always just choose not to send her 1 day a week some weeks if I felt like it. The other issue is cost - the price difference between 2 and 3 days is $37 a month or $370 a year, which we could afford....and it ends up being an additional 36 days of school - no holidays the whole year on Wednesdays.
I'm going to talk to DH about it tonight but I wanted other opinions.

[pbjmama]

I would send her 5 days for sure, the holidays really add up, especially in the fall.

[snoopy5386]

I talked to DH and I think we are going to do the 5 days, but I would love other opinions.

[ThisCat]

5 days. Having Wednesday off might make for sort of a disjointed week. Also, she might not be too happy if she gets wind of the fact that the other kids are there on Wednesday. I know my super extroverted DD would be upset. Come to think of it, maybe you could ask your DD what she wants to do.

[eepster]

When DS only went to school 3 days a week, I loved having a couple of plain old weekdays to go out and do stuff when it wasn't crowded. I loved going to places like the local zoo when all the older kids were in school and it was just a few moms with little ones, instead of the hordes that are there on weekends and school holidays. If you would be able to get out and do stuff on those wednesdays, then they can be really fun.

[tbone_kneegrabber]

5 days. You can always decide to keep her home one day and do something if its a non-holiday week.

Ds's school is not open on Thursdays due to a scheduling conflict with the building it is in. Fridays are tough on everyone, kids, parents, and teachers, that one random day off really makes for Friday being another Monday.

Even for the kids who only go 3 days a week, its like they know that there was a break or something, I dunno maybe its different because the teachers are off too.

[ThisCat]

Originally Posted by tbone_kneegrabber

You can always decide to keep her home one day and do something if its a non-holiday week

Yes, exactly. This is what the director at my daughter's preschool told me when I was sort of lamenting the fact that my daughter was going to be gone all week at school. She was like "Hon,you can just keep her home sometimes. You don't need a note or anything."