Happy first day of . . . oh nevermind

Several months ago people started asking me when my girls were going to start school.  I always laughed and said something like, "NEVER!"  Then I'd wonder why people even thought to ask me that.  Couldn't they tell that my girls were only two?  Starting school was years away.

But then I started catching on to the fact that Pre-K is a thing, and around here it can start as early as when a child is three years old.

The girls wont be three until October so they miss the deadline for this year.  Which makes me glad because I haven't really made up my mind about whether or not I want the girls going to any sort of school before they are in Kindergarten.  But I started doing some thinking about whether or not I would want them to go to Pre-K this year if they were old enough.

I've decided that the answer is no - at least for this year.  Here are the reasons.

• I don't want to worry about getting everyone ready and out the door at a specific time each morning- especially with a newborn involved.
• The girls will spend enough time in school once they are older, why start it any earlier?
• Having a twin and two younger siblings already teaches the girls plenty about sharing, taking turns, and other needed social skills.
• The girls aren't potty trained yet.
• They already know their letters, numbers, colors, shapes, etc.
• I like that Brandon's schedule is the only one we have to plan our lives around.  
• My siblings and I didn't go to pre-school and we turned out just fine.
• I'd still be home with Derrick and Veronica anyway.

And here is the biggest reason of all.

• Kids are only little once.  I want my kids to enjoy unstructured days.  I want them to have a chance to run around in nothing but underwear/diapers or to put together bizarre clothing combinations.  I want them to use their imaginations and make up their own games.  I want them to get dirty.  I want to be the one to teach them how to do things - even if that means they follow me around and crowd me all day long.    

This is our "first day of school" type picture for this year.  Believe it or not this is not staged, and yet it pretty much illustrates all my reasons for not starting school this year.  

Of course I might be singing a different tune next fall.  And who knows what I'll decide to do the next year when the girls will miss the deadline for Kindergarten and be five years old almost the whole school year.

What are your thoughts on pre-school?