Toddler Preschool Question

[lactatinggirl]

I go to school part-time and have a 25 month old. For the last year, she's been staying with her grandparents (rotating between my in-laws and my parents) while I'm in class 3 days a week, two of which I'm out by 1 and one I'm out a couple hours later (lab). This works out well (free!), but I know she's not getting as much educational stuff as she used to when I was home all the time. We used to go to story time at the library and the interactive museum and stuff like that. I know they try to teach her stuff at their houses, but I just feel like she could be getting more. It may be silly to even worry abou it at this age. I just don't know. I mean, she already knows 20 of her letters of the alphabet by site and can almost count to ten which is good for a 2 year old, but I feel like she gets used to get more interaction and new experiences when I was home with her. I also know she's getting too much TV time. We've also been having some issues with her not getting down for a nap soon enough and it messes up all the rest of the days of the week, so now she's napping at 1:30 (at the earliest) when she used to nap at 11:30. Some days she's not napping at all!

So we were planning on putting her into the preschool on my campus in the fall. She'll be old enough by then and it's a great preschool. I'm also thinking the nap thing will be easier if she's in the preschool because they do it at the same time every day and I could just follow along with that time when she's not in the preschool. I've visited the place multiple times and I'm loving it. I also love the idea of her being on campus with me (and not having to drive her so far to drop her off at her grandparents!). It's kind of spendy ($60/week for 20-23 hours a week which is the minimum). 

Then comes the fact that we're TTC. Theoretically if I get pregnant soon, I would deliver during spring semester. That means that I wouldn't go to school spring semester. Then for the year after I deliver, I have my schedule planned out so I can take online classes only for the next 2-3 semesters. So if I get pregnant within the next few months, DD would only be in the preschool for one semester. Is it even worth it at that point? Would it be traumatizing to her to get her used to the new situation and then pull her back out of it? Maybe the learning that she'd get in comparison to grandparents would be worth it? 

What would you do in this situation? 

[transylvania_mom]

Personally, I'm all for child care provided by family or grandparents. At this age, kids learn by watching adults cook, doing errands and interact. They don't need educational stuff. This comes from my experience of having two kids and also as a teacher.

At this age my ds dropped his naps. My dd is only 18 months, but 6 months ago I had to put her down for her nap at 11 am at the latest, and now she wouldn't sleep before 1 pm, so I think this is natural progression towards dropping her nap.

Is the preschool full-time? If it's only part time, a couple of days a week, I would try it. If not, let her enjoy her time with her grandparents. Pretty soon she'll be in school the whole day.

The only think I would worry about would be the TV thing. Have you tried talking to the grandparents about it?

[lactatinggirl]

The problem with the naps is that she's so unhappy when she naps really late. Then again, she was very unhappy when she dropped her second nap too. 

The preschool would be Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for about 4 hours. 

As for the TV, I've talked to them about it before. I don't know how to go about it at this point. She's not watching constant TV or anything, but it's more than she'd get at home, that's for sure.