Myke & Me Plus ThreeFour: Back to School!

Chloë's first day of preschool at PB Presbyterian- March 2011

Only 2 years old!

Chloë's 1st day at St. Paul's Preschool

3 1/2 years old

Chloë started her new preschool today and new schedule today. We really liked her first preschool (Pacific Beach Presbyterian Preschool) but over the summer started looking into another nearby preschool at St. Paul's Lutheran Church, which is right on our street. We took a tour and really liked it so we decided to switch. Not that we had any problem at all with her original preschool. We liked the staff, we loved walking her there (it's only about 2 blocks away as well, but in the other direction), and had no issues with it for the most part (I won't go into the "for the most part" part right now, but nothing too big or that would have made us look elsewhere). The clincher that made us decide to switch was that St. Paul's offered 3 different schedule options instead of having to choose between only two. At her first preschool she could go either all day long or from 9am-12pm for the "enrichment period". Those were the options. I think that after noon and after rest time the rest of the day was more like daycare than preschool. I'm not sure because she never went, but that's the feeling I got. At St. Paul's on the other hand, the options are 8:30am-noon, 8:30-3pm, or all day. The BEST part is that the tuition for the 8:30-3pm (MWF) schedule is only $8 more A MONTH than the 9am-12pm (MWF) schedule we were paying for at PB Presbyterian. So that was a no brainer in my book. Three and a half more hours, three times a week for $8/month. Sign me up. That's about 19 cents an hour for those extra 42 hours a month. Yes, please.

HOWEVER, on the flip side of things, I feel so sad today with Chloë being away from home for so long! 8:30am-3pm is like a real school day! It's only 3x a week, but still! She's only 3 1/2 years old and I don't want to hurry her off into school for long stretches! On the other hand (again. I know I'm going back and forth here...) now that the boys aren't going down for their nap until noon, I will actually get a break and some time to myself instead of putting them down and then having Chloë come right home from school. PLUS, she'll have rest time at school with the other kids instead of here. That's a definite PLUS in my book. Getting her down for rest/nap time at home has been a challenge for me. She never wants to go into her room since the boys are just up from their naps and playing, very rarely does she actually nap, and she comes out about 5x in the our asking if it's wake-up time yet.

Anyways, I'm going back and forth on reasons why it's OK for her to be in school that long...and I guess we'll just see how it goes. It's bittersweet...but I think a tad more sweet for me so far. Hey, I even got to bake some pumpkin bread (from this new cookbook called "Gluten Free Vegan Comfort Food"-- did you know that kind of food even existed??! I didn't!) AND post this blog entry. Well, we will see how she liked today. The good thing is that we can always switch to the 8:30am-12noon schedule if this is too much for her (or for Myke! lol- he has been "missing Chloë" all day and can't wait for 3pm to come so we can run down and pick her up. I have to admit I feel the same way today!).

Signing off at 2:45pm--time to go pick her up! The boys are STILL napping (to my dismay) so Myke and I will be fighting over who gets to go pick her up on her first day! :(

UPDATE: Myke won... I let him. Chloë had a GREAT first day!