The Value of Preschool?
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I'm having a hard time with trying to decide whether or not I should continue to send my children to preschool. I have a 2 year old and a 3-1/2 year old.
My kids both attend the same class on Monday mornings from 9-11:30 and the cost for both children combined is $135/month. It is a co-op program so I am required to supply play-doh each week, I'm doing their yearbook and once a month I have to supply the class with a snack and wash the snack dishes.
The class has open play time, sensory activities, circle time, themed weeks, gym time, crafts and snack.
Throughout the week we go to a class at our gym called Big Bird Club which is just open play and running around on various preschool toys like trucks, tumbling mats, balls etc. This is not a structured environment - just run around and burn off energy time. We can go 7 days a week from 10:45-12:00 cost for both children combined is $40/month but also includes swimming lessons if I choose to sign them up.
On Thursdays I attend a ladies group at my church and the children attend a child care class which is very similar to the Monday preschool program although slightly less structured; but they still do crafts, circle time, snack and gym time. They attend from 9-11:30 every week, the cost is $6/week for both children combined.
Starting in February we will be attending a Kindermusik class which is very expensive, I believe it's over $200 per child for 12 weeks, however, I believe in the value of the program and my mom sent me money to cover the cost for both children for Christmas.
Pros for preschool
Structured playtime
Socialization
Free time for me to relax or run errands without the kids
Good time for me to schedule doctors appointments etc.
Preparation for kindergarten
I know my oldest really enjoys it
Cons
Added expense to what we are already doing
Time that we can't do swimming lessons (although I could pick another day of the week but this adds up to the number of busy days per week)
I have to drive them downtown and pick them up, find parking etc.
My time investment in the class
I'm conflicted, some of my SAHM friends don't believe in preschool, one of whom is a teacher and has four kids. Her children appear to be just fine without attending preschool. She is actually our Kindermusik teacher as well. I have other friends who are so overly concerned about preschool they are willing to fore go their toddler's naps to have them in full day preschool so that they are prepared for junior kindergarten. Which seems ridiculous to me.
My biggest fear about giving up preschool is a completely selfish one, the time I have to myself on Monday mornings. However I know that there will come a day very soon where both my kids will be in school and I'm going to miss them. Argh! See my conflict. Oh and my 3-1/2 year old is very close to giving up nap time, he sleeps maybe once or twice a week so this can make for a very long day/week for me trying to keep him busy and entertained.
So help me sort this out. I'm open to ideas, criticism, what you do, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Also, just found out that we can't do swim lessons on Mondays. We can do them Tuesday mornings or Thursday afternoons so I have each child booked for one day. I feel like we are too busy and can't decide what is more important. I'm not willing to give up my Thursday mornings as it is a social group for me and an outlet, plus time away from my kids that I need.
If I left them in everything this is what our week would look like:
Monday mornings - preschool for both children
Tuesday mornings - 1 swim, 1 in child care
Wednesday - free day
Thursday mornings - both in structured child care
Thursday afternoons - 1 in swim class, 1 in childcare
Friday mornings - Kindermusik
Saturday mornings - Big Bird Club with Daddy
Sunday mornings - Sunday school
Wow I can see the tough decision. I think it sounds like your children are in many programs to get to socialize with other children, which to me is what preschool is pretty much for. They are also pretty young to worry about kindergarten prep, imho. Can you back out of the preschool for a while to see how it goes without losing their spot? And then maybe they can go back later after the kindermusik is over or even later if it isn't missed? I don't think it's selfish for you to want that Monday time, so that would be a tough choioce.
Mine are 8,7 and 4. I've primarily been a sahm, but we never really did much as far as organized activities due to a limited budget and limited offerings where we live. My older 2 went to pre-k at the school they attend now, it's with the elementary school. My youngest will go in Sept. I felt weird about it at first since it's not mandatory but I'm glad I did. All that no child left behind crap kicked in and has made kindergarten more school work than play. It transformed the year my ds began kindergarten. My youngest now attends childcare while I go to college and it's primarily free play but they do crafts and songs and things.
I hope you're able to work something out. 
It's been a LOT of years ago , but here's my two cents: a lot depends on the preschool your child attends, but ours was an educational facility and my children learned so incredibly much that I was floored! I had always worked with our little ones from the time they could focus on a book, but those little sponges of mine soaked up so much in preschool that I have become an advocate....particularly of that school. Again, it depends a lot on the school's qualities.
Ours even had a swimming program in the summer.
I had one that went to preschool and one that didn't. Sarah's kindergarten teacher, could tell, those first few months, that Sarah hadn't gone to preschool, but by the time we had our first parent-teacher conference in November, she was fitting right in. She certainly knew all that kindergarten stuff, but hadn't had a lot of practice in a classroom setting.
My parents thought shy little Emily, needed more socialization, so they paid for Emily to go the preschool at the church across the street from us. She loved it and thought that 2 hours/3 days a week wasn't enough! She always felt like she'd just gotten there and it was time to go home. (It seemed like enough time for me, though!)
Also, we would go to open workouts, at the YMCA gymnastics center twice a week, for them to run their energy off. I loved going with my girlfriend and the kids all loved playing there. It was just a drop-in thing, so we didn't HAVE to go. It was something we did, WITH the kids. I was kind of sad, when Emily started school and we couldn't go anymore.
If you dropped the preschool, they are in plenty of other activities to get socialized and stuff, plus the time spent with you at home, reading books and playing, is valuable, too.
I had one child that didn't go to preschool and two that did. Since then, I've become a PS teacher and here's my two cents. Given your dks' ages and the activities they are already involved in, I think preschool is mostly unnecessary. They are getting plenty of socialization and group instruction in their other activities. I do think most kids do well in a preschool setting a few days a week in the year before kindy since kindy is what first grade was when we were in school. So my opinion is that you can easily pull them from this program for at least the rest of this year and your oldest might benefit from a two, three or five day per week program next school year before beginning formal schooling when she's five. HTH
Thanks for the input ladies, looking at my list helped me realize that we probably don't need the preschool. I do feel a lot of socialital (sp?) pressure for some reason to keep them in. I guess because most of my friends are SAHMs and have their kids in preschool at least 2 days a week as well as other activities.
Tink, where we live junior kindergarten starts at 4 years. My oldest will be 4 in March so he will start in September. We do 2 full days with every other Friday through in. I think I'll take them out. There is so much time between May when they stop preschool and September when they start school that the extra time in preschool probably won't make that much difference. I might put the oldest into a summer program just so that the transistion to school is not so difficult.
The only real benefit to preschool that you have not already duplicated is the opportunity for your child to explore without mom's watchful eye. Preschool can make it easier for a child to accept the authority of another adult and feel more "grown up".
I am a teacher and my two attend(ed) preschool. It was beneficial for us.
Ame
I note that you list Wednesday as a "free day". I'm wondering if maybe you and your children would benefit from some more "free" time - time for them to be unstructured, time for you to be with them without a structured activity. My oldest son started "school" at age 3, full day, because he was diagnosed as pre-autistic and this was a therapeutic program. The two younger boys were in "nursery school", which I guess is now "pre-school", which was a half-day 5 day a week program, because I felt they needed the socialization. They started at age 3-1/2, and went from there to kindergarten. But the rest of the days were "free", as were the weekends, and they played in the house and yard with each other and in the back yard with neighbor kids.
I worry about kids today, with, as Tink notes, kindergarten being the new first grade, and all the demands we and our society in general are making on our children. I wonder whether they have enough time to be children, to be unstructured, to imagine and dream, to climb a tree and just sit on a branch and watch the sky and leaves and birds - to just "hang loose".
Ginny I agree, it's a tough call. Up until 3-1/2 years ago I worked a 60 hour work week and traveled all over the country. I had an interesting demanding job. Once I gave birth it was full stop. Now I work a lot more hours LOL but it is difficult for me to stay still for long periods of time. My DH works long hours and is often away on business. I find if I stay at home too much I go stir crazy and the kids do as well because they are used to being busy all the time.
I remember when I was young life was a lot more carefree and there was tons of unstructured time. Today there are a lot more demands on children and there are pros and cons to being busy and structured. I don't have all the answers but I do think we need to put the brakes on some of the activities.
Ame, on Thursdays my kids attend a preschool-like class with other adult supervision at the church group we attend. I am in the building but in a class of my own. They know that I am there however, they do have to listen and are expected to participate in their own class without me. If they are misbehaving or having an off day the teacher will come and get me but that's rare. The Thursday class almost duplicates the preschool but I would say from an educational perspective it is a bit loser and not as themematically structured. Also, my oldest child will attend the kindermusik class on his own as he will be in a different level than my 2 year old and I can't do both at the same time. I'm looking forward to participating in an activity with my 2 year old; I've done plenty one-on-one with my oldest child but nothing with my youngest. So now my youngest and I will have kindermusik and swim time together and my oldest and I will have swim time together.
I guess it really depends on your family and child's needs. For us it has been a godsend to have Kaitlyn in preschool, though she didn't go until 4. It really is a great preparation for Kindergarten and she almost needs the academic stimulation to keep from getting bored. I've worked a lot with her at home prior to school so she is ahead of most of her classmates but there are other things that I would have never even considered teaching her in preparation for Kindergarten. It's nice to have to back up of another person who is certified in ECE to help me teach Kaitlyn and let me know what we can work on at home.
The biggest things that surprised me at our parent/teacher conference a few weeks ago would be that her teacher started a "portrait of me" at the beginning of the school year and the kids do a new one each month. They learn about body parts in school and they have lessons incorporated into it. In August Kaitlyn's portrait consisted of the stick figure with the arms and legs coming out of his head and basic features like eyes, nose and mouth. I was able to see the progression of her portrait over the last few months and in December her portrait had changed so much. There was now a body and fingers and toes. The face has eyebrows and eyelashes and ears. In her portrait she was wearing a vest (they had learned about scarecrows the week before) with buttons. It was such a neat transformation to see. I was also able to see the different stages of writing and identify which stage Kaitlyn is currently in. She is past her classmates in letter recognition so in order to keep her from getting bored her teacher and I are now worked on sight words for Kindergarten.
Besides the academic reasons, it has helped us as home too. She is sharing better, listening better and I think the time away from "Mom" is so beneficial to her right now. It gives her a sense of self and really gives her a self esteem boost getting to be a "big kid".
I'm an advocate of preschool mainly because of what i've witnessed with my own child although I do know that every situation and every family is different. I just thought i'd share my positive experience having Kaitlyn in preschool.
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