daycare anxiety
Every day we walk by the pre-school we hope Sophie will go to in January. And every day we dread the idea of somebody else taking care of her.
Until today.
Because, for the first time, we were on the inside, visiting with the staff in preparation for the sign-up process. What we saw impressed us so much that we actually feel excited for her. She is going to have a blast. She'll spend Mondays in the forest learning about snails, slugs and other critters. Tuesdays are focused on Montessori learning. She'll paint on Wednesdays, and do gymnastics and sports on Thursdays. And then Fridays are for singing.
Now let's just hope we get in. Daycare, or pre-school as they call it, works a bit differently here. You have to submit your top 3 choices to the kommun, and they place you based on that. You should get your #1 unless it's full, I guess. You also pay the same amount no matter where you go: for one child, it's 3% of your income up to a maximum of 1260 SEK ($200) per month. No, I didn't forget a zero. It's $200 per month. (!!!)
They also have a two-week introductory period when a child first enters daycare. The first few days, the parent and child join the group for about an hour. Then the parent leaves for maybe 45 minutes the next day, adding a bit more time each day until the child is there the whole day alone. Isn't that great? No separation anxiety for the child... or the parent.
I never thought I'd say this, but I can't wait until January!
