Ugh, preschool, vomit. I really don't know what to think about it now. When I was working, it was not an option. Anna went to a really great place every day; a feeder to all the "best" schools. She was set and I didn't have to worry about anything. However, it was also $1600 a month. Well okay, $1450 in the toddler room. (Plus all these crappy donations and fundraisers all the time.) Since my job was paying that tuition, once I quit working I pulled her out. Also, that's why I quit working, to spend time with her.
So things have been going really well with us hanging out. I have a membership to the LA Zoo, Aquarium of the Pacific and a Disneyland annual pass. If we're not at one of the three aforementioned places, we go to the beach or a park. I try to teach her about life when we're out and when we're home. But I've been thinking about how Anna might need socialization or something like that and I've decided to look into preschools with the intent of her starting in the fall when she's 3.
Except I really don't know how I feel about it. First of all, most of the half time programs (which are the more affordable ones and that definitely matters to me) are from 9:00 to 12:30. We never get out of the house in time to be somewhere by 9:00 these days. Even though we still wake up between 6:30 and 7:00, the earliest we get out of the house is 10:00 and usually it's later. So that's one thing. I don't want to bring stress back into our mornings when I've finally gotten rid of it.
Then today I went to tour a program near our house. It's $500 a month for a 2 day program from 9:00 to 12:30. (Ugh.) The thing is, it was really unimpressive. They basically just have a bunch of toys and sure, they have "circle time" or whatever but it was pretty much just little kids playing together with toys under supervision. Anna gets that when we go to the park. We even bring sand toys and share them with other kids. Some days it works and some days it's more of a challenge but we're working on social skills a lot this way.
So if I don't go with a mellow daycare vibe place like the one we toured today, there is the aggressive teaching type schools. I am pretty sure those would be more expensive and also, I don't know, doesn't Anna have so much time ahead of her for school work? Isn't it fun now to just be a kid? But then, ugh, I don't want her to be unprepared for Kindergarten and not do well there. I want the best for her but I don't know that that is. Any ideas? Wisdom?
