You'd be surprised by the number of parents that think PreK is not needed (false-it has lasting effects for sure) and not wanting to send their children more than 2-3 days for an hour or 2. Some kids, yes, this works better for, but not all. And, the number of PK that available for free is so low. MD is trying with EXCELs and vouchers, but it is not helping all to gain access.
Surely they realize some children are in 9-10 hours of full time care daily from about 6 weeks of age, right? IIRC, preschool/pre-K has nap time, snacks, etc.
Exactly. 4 hours is a good amount. Many have school, though, for 7. Most that I have worked with through the state that has both, the afternoon is for enrichment-is. more art, for example, and rest/lunch.
You'd be surprised by the number of parents that think PreK is not needed (false-it has lasting effects for sure) and not wanting to send their children more than 2-3 days for an hour or 2. Some kids, yes, this works better for, but not all. And, the number of PK that available for free is so low. MD is trying with EXCELs and vouchers, but it is not helping all to gain access.
Surely they realize some children are in 9-10 hours of full time care daily from about 6 weeks of age, right? IIRC, preschool/pre-K has nap time, snacks, etc.
I think there's a real disconnect, though, between how households with two working parents/single working parent and those with a SAH parent view this. It comes up all the time in discussions about how often SAHMs "should" send their kids for preK or K. I feel like I hear "oh, they'll be in school for the rest of their lives" or "full day is just too much at this age" not infrequently in that context -- I mean, I considered it myself as a SAHM, thinking about the time in-school versus home and considering costs.
We did the 2.5-hour preschool four days a week for DD1 so that she could get all of her IEP services, when a true "full day"/five-days-a-week option wasn't available for the level of support we wanted for her. I definitely saw that more hours = more progress for her and so I was absolutely sure that full-day kindergarten was worth paying for. Meanwhile, my DD2 went full-day at a much younger age than DD1 and I never really thought about it as "too much" for her because frankly, I needed those hours to work; plus I'd also seen that full day was great for DD1.
As a SAHM, you also get the side eye if you send your kid for "too many hours." Because why are you at home if they're in school? Another way in which mothers can't win. Hooray.
I'm filling out the student profile for the "preschool" (lol) my 2 year old is in, and it totally asks about our educational goals. And this isn't even one of the super crazy nyc preschools! We didn't interview for this one, and they take anyone capable of writing a large check.
Seriously what is the point of these questions??? List specific information about your child's interests? "She's very interested in screaming at the top of her lungs as well as spending significant amounts of time trying to hug the cat."
Post by Velar Fricative on Sept 7, 2015 21:16:40 GMT -5
DD is going to attend preschool where she currently attends daycare, where they have great hours. Thank goodness for that. I don't think there are elite preschools in this part of NYC anyway. There is nothing elite about my borough lol.
Since it's related, when DD starts K, our only saving grace is that DH is a teacher. And even then, we will have to figure out pickup/dropoff logistics since the zoned elementary school is close to home and DH works 25 minutes away. Can't wait! *groan*
I'm filling out the student profile for the "preschool" (lol) my 2 year old is in, and it totally asks about our educational goals. And this isn't even one of the super crazy nyc preschools! We didn't interview for this one, and they take anyone capable of writing a large check.
Seriously what is the point of these questions??? List specific information about your child's interests? "She's very interested in screaming at the top of her lungs as well as spending significant amounts of time trying to hug the cat."
Right? My kid likes bouncing off the walls and crashing his toy cars just like every other toddler. His interests aren't particularly advanced or unique at the ripe old age of two.
My kid goes to public pre-K in a Community School (which means extra supports for lots of poor and at-risk kids), and they still expect that they can arrange a home visit with one of us on a random Friday.
The only reason he can do pre-K at all is that our in-home daycare can do pick up and drop off.
I know it's not going to change for a very long time, but I hate the way I'm made to feel uninvolved because I have to be at work on a normal schedule.
At 'meet the teacher' on Friday, DD's kinder teacher told me that if my schedule allows it would probably be best for me to pick up DD every day and drive her to aftercare instead of having her take the bus. Why? Because the buses are often late and the kinks get worked out in the first week or two. I appreciate her feedback but how many working parents can get out of work at by 3:00 everyday to drive their child to aftercare. And if I'm leaving work at 3:00 why bother taking my kid to aftercare?
Post by ellipses84 on Sept 7, 2015 21:58:53 GMT -5
This is the story of my life. We moved from a city/state with great but expensive childcare/education options to one with slightly more affordable, terrible options. We toured so many preschools and picked the one we felt was best, last year. We've had some issues that we addressed with the director and things seemed to improve. Even though there is public pre-k, our current district isn't that great, DS doesn't do well with transitions and we'd need before/after care so we decided to keep him in his current school for private Pre-K. We planned to move next summer to s better district before K, but there's been some issues in the past couple of weeks at his current school that make me want to switch him now and the other options really suck!
Also, I don't think there's many SAHPs at our current center. Any extra things the teachers try to organize completely bomb and it makes me feel like I'm not the only parent barely holding on by a thread at times.
At 'meet the teacher' on Friday, DD's kinder teacher told me that if my schedule allows it would probably be best for me to pick up DD every day and drive her to aftercare instead of having her take the bus. Why? Because the buses are often late and the kinks get worked out in the first week or two. I appreciate her feedback but how many working parents can get out of work at by 3:00 everyday to drive their child to aftercare. And if I'm leaving work at 3:00 why bother taking my kid to aftercare?
Some parents might be able to 'take lunch' at 3 for a week and drop off then head back to work. One of my co-workers did this for a week when she had an issue and needed to do pick up.
DS1's school is actually pretty good about extended hours. School starts at 7:50 but you can drop off anytime after 7:15, and they have aftercare until 6 everyday except the last day of school.
They do require volunteer hours (20 hours per 2-parent family, 10 hours per single-parent family and families where one parent is deployed the majority of the year) but you have the option of paying $10/hour if you can't actually volunteer at school during the day. They also have ample opportunity to amass volunteer hours over the weekend.
The only annoying thing is the constant requests for extra shit, like bringing in an item or money in exchange for an out-of-uniform day. Technically it's optional, but then if your kid is the only dork that shows up in uniform everyone knows he's the one with the "lazy" parents. It's adult peer pressure and it sucks.
At 'meet the teacher' on Friday, DD's kinder teacher told me that if my schedule allows it would probably be best for me to pick up DD every day and drive her to aftercare instead of having her take the bus. Why? Because the buses are often late and the kinks get worked out in the first week or two. I appreciate her feedback but how many working parents can get out of work at by 3:00 everyday to drive their child to aftercare. And if I'm leaving work at 3:00 why bother taking my kid to aftercare?
Some parents might be able to 'take lunch' at 3 for a week and drop off then head back to work. One of my co-workers did this for a week when she had an issue and needed to do pick up.
I'm sure that's true. And I have the flexibility that I could do it on days I don't have any meetings but by the time I pick up the kid, take her to aftercare, and drive the 30 minutes back to work, I'd be away from the office for 1.5 hours.
At 'meet the teacher' on Friday, DD's kinder teacher told me that if my schedule allows it would probably be best for me to pick up DD every day and drive her to aftercare instead of having her take the bus. Why? Because the buses are often late and the kinks get worked out in the first week or two. I appreciate her feedback but how many working parents can get out of work at by 3:00 everyday to drive their child to aftercare. And if I'm leaving work at 3:00 why bother taking my kid to aftercare?
This seems to ignore the whole purpose of aftercare.
DS is in half-day Kinder here and I use the term "half-day" loosely. It's 3 hours a day. There is a lottery for full day but I don't know anyone who got in. We still pay out the nose to a daycare center for aftercare because he is there twice as long as he is in school. It's insane. I thought there was going to be a riot among all the working parents to get their kid into AM. PM Kinder is 11:45-2:45, totally insane for working parents.
I'm pretty sure we made someone's day when we asked to move BabyLiu to the PM class.
Most of the urban districts in my state offer full day pre-k. Of course full day runs the traditional school day so the kids are only on school 8:15 to 3:10. I personally am not a fan because what I see happening is less play based learning and more heavy academics. I will be avoiding our public pre-k option for that reason. I don't think simply offering a full day option makes things better. I think we need to start with making childcare options more affordable and reliable.
Preschools here are geared to families with a SAH parent. Longest they go is like 830-330 but most are just morning or afternoon 2-4 days a week. Families with 2 working parents send their kids to daycare centers, most of which have a pre-k curriculum. Kids going to in home daycares don't usually get preschool.
I'm filling out the student profile for the "preschool" (lol) my 2 year old is in, and it totally asks about our educational goals. And this isn't even one of the super crazy nyc preschools! We didn't interview for this one, and they take anyone capable of writing a large check.
We've had to fill those out two years in a row because his school sends home a form that requires a fucking dissertation about the my child's awareness of science and shit. Each year I'm sorely tempted to say " [Child] is too damn smart but regularly displays the good sense of a drunk gerbil on a meth bender. I will pay you money to teach him not to be an asshole.".
This is why we pay $2200/month - for Pre-K flexibility. It's effing ridiculous.
We are very fortunate that our school system has before and after school care for K-5. Even if we needed both we'd pay about half of our current rates (and it is sad that I'm cheering about $1k/month) BUT since I have flex time at work and can work my own schedule, we don't anticipate needing after care much or at all. This is why I get up at 4:30 in the freaking morning. So yay for only expecting to spend about $500/month beginning next year I guess. And yay for being even this lucky.
Around here the entire public school system do the 1/2 days the first week. I always thought it was crazy for working parents.
Our school starts with a Wednesday orientation day, which is when the kids go in with parents, meet their teachers, collect their books, etc., etc.. We then have two half-days and then it's the weekend. It's drives me up the fucking wall and I'm a SAHM. Just start school, dammit.
Our public school system used to offer full day Kindy, but so many people moved into the area that it was cut back about ten years ago to half day only for lack of resources and space (a bit surprising given how large our school system is and how high our taxes are, but anyway). Consequently a lot of people around here send their kids to parochial school for K only so as to get the full day.
As for all those wacky questions on preschool applications, I'm willing to wager those are as much for the parents as for the schools. Parents love to talk about all the borderline genius things their wee ones can do.
Post by londoncalling on Sept 8, 2015 6:26:26 GMT -5
The school district that we are in extends the "one SAHP" per household assumption even into elementary school. K is still half day. They do offer a full day option (another company provides the services and rents space from the school and the two don't interact a don't start me on that set up) as well as before/after care offered by the same company.
It even extends to the PTO who meets the second Friday of every month at 9 am. There's no possible way for me to miss work for a PTO meeting every month. I had to check the very last, singular volunteer box that said something along the lines of "I'm not available to volunteer at school, but I can type and make phone calls after hours. ". Aka "I'm not a SAHM."
Our co-op preschool is used pretty much exclusively by SAHPs and nannies. With local day cares providing a prek option, I can't imagine there has been much pressure on them to change. If anything, we've taken a step back in that there wasn't enough demand for a 5 day 3 year old program so they axed it and went back to 3 days. I think the real issue is public school though. Our kindergarten is half day and activities all seem to start at 4-5 pm. Unless you work part time, I'm not sure how working parents are able to get there on time.
Oddly I think that Scarlett's preschool schedule is more convenient for working parents than the public elementary school Jackson attends. There is still the scramble for the days off and breaks but because they don't have buses, they have significantly less snow days. They also have free before care starting at 7:15. After care is available for anyone who needs it (no wait list and includes preschool kids) and the preschool day is 8-3.
For a long time, we kind of thought I might go back to work when Scarlett started school, but once Jackson was in school we realized it's almost more difficult once they are in school to cobble together care especially if you don't have family around. That, along with a few other things has made us decide I probably won't. I may look into it more when the kids are older and I have more flexibility in them being home without one of us.
The other thing that is nice about me being a SAHP is that it gives MH the flexibility to arrange his work schedule from time to time to do some volunteering at the school. Jackson's school has a science lab program that parents run, so because he doesn't have to worry about saving his flexibility for days off or sick days or before/after care, he can volunteer for that which is nice. If we were both working, I think we'd be less likely to volunteer for things like that since we'd be concerned about times when flexibility was necessary.
Also both preschools the kids have gone to have had way less volunteering options or requests. I think it could be that the state mandates a smaller class and a smaller student to teacher ratio at that age? Idk.
Post by eponinepontmercy on Sept 8, 2015 7:24:49 GMT -5
DD just started Pre-K at a school about 20 minutes away. School goes from 7:35 to 2:35 for full-day kids. The only reason this works is because DH works from home and is incredibly flexible. I need him to keep this job for the next 10 years.
Post by jeaniebueller on Sept 8, 2015 7:32:34 GMT -5
This is such a huge issue. We had one choice of preschools that offered full days and before and after school care. Otherwise, the other options were PT, two days a week from 8-11am, which does not comport with my work schedule in arranging transportation. I was happy with the program anyway.
I'm filling out the student profile for the "preschool" (lol) my 2 year old is in, and it totally asks about our educational goals. And this isn't even one of the super crazy nyc preschools! We didn't interview for this one, and they take anyone capable of writing a large check.
We had something like that for baby H's daycare. They also wanted us to write about our "parenting philosophy."
I answered some of them sarcastically but I'm not sure the assistant director got the joke.
I must be an island of one in not thinking those questions are weird. In addition to feeding the egos of the parents completing the forms, I have long suspected it's for the benefit of the teachers and schools to know when they are dealing with high maintenance families, DGAF families, etc.. The questions seem absurd on their face but I suspect the schools actually glean a fair amount of information about the families from the answers given.
Post by rupertpenny on Sept 8, 2015 8:15:52 GMT -5
This kind of stuff makes me scared to move back to the U.S.
Not that things are great here in Hong Kong. You can't drop off your kid anywhere until they start kindergarten (pre k equivalent) around 3. Like daycare doesn't exist, period. My daughter recently started pre k and she has to be accompanied; since my H and I work our nanny takes her and stays with her.
Even after kids can be dropped off I don't think before or aftercare is a thing either. You have to have a nanny until you trust your kid to ride public transportation and stay at home alone.
Our preschool is so freaking awesome. It's preschool for full time working parents and that's pretty much the entire population of the school. It's a full day schedule and they don't allow half day schedules as they think it interrupts their curriculum. They ask very little of parents time and they are wonderful with the kids. I feel very fortunate.
The public Ks around here are all part time as is standard but all I've looked into offer "wrap around" care for before and after school until 6 pm. The private K we looked at is the the same.
Here's my soap box time: preschool here is not universal. Ca has some programs for low income kids but it is very limited even though all research suggests that early learning programs are fundamental for success in k-12. This isn't prioritized by the powers that be and is usually an area first to get chopped when budgets dwindle. I respect a lot of what the progressive movement stands for but childcare, access to universal preschool, and quality education programs for all is a pinkified topic for women to care about while progressive males and the general progressive movement fight against pipelines, trade agreements, carbon control, and animal welfare. All important topics but childcare and early learning get short shrift, to the peril of our future society. I would like it if the greater progressive movement could take on childcare issues with the same vigor they take on trade agreements and wall street malfeasance.