What's next after in-home daycare?

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone! Currently, I have my oldest daughter (4) in a military base CDC preschool program and so far it's going well. However, the waiting list is really long. I have my 2nd kiddo, who is turning 1, in an in-home daycare. My 4 year old was at an in-home from 18 months till she turned three (due to COVID) and when she was about 2.5 years old, the in-home daycare person said hey, she needs to go to a preschool but we held on because I was pregnant with #2 and just wanted some stability. Looking back, it probably would have been best for her to have been in a preschool environment sooner --- she was a bit behind in speech and socialization (again, I think a lot of it was due to COVID pre-vaccines, etc) but she's super thriving now.
My 1 year old has been in an in-home daycare since he was 4 months old and I have kiddo #3 on the way, due in April. He's (and #3) signed up for the military CDC programs but, again, that waitlist is crazy. Considering things are a bit more 'normal-ish-ish-ish' now, is a good time to tranisition from in-home to a preschool-ish setting more along the 2 year old time frame?
Just trying to get a sense of what the next moves should be. The great advantage of in-home is that it's a bit cheaper, it's down the street from me and it's definitely smaller. However, I don't want to run into some of the hold backs my 1st had (although I know every kid is different)

[Anonymous]

I think four years is a good time to transition out of in-home to a preschool.

[Anonymous]

My first child went from in-home daycare to K. So around 5. Second was in the in-home daycare until 3, then stayed home and went to K. Neither went to preschool and both are thriving. The in-home taught them basic letters and numbers. I don't think preschools are make or break for little kids.

[Anonymous]

Kids usually move from in-homes to preschool at age 3. However we were at a larger in-home with several locations. They had an excellent curriculum and most kids ended up staying till K.

[Anonymous]

I would want some kind of structure like school at around 4. But my kid who was a June bday only did prek. 3 days a week from 930-2. She is in 5th now and doing just fine. Plenty of kids start K with no preschool. I would assume on a military base there are a lot of kids home with one parent before they go to K.

[Anonymous]

My oldest moved from our in-home daycare to a preschool center at 3.5. Granted, it was a slightly larger in-home (12 kids) with a good balance of ages, occasionally kids even stayed until kindergarten. But IME that was a good age to move, he seemed like he was starting to outgrow it. We ended up moving our youngest earlier, at 2.5, because there was a spot and convenience to where our oldest would be going to ES. It was fine, but all things being equal I wouldn't have minded staying it the in-home a bit longer. It was also during the pandemic with outdoor dropoffs and other measures and she wasn't super verbal yet. By 3 she was chattering about her day and we could go in and actually see the teachers and I just felt more comfortable with everything.

Anyway, unless you have a concern with the in-home, I wouldn't be too worried about rushing to move. Especially with another baby on the way- you aren't going to want to deal with 3 dropoffs! Any sense when a spot would open at the CDC program?