I am finding hard to find advice on a matter concerning my 4 year old daughter. It is not an extremely serious matter but I would like an opinion.
My daughter has been in a creche for a year and a half and is very happy there. She is due to start school next week and will attend afterschool in the same creche. Her baby brother, 10 months has just started in the same creche and has settled in well. She gets on well with teachers and other children at the crèche and mixes well. She is a very well behaved child and she had no real issues with her brother’s arrival as we tried to manage the attention balance as best we could to both children. She has recently had a few little outbursts and seems at times out of sorts and we feel that this could be due to her brother starting in the creche which has been her space up to now. He has also started walking and gets much attention for this too. I have mentioned this to the creche to not be commenting too much to her about how great her brother is etc. It is good that they are in the same place and get to see each other a little, and as her brother gets older they will mingle and have more contact.
Our finanical situation has changed recently and one thing we are considering is moving the children to another creche which is better priced, this would make a real difference to us. Unfortunately there is currently no availabilty for our son and may not be until mid next year. But the savings by moving our Daughter would still be considerable.
There are a couple of additional factors involved affecting this decision also.
As our daughter is starting school this year she has been put up a class from her usual girlfriends who are not starting this year. She will see these girls in the yard in the afternoon. but at the same time three of her girl classmates in the new afterschool class have left the creche due to starting school and she will be in the afterschool group with all boys ( not a major issue to us) and will also be the youngest girl in afterschool group by a number of years.
The new creche is much smaller and another girl from her new school will also be attending the afterschool there.
My query is how to you think this move would affect her considering these factors,
• Moving her and not our son from the creche where she is very happy. Why does he get to stay?
• Is starting 'big' school enough of a change for her without another one to a new creche also ? or
• Would a new start in school and a new creche be the right time to make the move?
I know children are flexible and she is quite adaptable and we talk and explain things to her. But there is a lot to consider in making this decision for her. We want to do the best for her and her brother.
I would greatly appreciate any advice you can give us.
