Preschool Vs. Mother's Day Out

I am going to throw out a bit of a different opinion here. I have never sent any of my children to preschool, nor do I intend to. I feel like for my family, the more learing they do at home, the better off they will be. I do set up play time with other friends,etc..and I work on all of those things with my children that they "learn" at preschool. I want to be in charge of teaching my children how to socialize, not a room full of other kids. I still struggle when it comes time to send my 5 year olds to spend more time at school than they do at home:) Call me one of those moms, but really, for my family, preschool has not been worth the money. They do go to the gym day care for a few hours a week, so they do get out a bit, but again, this is just me throwing out my own opinion, hopefully not to the offense of others. Sometimes I just worry that we spend so much time pushing our kids to grow up, and then one day, we are sad because they did in fact grow up, and we feel like we missed too much of it. HTH ~A.~

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Hi K.-

Your children were the same age as my son was when I was trying to figure this out (August birthday). I opted for preschool and am happy I did, although I chose a 2-day a week program that was 8am-2pm and I feel in the begining it was a bit much for my little guy. My son was just potty trained before the school year started and the pressure of having to stay dry, eat lunch at school etc...was a lot to handle. He is doing great now though and I think it forced him to be a bit more on his own. Good luck!

Having used both, I would say MDO for now. It will provide just enough socialization and perhaps a little learning, and it will give you a little time without them - and vice versa! It is nice to have those breaks, but I think not as necessary that they are really formally learning anything at this point. Honestly, one year of preschool is enough to get your children ready for kindergarten, and if you decide to delay school entry, you could also delay preschool. Good luck - how fun to have twins!

Both of my little ones went to preschool at 3 - it was very beneficial. My oldest knew his shapes, colors, letters, basic SOP of school - before he started PreK. My 3 year old is following in his footsteps.

You say your kids have any August birthday. Have you thought about if they will start Kindergarten at 5 or will you hold them back a year. If you start them at 5, they will be the youngest in the class. If you do plan on sending them at 5, then start them in preschool, they will need it. If you plan on holding them back until they are 6, then I would also think they do not need preschool at this age.

K.,
This is just my opinion, please don't take offense to it, it's not meant to be... with that being said, I think if you can keep your kids with you at home and enjoy them as much as possible, they grow up too fast and you don't get this time back.
I would have loved to be a SAHM but I've had to work. I have 3 kids, 13, 11, and 2. My older two did go to preschool/daycare, the school was called "preschool". My daughter the oldest did learn a lot and I thought my son was learning that too. However, when he started kindergarten and I found out he didn't know his ABC by letter, he could say it and could identify a few letters but not all. I was so devastated. He's always been a really tall kid and I thought he was going to fail and look like a big dumb kid. I worked very hard with him the first 9 weeks, and he learned them. Needless to say, I just thought of the worse possibility. Let me just say; he's in 6th grade and he's always brought home A's. He's in all Honor Classes, been in the gifted program since 2nd grade. He received two Principal Awards from two different schools. All his teachers have loved him and wish more of their students were like him. All I'm saying is that if you child does go to preschool doesn't guarantee he'll be the brightest in his class. Some kids are book smart others are bless in other areas. I think the most important thing is to just spend time with them. Out of the two I would only consider the Mother's day out so you can expose them to other kids and they can work on their social skills. Other than that, they will be in school for the next 20 years of their life, I can't stress enough how important it is to enjoy these younger ages. They grow up too fast, last night it hit me at my daughter's 9th grade parent/student orientation that she's going to be in High School next year. It really does go by too fast, before I know it she'll be in college, married having her own kids...
ENJOY the time with them!
God Bless,

Depending on which preschool or MDO you look at, there really isn't that big of a difference. They both help with socialization and learning to be independent. Both typically teach letters, numbers, shapes, colors, etc. Both have story times and often music times, and most will also plan other seasonal activities. MDOs are typically church based, so with those you get Bible Stories and chapel time. I would suggest you visit a couple of each and just see where you feel more comfortable, no matter whether it is a preschool or MDO. Either way stick with 2-3 days a week. At this age, they really do need parent time more than anything else.

Preschool is so wonderful for children. It really helps them learn to socialize and interact with different children their age. I would recommend a 2 to 3 day a week program for kids that goes from about 9-2 ish. Many churches have fantastic programs! Just look around. Then when your 3 month old gets a little older you can do a mother's day out program for him/her.