[beckington]

I'm signing up ds (4.5) for a preschool program at the local rec centre 3 times a week (2.5 hours a day). I can pick any 3 of the 5 days (assuming availability - registration opens tomorrow!). I'm trying to decide if I should send him Mon, Wed and Fri or Wed, Thurs and Fri (I'm trying to avoid Tuesday because that's a standard playdate day with a very close friend that can't be moved to another day). He hasn't had great experiences with this sort of thing so far - we pulled him out of part-time preschool last Sept after a few weeks because he hated it so much, and last week he was in an afternoon summer camp for a week that went OK overall, but drop-offs were difficult. Anyhow, I'm wondering if there's any advantage to one over the other. With alternating, it feels like he never has a chance to get used to being there, but because he's there pretty much every second day there's never a big gap when he doesn't go, plus if he's having a hard time at first it seems like it'd be easier for him to accept it knowing he doesn't have to go tomorrow. With back-to-back, he gets three mornings in a row to get into the rhythm, but then he has four days off to get into the rhythm of not going! Aarrghh! Which is better? Does it matter?

Thanks!!

 

[ChetMC]

I think that MWF and T&Th are pretty common part time schedules for preschool. If you diverge from that, your DS may end up being with a significantly different group of kids on different days. If you think he'd be more comfortable being with most of the same kids from day to day, I'd try to talk to one of the teachers and see what typical part time schedules are like there.

It's also possible the programming favours a particular part time schedule. At DD's preschool last year they celebrated events over two days. So kids wore their Halloween costumes on Thursday and Friday. I think that the yoga teacher came on Tuesday and Wednesday because most of the kids went MWF or T&Th The few kids who went full time just got some duplication with that stuff.

The program that we're looking into for this fall offers MWF for four year olds and T&Th for three year olds. There isn't any choice. I think you're fortunate to have the option.

 

[lightheart]

what is your weekends like?

if you have something already on Tues, even if it's a fun day for him, you are looking at having him do something like this...

U ???
M
T playdate
W preschool
R preschool
F preschool
S ???

U ???
M preschool
T playdate
W preschool
R
F preschool
S ???

If his weekends are normally full.. does he do beter being rested for something (day off Thurs) or does he do better having a day to recover (day off Mon).

Any reason you haven't considered having F off and sending him M,W,R? For our family schedule having a long weekend starting on F would be better than M because hubby gets more F off than M and if we were to go visit relatives out of town or a big fun filled weekend, the F would be better....

I undertand what you say about all together and getting out of the swing of things or every other, but feeling like there is no break... part of me says the big clump... but I don't know if those are my adult feelings pushing through looking at having a large chunck of time to accomplish things or to have a later bedtime and be able to sleep in and then get back into the routine...

 

[tbone]

Ds's school offers the same option, he is going to go Tues, Thurs, Fri.

I originally wanted him to to T, W, Th but the director of the school suggested changing Th to F b/c she said that in her experience, 4 days away at a time makes it harder for the child to fall back into the routine come Tues.

I specifically did not want Mon b/c that's usually the day kids are usually off for gov't holidays so I didn't want the tuition to be wasted. I would have preferred Fri off for long weekend trips, but we take so few of them (if at all) that it really doesn't matter.

 

[beckington]

Thanks for the replies! I can't believe how difficult this decision is - it's just that's it an unknown and I sooooooooo want this to work well for him.

There's no time to talk to any of the teachers - registration is tomorrow morning and it's a really popular program so I have to register asap. I was actually amazed that someone called me back yesterday when I called since they are so busy at this point. I should have called a few weeks ago.

Anyhow, the info I have is that a lot of kids go every day, so if that's the case it doesn't matter too much what days ds goes from a social point of view. Of course not all kids will go every day, but there's no way of knowing what pattern they will pick. I don't think I can worry about that at this point.

We could do Mon, Wed, Thurs so there isn't such a big chunk of time between preschool days. That would suit me better than alternating, because I'll be working from home when he's at preschool and I'd prefer not to work both Mon mornings and Fri mornings since it's always a pain getting hold of people on those days. I have very little work time so need to make it count! And then it'd be three days off - maybe better than four?

I've been discussing this with dh and we both think there's just no way of knowing what will suit ds best. My main concern is what will help him settle in the easiest, but honestly I have no idea what that is, so I might just go with what suits me best (M, W, Th). Of course I'm worried that this option is the weak third choice and it'll backfire on me horribly. Aaarrrggggh, the stress of it all!

:

 

[mommyoftwo]

My ds is done with prek and moving onto k this fall but we have done both schedules types. It didn't seem to really matter. I worried about this very issue.