Do you send your DD/DS to preschool with a sippy?

I have a question for all you moms (dads) who send their kids to preschool. After we move this summer, I'll be sending Arielle to two weeks of "camp" at the same preschool where she will be going 5 days/week this fall. Both camp and school will be from (9am-1pm). It'll be her first time in a seperated program, although for over a year I've been doing Mommy&Me programs that mimic the preschool day (just 1.5 hours, though). They allow sippy cups, but only at snack time (and they try to get the kids to drink from cups). By now Arielle CAN drink from a cup, but she LOVES her water sippy (or milk sippy, though we're always working on cutting back). It's definitely a comfort thing for her, and she likes to have a water sippy around her. Now I don't know the policy on sippies from this new school, but I'd bet they don't like the kids to have them around (she'll be in the Young 3s class). I don't even know if they're allowed at snack time/lunch time! Since we'll just have moved I expect her to be wanting her comfort items more than normal. Should I try to "wean" her from the water sippies now, before we move? Or should I try to see if she can bring one along and let the teachers deal with getting her to put it away until snack/lunch? It may sound like a silly concern, but we're very attached to sippies here and I just fear for the whole upcoming move AND seperated school issues this summer and don't want to traumatize her!:)

Thanks!

-Rachel
Mom to Arielle, 10/30/01
and Daliya, 10/27/03

Rachel, your preschool will undoubtedly give you a list of things to bring and not bring.

At Sarah's school, they started the year by asking all of the parents to provide a sippy cup for snack time (the school provides snack). But their goal was that by January all the kids would be drinking from a regular cup at snack. It took Sarah a little longer than that :) , but she didn't need that sippy for the whole year.

But I had to send lunch, including the beverage. I sent a straw sippy with milk. I know a lot of other kids had a juice box instead, but I preferred to send milk.

So the policies at your school will vary, but it will probably be something like this.

HTH,

Now you've got me thinking...

Are sippies bad? Dante prefers a regular cup. *I* prefer a sippie (for him, not me :) ) He just started drinking out of it a few weeks ago, but the mess potential is pretty high when he decides to start shaking it. Should I be phasing out the sippies in general, and particularly before he starts preschool in August?

Goodness, I never even thought about all this...

Paula
Mama to Dante, 8/02

Paula,

Sippies aren't bad persay, but in my experience schools tend to prefer the child drinks from a cup at snacktime (I've yet to have a lunch situation). They like them to learn to drink from a cup...and make a mess. :) From a speech perspective, sippies aren't that great but I've tried the straw cups and Arielle really doesn't like them. She gets speech therapy, and the therapist seems to think some of the "sippies are bad" hype is just that, so I didn't make such a huge deal.

I wouldn't worry about it phasing them out though, since Dante is only going to have just turned two in August. I just wonder myself since Arielle will be in the Young Threes program and I'm unsure of the ways of the Atlanta preschools. :) I do know that most of the kids in the twos class there now are already potty trained--yikes! I guess the teachers work on it there? I told the director that we're working on it but are by no means there yet, and she said it's no problem (phew!). But that got me thinking maybe these kids are all potty trained and have foresaken the sippies!

-Rachel
Mom to Arielle, 10/30/01
and Daliya, 10/27/03

LOL! I can guarantee they will NOT all be potty trained and using a cup! :)

Sarah is just about a year older than Arielle. She was in a "younger 2's" class. They worked with the kids at whatever level of potty training you were comfortable with. But from observation, even now at the end of the year, most of her class is still in diapers or pull-ups. And I have not even started with Sarah. Its a summer project. :)

I think they like to get them drinking from a cup just as a "big kid" milestone. We swtiched from sippies to straw cups at 18 months when Sarah was diagnosed with oral motor issues. While sippies may not hurt, according to the SLP, they certainly don't help, so we switched. I now personally prefer the straw cups and find them easier to use and keep clean. And Sarah likes them too. :) I didn't realize that Arielle was getting speech therapy?

Paula, the potty training and cup issues may be different for you, since they will have different child rearing philosophies in Germany. In particular, I think you have mentioned that they potty train earlier than we tend to here?

I'm so glad to hear that Arielle won't be way behind, Beth! Even if I were to try and get Arielle potty trained by the end of the summer, with the upcoming move I have to expect her to regress a bit. Frankly, I have no idea WHAT to expect with the move--which scares me to death, LOL!:)

So is Sarah going to be in the "younger 3s" as Arielle is? They're about 2+ months apart but I know the cutoffs for Kindergarten probably will put Sarah in a class ahead of her eventually? It's Sept 1 in Atlanta, although here it's Sept 30. I'm actually glad the cutoff is a month earlier in Atlanta, since there will likely be more kids born between Sept 1 and Arielle's birthday and she'll be further from being the oldest kid in her class. The director said next year she (and others with similar birthdays) will go into the "older 3s" to make up that extra year, so to speak.

Arielle's been getting speech therapy for about 8 months, since she was just under 2. Last spring I'd grown concerned about her speech (or lack of talking) and articulation, and I called our early intervention program for a consultation. At first the therapy was just getting her to talk since she would really only speak with us, but now she's talking up a storm and we can work on the articulation issues (using horns/bubbles etc.) She loves the speech therapist, and it's free for us (and they come to us!) so what could be bad? :) How's Sarah doing with her speech?

I'm going to take Arielle this week to choose a knapsack and lunch box--I can't wait! :)

-Rachel
Mom to Arielle, 10/30/01
and Daliya, 10/27/03

Frankly Rachel if they want you to provide a drink for preschool a sippy/straw sippy is just fine. Realistically your other alternative is a juice box and most 3 year olds I know don't have the dexterity to take the straw out of that plastic cover and/or insert it into the little silver hole.

At Amy's preschool they provide drinks for snack. They have tiny Dixie cups (the kid that everyone had in their washroom in the 70s and only hold about 2 oz of liquid) and they put about 1 cup of juice into a measuring cup that would normally hold 4 cups. They supervise and let the kids pour the juice into their cups and then the kids get to drink it from 'real'cups. They are so proud! If they spill a little juice on their clothes, well that's just part of preschool mess. It's always yellow/white juice (eg: apple or white grape) and never stuff you can't wash out. You never know, the Atlanta school might provide the drinks! But realistically if they don't they can't really complain about sippies.

Just thought I'd give an update since I spoke with the director this morning (don't worry, I didn't call for that reason! :) )

Basically, I asked if they are allowed to bring sippies and was told that while the kids aren't really encouraged to have them with them all the time (or else they'd all be sharing them, she said), they can have them for snacks/lunch if needed. So I guess I'll send her with a water sippy and they'll provide dixie cups of juice and/or water at snack/lunch. If Arielle feels like drinking from a cup she can, but I'm glad she can still have her sippy available to her if she needs it. It's so strange because she CAN drink from a cup, she would just rather not...

-Rachel
Mom to Arielle, 10/30/01
and Daliya, 10/27/03

Noelle is almost exactly Arielle's age and she drinks from both. She too is a comfort sippy user. I have been trying to cut back a little on the sippies (mainly because we are potty training too and it helps to know how much is going in and when). When she sits down to a meal we give her a cup (with or without a straw). However, after each meal she wants her milk in a sippie. She takes it and she goes straight to the couch, snuggles up with her favorite pillow and blanket, sips, and twirls her hair. As soon as she finishes her milk she carries the cup over to the sink and drops it in. So she doesn't carry a sippy around at all.

At nursery school they kept the sippies/cups in their lunch boxes until lunch time. Snack time it depended on what the parents brought - juice boxes or milk. They drank the juice from the boxes (obviously), but the teacher pulled up the little ears on the top side of the juice box so that the kids picked up their drink by the little tabs (preventing the squirt factor).

Jen in Okinawa
Mom to Noelle (2 1/2)