Mother's Day Out/ Preschool
I must admit this was a very hard thing to do. The decision to put your child in the hands of someone you don't know. It was very difficult for us. We were torn. It was definitely something we had discussed in length and been back 'n forth about it. Once we did make the decision to go ahead with and give it a try is was a huge feat to overcome.
First of all our situation is an unique situation compared to most. My husband's work allows him to work from home and he is home mostly during the week and works mostly weekends. So I do have an extra set of hands for the a good amount of time, however during his "busy season" I do not. He may be home but he has to work. Another thing is that I am a stay-at-home-mom. So I am home also with our little penguin majority of the day. You can say our house can get a little crazy at times. :-)
Therefore the main reason for us to look at MOD is to help Olivia socialize and to give us both dedicated time to do work. Your reasons may be very different from ours and that is fine I am just giving you some background so you can understand our process in finding the school that was a good fit for our needs.
That is the next thing, sitting down and focus on what you need/want from the program before starting your search because believe me when I say there is a lot out there. So here is what we looked for:
1. a program that offered twice a week but not all day, we wanted half days. This typically means from 9 am drop off to 2pm pickup time.
2. Proximity is important to us. Where we live traffic is horrible so we did not want to be sitting in traffic.
3. Small class ratio. We did not want her to be looked over or not given the attention she needs.
4. Security/Safety. We wanted to feel secure. We wanted to make sure we felt good about dropping her off at the place and knowing she is in good hands.
Once we knew had these things in mind we started our search. In the beginning we just focused on programs that were done through church programs. We looked all around at the churches near us and started setting up appointments to visit them. However the one other small detail is that we were starting our search in April. Most of the church programs are on the same calendar as the public school. Which would of been fine but since we were looking so late in the year and wanted something that went through June it was not going to work for us. Therefore we had to start looking at Preschools. We finally found one that would work with our schedule, had an opening and after touring we felt it would be a good fit. However I just didn't feel quite like we really had used all our resources so I reached out to my brother-in-law, who was an educator here in Austin. He had a friend who is a mom and asked her for recommendations. At the last moment she came up with a few and one was relatively close to us and had a schedule that would fit our needs.
The other big important thing, if you have time I strongly recommend touring the place. This will help in getting a feel for the place and the people who work there. Also see if you can go on a day when you know the class you are looking at is in session so you can see the teachers. One of the biggest reasons, we loved our school is that we met both teachers and we hit it off with them. They also made us feel welcomed and told us many times we can drop in any time to see how she is doing or to see how the class is doing. We never felt like there were parts they didn't want us to see or that we weren't given access to everything.
Once we talked with the director and made sure we were all on the same page we gave the green light and signed her up!
Here are things you will need for school:
1. Backpack
2. Lunchbox (unless school provides meals) this also includes thermos to help keep food hot/cold!
3. Sleeping sack for nap time (unless you pick up before nap time)
4. Diapers and wipes
5. Name tags. To put on food containers, water bottle (i.e. sippy cup), anything that is yours and would like back!
6. A small plastic sandwich bag with an extra outfit in case of an accident or they get dirty!
The first day is hard, on everyone involved. Remember to be strong but also to be tuned in to your child's feelings. It is going to be hard on them, but know they look to us to help get through new situations. I know on our first day I did have good, ugly-cry but not until I was outside of the building and in my car. Luckily for us she did not cry the first week. I think she was too interested in her new surroundings :)
Now here is some advice on how to help keep your child healthy and to be pro-active on keeping away germs:
1. As soon as we get in the car and put her in the car seat we wipe her hands and face with anti-baterial wipes
2. As soon as get home we take off her school outfit and wipe her down again but this time more thoroughly. Then we put her in a new clean outfit.
This may seem extreme but it makes me feel better knowing that we did our best to help keep the germs away. :-)
My next blog will have my favorite items that we use for school and where we got them from! Hope this helps :)
