When to transition from nanny share to preschool?
Trying to figure out when the ideal time to send our little one to preschool will be. For context, we have a 1 year old, a nanny, and share family that we love, and the fortunate position to not have to make the decision based on cost, but rather when it's going to be right for our little one and us. The one thing I would like to do is give our nanny a realistic sense of how long we think we'll employ her. I'd love to hear about how other families knew it was time to leave the nanny share and start preschool?
Jan 30, 2022
Parent Replies
Our daughter will be 4 at the end of August, we're hoping to start preschool for her in the fall. We looked at it last year but wanted to hold onto our nanny for one more year so we could have a nanny for the next kiddo.
We transitioned from nanny share to preschool when the kids were 3 years old and spent 2 wonderful years at a play-based preschool. The kids went from 2 babies in a nanny share to preschool classmates and then went on to attend the same elementary school. They are like siblings or really close cousins. We feel extremely fortunate as neither family has blood relatives nearby and our kids are only kids. I personally think 3 years is an excellent age to transition to preschool. I did not want to send my kid to preschool before they were comfortable with toilet and could fully verbalize the happenings at school. We helped find the next fantastic families for our beloved nanny who still remains an occasional sitter for our child. Good luck!
We just did this transition and wish we had waited a little longer! Our kids are November babies and we just started preschool in January (so entered at 3 ). Preschools are so challenging to get into that I felt like we had to jump on the one that offered us a spot, but if you are happy, the other family is happy, the nanny is happy, I don't think there is any rush to start preschool given kids are socializing with each other in the share. If I could do it over, I would have followed my instinct to stay fulltime in the nanny share until August 2022, which would have been 2 years of preschool before kindergarten for our kids instead of 2.5.
Reminder that there is now universal public TK for all 4 year olds throughout CA. So if you plan on using TK, you might only have 1 year of preschool available. Most preschools don't take kids until they are 3 or just about to turn 3 (ie. Sept/Oct babies). If it's a combine daycare/preschool, the daycare program is usually up to 3 yr old and the preschool program is 3+ yrs.