Proper Appreciation of Daycare

I don't think I fully appreciated my daycare until Michael moved "up" to preschool.

1. Our daycare (Ava still attends daycare) does not have random days off.
2. Our daycare's hours are convenient to us. We are signed up for half days. That means I could drop her off as early as 6:30 in the morning and pick her up as late as 1:00 in the afternoon.
3. Our daycare tuition includes a hot breakfast and lunch.
4. Our daycare is flexible. If we have a doctor's appointment, or if Ava is sick on a "school" day they let us switch her day to another day of the week.
5. Now this one is going to sound terrible, but I'm just going to put it out there. Our daycare doesn't have many expectations. They aren't sending home activities, asking for supplies, wanting us to participate in school fundraisers, or expecting attendance at school functions.

The week before winter break, our daycare was open Monday through Friday. The school was open only through Wednesday. This past week our daycare was open all week again. The school didn't open until Wednesday. I actually decided to keep both children home Tuesday and let them play together rather than have Michael home alone and drag him out to drop Ava off and pick Ava up from school.

It isn't that I don't appreciate pre-school. Michael loves it. His teachers are amazing. The facilities are beautiful. The learning activities and structure are a much better transition to formal schooling than his daycare was. I just chafe a little at the way that the schedule of school dictates our lives compared to the way a daycare works around the schedule of families.