Yesterday was… interesting. There’ve been a few things at our daughter’s current daycare that we’ve not been terribly happy about (multiple helpings of junk, watching movies & playing video games all day). Well, after getting some wise counsel from my supervisor (She asked, “What could they do – right now – to make you stay?”) and talking to my darling husband, we decided to go ahead and change daycares. Brian thought Taylor would be fine with it. I believed she’d be upset (considering how sentimental she is over the silliest things sometimes). We told her about it Friday on our way home and… she got upset. Didn’t want to leave her daycare, she loved it, she loved the afternoon teacher, she loved a particularly favorite ball (see??).
I was off work yesterday and decided to take her to the new place to let her see it and to drop off the paperwork and registration fee. The secretary showed us around b/c the directors were in a staff meeting. Taylor was still nervous at this point. Then we got to the room. There were about a dozen kids playing in one of four different centers (play-doh, ribbons/beading, dolls, blocks) and she knew at least 3 of the kids. As the teacher and I were talking, we noticed that Taylor had started inching her way inside the room, glancing back at us with each shuffle (and we laughed about it – quietly, of course). They suggested letting her stay and play while I finished up paperwork. She LOVED it. In fact, she wanted me to leave her there – pay the $25 drop-in fee and GO. She wanted to start today! Tons more kids (and she knows some of them), structured program that encourages imagination and creativity, homework time that’s not optional, devotional time. Basically, her current daycare’s preschool program is structured and we like it a lot – they need to apply that structure to their afterschool program and until they do, I believe it’s going to continue to suffer.
The director was nice enough to agree to one week notice instead of the “required” two week notice (I was hoping she would – we’ve been there 5 years, were late paying once, and since we had already paid this week, I’m glad she was agreeable!). Taylor starts the new place on Monday!