Daycare or preschool

[Anonymous]

My 3.5 year old has been going to an in-home daycare for over 2 years and loves it there. His teachers feel like family to us and they are great with him. He's learning a lot and brings home crafts all the time. The owner wants to meet with us soon and discuss our plans for him for the upcoming school year and we need to decide if we want to keep him in current daycare for another year or send him to preschool.

Some considerations:

-He turns 4 in June. Knows his letters and is learning simple spelling; can count fairly well
-His little brother (1 year old) goes to the same daycare. It's really nice that they're together
-There are 8 kids and two teachers in the daycare. He's the oldest but not by far. Head teacher does special activities to keep him challenged.

We're leaning toward keeping him at the daycare for another year, which means he would go to kindergarten directly next year at the age of 5.

Is he missing out by not going to preschool?

[Anonymous]

Honestly, if he's happy and you are happy, I'd keep him there.

[Anonymous]

Content-wise, a really good home daycare should be able ensure that he's ready for kindergarten. The thing that preschool can provide is the structure and classroom behavior: being with a bigger group of kids his own age, following instructions, waiting in line, raising his hand before he speaks, transitioning to different activities at set times, etc. If he's taken group classes where these kinds of things are done, then he may well already have those skills. And I'm not sure I'd send my kid to preschool just for that--kindergarten teachers are used to having kids with different backgrounds in this regard and the first few weeks are usually spent learning classroom routines--but it's what you should be considering when making this decision.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the others.. keep him there another year! Will he be going to public kindergarten? I could be a shock to him going from 2:8 ratio to say 1:24 though..

[Anonymous]

We did a year of pre-K with our June birthday and while I think it helped her, There were kids in her class who didnt even know the alphabet and had never been in any kind of school setting.
So your son will be fine in K regardless of what you do next year. So if he is happy and doing well I would leave him where he is.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like he's already where he should be for K. I would just keep him there for ease.

[Anonymous]

I would definitely keep him there. He has all the benefits of preschool there- socialization, learning activities etc... it’s easy for you.

[Anonymous]

My 4.5 year old and 2 year old are at a home daycare together. My 4.5 was in a full day pre-K but it didn’t suit her so I decided to put her in with her sister. For us it works.

[Anonymous]

I'd keep him where he is. Even if he is not as used to the classroom setting as PP noted, he will catch up soon. It is also much more convenient to have both kids in the same place logistically for another year. I had my kids in two different daycares for 5 months until we got off the waitlist for the younger, and it was a real pain.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you all for your input--informative and reassuring for sure.

[Anonymous]

I would keep him - my 4 year old is in preschool and is learning pretty much the same things. Her in home daycare did not do any teaching, that's the only reason we switched her to preschool. She was bored. It sounds like your son is not bored and is being challenged. It's so lovely to have your kids together to.