I’m always a little torn in the summer when I’m not teaching (but have other sporadic professional activities) about taking my kids to school/daycare. Fact is we have to pay if they are there or not and I can get more done and be a sane person when they are there. Why not let them be in a place where someone is providing educational and fun activities, they have peers to play with, they eat all their vegetables, and they get in a solid nap? I did the stay at home mom thing for about 9 months and though it wasn’t the disaster I thought it might be I can’t say I was great at it either. As my oldest heads toward kindergarten we will have a two week “summer vacation” when he stops attending his daycare/pre-achool and is home with me (not to mention the many family vacations we have prior to that.) The question will then be do I keep baby home that whole time too while we continue to pay tuition for her? Probably will do a little of both. Son and I can have some older kid activities on our own (like a decadent matinee of a kids movie), while she gets in a good nap and learns new skills interacting with her friends.