Is anyone else not yet planning on pre-school this year?

[RS317]

I know many people are planning to send their kiddos this fall. We had talked about doing it but DH got laid off last week (ugh) so it's definitely out for this year. I was a bit bummed as it related to pre-school because I had just found out about a Catholic pre-school not too far from us that still had room for 2 yr olds & would take them un-potty-trained!

Anyway...my SIL (dh's sis) is here & she home-schooled her children until grades 7 & 9. After speaking with her, I've decided to home-school preschool them for at least 1 yr; depending on how it & the employment front goes, we'll decide whether to do another yr at home or send them to preschool at age 3.

We also talked about socialization and how I could effectively do that with the activities offered by my local mom's group (it's a great group - with 2 planned playgroup activities every week in addition to moms posting times/places where they're doing lunch, parks, etc...with an open invitation to other members to join).

I just decided this earlier this evening & am only now delving into the research.

I was just wondering if anyone else was going to go down this path and if you might be willing to share how you're going to go about doing this.

[canuxican]

B... I am so sorry to hear about the layoff, I will pray that it will be short term. As far as preschool... there is really only one in my small town and they will not take them until they are totally toilet trained... which I think the boys will be ready when they are 20. We take them to a home daycare where they are doing preschool activities with them. We originally wanted to move them to another daycare, but there are only 4 kids there.. and half are ours. We will hold off until they are 3, that way they will be in preschool for 2 years before they enroll in kinder. I wish you all the best in homeschooling.

[Lisah+4]

Hi Bernadette, I am so sorry to hear you DH is laid off. Hopefully something comes through soon.

We aren't doing preschool in the fall. At this point T will be getting 5 hours a week of therapy and B will be getting an hour as well. They both take part in each. Then we do have some structured time, a local playgroup weekly and that will be it. When they turn 3 (February) T will go to preschool through school and since B will probably not be eligible she will do a program through our high school which is just a couple hours a day 3 days a week. The Sept. after they are 3 I will probably send B to a preschool program at a local church.

I admire you for homeschooling. I know a lot of people who have great experiences with it. I just know for me I am not patient enough

[Fran27]

Not here either... too expensive in the area and we couldn't justify it for this year as it's still pretty much unnecessary at this point. We're hoping that they will qualify for preschool through EI though.

Sorry for your dh, hope he finds something fast!

[cameron]

I would have loved to send mine 2 days a week to the preschool that Mason attended, but there's no way we could afford it. Tuition would have been almost $500 a month! So they're going to a church-sponsored mother's morning out program one morning a week. It's only $15 per child, per day, so that will only run us $120 a month. I know several people that have used this program, and everyone has raved about it. They may not "learn" as much as they wuld in a preschool, but they'll get the socialization and I'll get three blissful hours to myself each week!

[Leli476]

B, I am praying hard for you and your husband. Kasper just found a job after being off an entire year!!! That being said, we are so far in debt right now there is NO way we can afford a preschool right now. I don't know of any in the school district other than the Head Start program, and they won't take them until next year anyway. We don't even have a playgroup around here, so the socialization they will have to get later.

[Shannon]

Whoa...school already?! And the cost is that high?? That all sounds scary to me. My 2 would so not be ready for anything like that. I guess if you plan on having them in school it might be a good transition, but I didn't know it started at 2 years old! Man, my kids just started talking for goodness sake.

Although I guess it doesn't matter since I am homeschooling until highschool. (unless they ask otherwise when older).
Good for you guess having to make all of those hard choices. I don't think that I handle the stress.

[Chantelle]

I'm gathering that pre-school for you is like montessori over here - a more structured learning & child care environment. To me, I think being in the educational system from age 4 til at least age 17 - probably longer assuming they go to post-secondary - is school enough. Plus, montessori is stupid-expensive in my area, in the range of $50-60/day per child vs. $30-40/day for "regular" child care.

[RS317]

From what I've been told, our neighborhood Montessori tuition runs between 25-30k!

I checked into two MDO programs here & they came out to over $500/month for both. The regular pre-school programs are much more.

I actually started a thread about tuition last year:

http://forum.twinsmagazine.com/showt...hlight=tuition

One of the pre-school programs would run 11k/year for 2 children.

Chantelle - for the most part, I agree with you:

To me, I think being in the educational system from age 4 til at least age 17 - probably longer assuming they go to post-secondary - is school enough.

I do respect that other parents decide to send their children to pre-school earlier, though. We almost did simply because we thought it might encourage Sylvi's speech progress. But since that's off the grid now, we'll be starting more structured learning at home.

I'm just worried that I'm going to teach them bad habits or be pretty undisciplined myself. I am such not a "schedule" person so it's been a tough 2 yrs trying to maintain a daily schedule. I'm a "fly by the seat of your pants" kind of gal - making decisions on the fly, but that is also a reflection of my former career. It probably isn't very effective parenting, LOL.

I am trying to take cues from a former neighbor who didn't send their daughter to pre-school until 4 yrs old. She is a scary-bright 7 yr old now who had no problems whatsoever when she entered a pre-K program at 4. Her daily lessons at home? Just every day life: reading books, watching some videos, lots of chit-chat with all the adult neighbors, outings, age-appropriate activities, etc...

[Fran27]

I think they will learn plenty at home just playing really (as long as you help of course). I would have sent them if I had found something cheaper... I think that socialization is what they are lacking the most (but they're twins, so they are more advanced socially than singletons anyway). But Chris isn't ready anyway IMO, still too wary of strangers, it would have been a disaster.

The only thing really is that *I* would have loved the break, and the idea of having them home for another year scares me, lol. I just hope they will qualify for preschool through EI, but it's up in the air as they've had a language explosion in the last 2 months (still around 60 words though).

Here I haven't found much under $500 a month, it's crazy... the only cheaper programs have 8 spots or something, so I don't think they would even get in... if I can't find anything under that price we'll just have to wait until they're 4 (if I survive that long), then bite the bullet... I just don't believe that preschool is totally necessary, at least not to justify that price (wouldn't be a big deal if I could work in the meantime, but good luck finding a job for 2 hours twice or three time a week). But pre-kindergarten is important IMO (at least if you're not going to homeschool them,which I would totally suck at).

[RS317]

I know without a doubt that I could not seriously homeschool. My kids would learn NOTHING. I am more than willing to work with them now to help with the basics they'll need by pre-k but after that? Off to public school!

The more I've posted about this topic here & read all your responses, the more I believe that I've been reading too much into what my children should actually know at this point. My SIL thinks that except for Sylvi's speech delay, they are spot-on for their age. Another relative thinks they are "...way behind..." because they haven't been in school yet. I know that's ridiculous but it still raises my hackles & makes me 2nd-guess our decisions.

Oh...and I agree - having some "me" time would have been nice!

[armyranger'sgirl]

I am so sorry to hear your husband got laid off, that is so stressful!! Hopefully he will be able to find something else soon!

We don't even know what state we are going to be living in when fall gets here (let me tell you how old that is getting). So I can't even research programs and prices.

I agree with you and Chantelle though, they will get pleanty of school time in their lives, if you don't want to or don't have the money, no biggie!!! And it sounds like you get out and do stuff with out moms/kiddos so no need to stress about the social aspect!

That being said, I have wanted to start doing something a little more structured with them at home here too. I keep saying I am going to workout a few "lesson" plans and do something once a week or something along those lines, it just has not happened yet. My mom and mother-in-law always laugh at me when I talk about it though. They both tell me they did not do any "lessons" with me/my husband at this age and we both managed to graduate from college

Honestly I am with you and Fran, I want to send them to preschool more so I can have some "me" time!!

[eatcelery]

2 yr old preschool is about socialization and working as a group. You will be doing the same thing with your mom group so no worries other than that little break it would give you. That group sounds great. I have to get off my butt and join a group like that. Does Sylvi get EI? My kids get PT/OT thru EI and that teaches them a ton and not just about moving the ladies count and do other learning activities with them to keep their mind off their exercises/stretching. As for 'book' learning your kids will learn their letters and numbers when they are ready. You would be surprised that you may already have toys in the house teaching that stuff. I think Rose learned all her letters playing with the leap frog bus while Dan is not interested in letters but he likes to count. Everyone is different and they have 3 more yrs to learn it all. Like everything else all of a sudden they will just do it! I hope your husband has good luck finding a job soon.

[RS317]

Dina - interesting that you should mention that we may not even realize how much they are learning just from their toys. Rio can recognize most of the alphabet & has started sounding out words so I guess we're a lot further ahead that I could have even guessed. This is something I've really only just observed in the last week or so as I've become concerned that we're not going to be able to start pre-school after all. As Sylvi is still quite speech delayed, I'm not really sure what she's got stored upstairs just waiting to burst through but I suspect, quite a bit.

I definitely am feeling more confident that R & S won't be behind on what they learn over the next couple of years before pre-k/kinder.

Rio tested out of EI in July but Sylvi is still getting ST 2x/month and a DT visit 1x/month. I just hope that Sylvi's speech delay is simply her taking her time rather than something more serious.

[ncmommy2b]

We are sending them to preschool - but not really because we're worried about them learning to read at age two! Mostly because DH REALLY needs the break, and the boys are ready to do more activities and DH is not always patient with the painting/playdough messes!!!

I think Montessori preschool is the best for younger children because it doesn't push "learning", but it's crazy expensive so out for the boys.

I think what you're doing, coupled with your mom's group's stuff, should be absolutely fine!