At some point I guess I’ll become immune to the fact that people start talking camp in October. For right now, I am sorta grateful that it lights a fire under me to figure it out before I have a new baby. It really puts a ratchet in my focus on pre-school for Gabby though.
In the upcoming weeks I have tours of several different pre-schools for my little Gabby. I really would love to keep her at the place that Drew is at but it might be too hard to pull off with Drew’s kindergarten. I’m not completely ruling it out but it’s looking unlikely. And the truth is that I would prefer her to be at a school where she might make friends that carry over to her kindergarten.
So now I’m starting to look at camps. School, even if it is pre, is a big deal. This is the first place she gets exposed to “formal” (even if it is play based learn) education. This is where she first gets her footing without having mommy next to her (um, I think I just teared up). Camps, on the other hand, (although essential to life experience in my opinion) are more of a fun thing. I think it’s possible that kids could have more fun in one environment than the other but at the tender age of 4, they will have fun doing just about anything (especially if baseball is involved).
Looking at camps is enough to give me a coronary. The costs are exuberant and the concept of potentially sending three kids at once is the price of a car. If money were absolutely no issue, I probably would send my kids to some of these extravagant places. Money is, however, an issue and I don’t feel that my four year old NEEDS everything some of these places have to offer.
Where does that leave us? I have no idea. It’s hard to project out what will work for us over the summer when our family will be a different size, Drew and Gabby will be different ages with different interests and needs. So the fact that I’m forced to face these details now is hard for me to wrap my head around. And given my extreme pregnancy indecisiveness, I may find camp as my backyard. Yikes!!!!
I'm a mother, wife, daughter, and friend. Until recently I was also an employee. Now that I'm a full time mom, I've decided to make my thoughts, concerns and feelings public.
