Our 2.5 year old goes to CMS 4 days a week for 10 hours each day (40 hours a week). Free 15 hours of pre-school nursery care is offered from 3 years but this means either
a) a change of CM to one that lives nearer to us and can drop off/collect from either of our two local nurseries (one of which does not get a good Ofsted report though attached Primary School is good, the other gets good report and also offers full time care)
or
b) 40 hours a week in the second nursery a bit further away from us but also fairly local which gets good Ofsted report but also sates that the children have much lower than average level of skills, knowledge and behaviour than the average 3 year old.
We obviously have to pay for the other 25 hours we need anyway. I am not at all interested in saving money if this means uprooting child from wonderful CM where she is very happy (has been there since she was 9 months old) and neither do I want our child in a nursery for 40 hours a week so a) would really be the only option but this is two new starts (new pre-school and new CM). Current CM does not drive and lives 3 miles form us. The nursery near our CM has poor Ofsted report and is also 4 miles from us and linked to Primary School (does not offer full time care) so doubt we?d get a place there due to the distance from our home. Current CM attends 2 playgroups per week plus one soft play and gym session once a fortnight, has two primary school aged children of her own who are there before/after school plus minds baby and boy 6 months younger than my daughter so my child is getting interaction on daily basis with other children.
Is it worth getting new CM and using local nursery? I am not against nursery altogether, but feel 15 hours a week would be plenty and do not want to use a nursery for 40 hours a week for various reasons not least that daughter is already exhausted every weekend and naps for 3 hours Saturday and Sunday as it is without adding new nursery + new CM or full time nursery care into the mix?
CM seems v keen on nursery for our child even though it would almost certainly mean her losing our child to another CM or full time care. Feel terribly old fashioned in my views but I feel anxious and pressured into accepting this is what everyone else does, even though I don?t feel it is necessary or appropriate for my child. Didn?t go to nursery myself but loved school from day one and could already ready/write before I started. Our child can count to 6 and can already recognise letters and some words and she is only 2.5. She is already playing nicely with other kids at playgroup and at CMs etc so I cannot see any benefit, only the downsides of several new starts at once, large class size, early exposure to peer pressure and consumerism to name a few but it seems my views are considered to be old fashioned. WWYD? Please help!!
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Is Pre-school nursery bettre than CM?
11 replies
gourd · 11/03/2013 15:02
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