Preschool...warning, long post (written mostly just for my own records)

Since it's that time of year, we've been looking at what's going to happen with Josh next year for preschool (Just like Pam has been for Matthew).

We have various options:

• Leave Josh just as he is in the preschool room of his child care centre
  
• Enrol him at a local government preschool like Monash or Wanniassa
• Do a combination of the above so that he has 2 days at the preschool and 1 day at child care
  
• Private preschool (and possibly 1 day of child care...)

I find the whole process daunting, cause we've never done it before. I'm sure it's not all that scary, but I feel overwhelmed in these sorts of situations where something really MATTERS to me and I feel uninformed and like I don't know what I'm doing.

Leaving Josh only at child care for his preschool year was never really a consideration. So then we moved onto the next option - government preschools.

Josh and I visited both Wanniassa and Monash yesterday afternoon and the teachers were so lovely, gracious and accommodating (since we showed up unannounced right at the end of the day!) I really liked both and found it hard to choose which one we'd prefer to send him to. Josh really liked both as well (altho Monash had baby chicks! Cool huh). Both are relatively within walking distance from our house too which inspired visions of me and the babies walking Josh to school...

The only issue with the government preschools is that they both have either mon/tues full days or thurs/fri full days. Neither of which works for us (and half days aren't really an option either). Mon/tues doesn't work cause then Josh would have to go to child care thurs/fri while i work and I'm not happy with the idea of him away from home 4 days a week just yet!
Thurs/fri seemed perfect until I realised that meant i could never drop him off (there goes that vision!) or pick him up or attend an excursion or help out. And while I was talking about that with Aaron last night, I actually cried at the thought of missing all that. (I blame the tears on the baby hormones!)

So I was a little stumped then.

But while talking with Pam about her options for Matthew, I remembered Canberra Christian School in mawson. Which is an option cause it's not that far away. And it's christian. And turns out it's not that expensive. and their classes run on MONDAY AND THURSDAY!!! So I could be a part of things on mondays. And mum can take Josh thurs and he can still go to child care fridays. It's perfect.

The only issue I had was that it is a Seventh Day Adventist school (nothing personal, just that we're not). But when I rang and spoke with the pre-kindy teacher today, she was SO lovely and told me she wasn't Seventh Day Adventist either and basically when they do christian life studies (or whatever they call it) they read a bible story and do an activity - sounded a lot like sunday school! She really put my mind at rest. And another interesting thing is that they are more academically focussed than play based like government preschools. That also really appealed to me since Josh will still get his play based stuff on fridays at child care, but will also be exposed to more of what he'll experience in kindy.

OH YEAH, and I read that the government preschools have 25 students in the classes. And I know I'm spoiled, cause at TCS the max class size is 27 except for kindy which I vaguely remember being 20 or so. So, well 25 just sounded like a LOT for preschool. And CCS only has 15 max in their pre-kindy class.

But ultimately, I'm just grateful that we have found a 'doable' option that means I can be involved in my son's first experience of formal schooling. That means the world to me :)