Preschool ... a solution maybe?

I still keep thinking about preschool. I think it is because dd#1 is such a "school-y" kind of girl. She is just the kind of little person to love all things school-like. She is so smart and a little leader. I want her to have the preschool fun my ds had.

I want both of my girls to play with shaving cream and make cloud pictures out of cotton balls and hear imaginative thematic stories that spark their creativity and their broader world knowledge. I want them to paint with apples, and marbles, and on an easel with messy colors flying. I want them to learn new little songs and games.

And I don't feel that I am the best person to provide these special little experiences on a regular basis.

Mostly, I want them to play and learn cool stuff that they might not be learning at home, get used to socializing with a variety of other little people and build a basic love of learning.

From my experience parenting my 11-year-old, grade school can get boring and feel hard and even kind of dry on many an occasion.

This is the time in my girls lives to really have a ball at school. A time when grades still make no difference and the topic to be learned for the day is dinosaur bones!

Not just any preschool can provide exactly what I am looking for though and I know this. Just because a preschool has openings for both girls, it does not mean that they will get the kind of experience I am describing here (the kind of experience I most want for them to have in a preschool). All preschool environments are different.

Oh, and the school also must be affordable and within an easy drive from my house.

With two young kids close in age, I am just not going to Co-op again. So, that is out of the question.

So, tonight I took dd#1 with me to a preschool open house at a place we had never been before; just she and I (a really special little outing being only the two of us ... what fun it was!). The school will only take her age group next year (and older), and dd#2 cannot go. DD#1 was just so happy. She practically melted into this classroom she loved it so much. She played so contently and busily and just adored it. She did not want to leave.

This preschool is affordable if only dd#1 goes. It is an easy drive and meets my two day per week only requirement. It is three hours per session, which is nice because if I am going to have dd#2 with me at drop off and pick up, we need time to do more than just head home only to turn back around and head back to the school again (which is what two hours of preschool feels like).

It can work if I commit to it. I know of the other option where both girls can go. So, in a way, I have a choice (money pending). But, that school is twice the price and not as convenient in so many ways.

When I think only of dd#1, it is the perfect thing for next school year. I want this experience for her. I will continue to search preschool options, but I think I am sold on this one at the moment. Dd#2 can wait a year and they can both go the following year (I have 1.5 years to save up for that.)

I would like the preschool thing to be about me a bit more .... I would love the free time away from both girls while knowing they were both getting a great experience, etc. But a compromise has to be made here because I don't have that extra money each month and it doesn't even look like dh is going to get his whole salary back anytime real soon. (I still just pray his job is safe. They are doing voluntary buyouts at his company this week, which feels scary.)

So, no, they don't need preschool. But, to me, preschool learning is some of the best school fun out there. They don't spend nearly as much time doing all of these fun types of things in 5th grade; this I know for certain.

So, I signed dd#1 up for this school we found tonight. And yes, I might change my mind if I find something better. If I do, we will lose our deposit. But, so what. Right now, it feels right.