Preschool vs Daycare Wars

[Anonymous]

The data just doesn’t support group learning before age 3 or so. If your goal is to ‘school’ a two year old you would hire a nanny because they are learning from a single caregiver and not from peers. The peers are only competitors for the caregivers attention. Any center that is trying to sell you on STEM classes for 2 year olds is ripping you off. They are usually just trying to distract you from the caregiver ratio.

Look for a high caregiver ratio not a curriculum or ‘school’ before age 3/4. Often an in-home daycare is better in this regard, frankly.

After age 3/4 they do learn from peers so there is definite benefit to a school environment.

Let’s just be honest about the tough choices all parents make and not let an industry try to sell us on non-evidence based nonsense.

https://criticalscience.medium.com/on-the-science-of-daycare-4d1ab4c2efb4#:~:text=Children%20spending%20long%20hours%20in,negative%20effect%20on%20later%20behavior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The data just doesn’t support group learning before age 3 or so. If your goal is to ‘school’ a two year old you would hire a nanny because they are learning from a single caregiver and not from peers. The peers are only competitors for the caregivers attention. Any center that is trying to sell you on STEM classes for 2 year olds is ripping you off. They are usually just trying to distract you from the caregiver ratio.

Look for a high caregiver ratio not a curriculum or ‘school’ before age 3/4. Often an in-home daycare is better in this regard, frankly.

After age 3/4 they do learn from peers so there is definite benefit to a school environment.

Let’s just be honest about the tough choices all parents make and not let an industry try to sell us on non-evidence based nonsense.

https://criticalscience.medium.com/on-the-science-of-daycare-4d1ab4c2efb4#:~:text=Children%20spending%20long%20hours%20in,negative%20effect%20on%20later%20behavior.

And none of that has anything whatsoever to do with whether it’s accurate to say 2y/o Granton who attends Congressional School is in school. Or whether two year old Freya at Fiore Montessori School in Vienna is at daycare.

I am sure you made a good choice for your kid. I’m sorry if someone made you feel like it wasn’t optimal enough, but your choices don’t gain any extra value by trying to undermine others’.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The data just doesn’t support group learning before age 3 or so. If your goal is to ‘school’ a two year old you would hire a nanny because they are learning from a single caregiver and not from peers. The peers are only competitors for the caregivers attention. Any center that is trying to sell you on STEM classes for 2 year olds is ripping you off. They are usually just trying to distract you from the caregiver ratio.

Look for a high caregiver ratio not a curriculum or ‘school’ before age 3/4. Often an in-home daycare is better in this regard, frankly.

After age 3/4 they do learn from peers so there is definite benefit to a school environment.

Let’s just be honest about the tough choices all parents make and not let an industry try to sell us on non-evidence based nonsense.

https://criticalscience.medium.com/on-the-science-of-daycare-4d1ab4c2efb4#:~:text=Children%20spending%20long%20hours%20in,negative%20effect%20on%20later%20behavior.

And none of that has anything whatsoever to do with whether it’s accurate to say 2y/o Granton who attends Congressional School is in school. Or whether two year old Freya at Fiore Montessori School in Vienna is at daycare.

I am sure you made a good choice for your kid. I’m sorry if someone made you feel like it wasn’t optimal enough, but your choices don’t gain any extra value by trying to undermine others’.

Grayton’s parents are paying $30,000 a year when he would be much better off down the street at a nanny share for that same amount. So, no, I would not say that is an optimal choice for a two year old.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WHY do people care if someone says preschool instead of daycare? I've even had people correct me when I use the word "teacher" and say it's a "daycare worker." This is not semantics, I believe this is more to put down working parents who use daycare versus SAHMs who use preschool.

FWIW my kids are in Pre-K and a 3 year old program, both at a daycare center. There is a curriculum from 9:30-lunch, then lunch, nap, playground time and then they get picked up. My friends' kids are in Pre-K at a church center and they call it preschool instead because they pick up after lunch. Do people who correct others think that we don't realize it's daycare? It doesn't negate the fact that it's still preschool in the beginning of the day.

All daycares have academic programming for kids aged 3-5, just like preschools. All preschools have play time and nap time and protocols to deal with potty accidents, just like daycare. For all intents and purposes they are the same thing for kids aged 3-5. Daycares simply serve a broader range of ages, like babies and elementary aged kids needing after school supervision. Preschools generally don't take kids younger than 3 and often times they offer kindergarten. In my experience, people whose kids go to a preschool program that also offers kindergarten get very butt hurt about people referring to it as daycare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I only find it weird when people use the term “preschool” for a kid under 3 who is clearly going to daycare. I always get the vibe that they’re self conscious that their kid is going to daycare so they rebrand it as “school.” I say this as someone with a kid in daycare—it’s not school and it’s not supposed to be.

this!

Did you think you were adding to the conversation with this post?

it added more than yours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m in the south and can confirm “daycare” is a bad word around here.

Why is that?

Daycare isn’t a term that is used in DC education spaces either. Day care is an outdated term that doesn’t encompass the variety of child care services available and the learning that takes place within child care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The data just doesn’t support group learning before age 3 or so. If your goal is to ‘school’ a two year old you would hire a nanny because they are learning from a single caregiver and not from peers. The peers are only competitors for the caregivers attention. Any center that is trying to sell you on STEM classes for 2 year olds is ripping you off. They are usually just trying to distract you from the caregiver ratio.

Look for a high caregiver ratio not a curriculum or ‘school’ before age 3/4. Often an in-home daycare is better in this regard, frankly.

After age 3/4 they do learn from peers so there is definite benefit to a school environment.

Let’s just be honest about the tough choices all parents make and not let an industry try to sell us on non-evidence based nonsense.

https://criticalscience.medium.com/on-the-science-of-daycare-4d1ab4c2efb4#:~:text=Children%20spending%20long%20hours%20in,negative%20effect%20on%20later%20behavior.

And none of that has anything whatsoever to do with whether it’s accurate to say 2y/o Granton who attends Congressional School is in school. Or whether two year old Freya at Fiore Montessori School in Vienna is at daycare.

I am sure you made a good choice for your kid. I’m sorry if someone made you feel like it wasn’t optimal enough, but your choices don’t gain any extra value by trying to undermine others’.

Grayton’s parents are paying $30,000 a year when he would be much better off down the street at a nanny share for that same amount. So, no, I would not say that is an optimal choice for a two year old.

Which is just as irrelevant to the topic of what they call their childcare situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WHY do people care if someone says preschool instead of daycare? I've even had people correct me when I use the word "teacher" and say it's a "daycare worker." This is not semantics, I believe this is more to put down working parents who use daycare versus SAHMs who use preschool.

FWIW my kids are in Pre-K and a 3 year old program, both at a daycare center. There is a curriculum from 9:30-lunch, then lunch, nap, playground time and then they get picked up. My friends' kids are in Pre-K at a church center and they call it preschool instead because they pick up after lunch. Do people who correct others think that we don't realize it's daycare? It doesn't negate the fact that it's still preschool in the beginning of the day.

All daycares have academic programming for kids aged 3-5, just like preschools. All preschools have play time and nap time and protocols to deal with potty accidents, just like daycare. For all intents and purposes they are the same thing for kids aged 3-5. Daycares simply serve a broader range of ages, like babies and elementary aged kids needing after school supervision. Preschools generally don't take kids younger than 3 and often times they offer kindergarten. In my experience, people whose kids go to a preschool program that also offers kindergarten get very butt hurt about people referring to it as daycare.

Yes, daycares most of the time the providers already are preschool teachers

[Anonymous]

Most daycare providers are preschool teachers. I've seen they do the same as centers. It's just the Daycare are more open for mixed ages.

Also it's not daycare. It's family child care homes. The children go to learn, explore, develop social skills with others. It's about the children and the families, not the care of the day.

The ruggt terns should be Family Child care homes and child care centers

[Anonymous]

*the right

[Anonymous]

Family child care home : mostly 8 kids, small group, more attention, less crowded, can have Providers that have CDA and are preschool teachers that teaches to 2 years old and 3s

Child Care centers: mostly 30, 60, 100 kids, less staff, crowded, they have preschool teachers that teaches to 2s and 3s.

It depends what you like. Crowded, noisy like a kindergarten, elementary or small groups, calmer.

In my opinion children needs lots of play and learn social skills, empathy. The academics is later. Starting 2s they can practice writing, numbers, etc but including lots of play and exploration. I think is better to send a young child to prek at 3.5 or 4. Kindergarten is a big noisy class, public schools needs more staff and more fundings

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are two different things. One is lower class.

Yes, the insecure person who started this thread in an attempt to cut other people and their choices down sure is low class.

OP here. I'm not insecure! I don't care whether you say preschool or daycare. I see them as mostly interchangeable.

The only people I'm judging are the ones who get caught up in a name. People say "no- it's not a preschool- it's daycare!" are trying to denigrate the daycare/preschool while implicitly saying "sorry you couldn't afford to stay home/toddlers belong with their moms/sorry you can't afford a nanny/my way is best".

And yeah "daycare workers" is derogatory in my mind. Do you also call cleaning people "the help"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The data just doesn’t support group learning before age 3 or so. If your goal is to ‘school’ a two year old you would hire a nanny because they are learning from a single caregiver and not from peers. The peers are only competitors for the caregivers attention. Any center that is trying to sell you on STEM classes for 2 year olds is ripping you off. They are usually just trying to distract you from the caregiver ratio.

Look for a high caregiver ratio not a curriculum or ‘school’ before age 3/4. Often an in-home daycare is better in this regard, frankly.

After age 3/4 they do learn from peers so there is definite benefit to a school environment.

Let’s just be honest about the tough choices all parents make and not let an industry try to sell us on non-evidence based nonsense.

https://criticalscience.medium.com/on-the-science-of-daycare-4d1ab4c2efb4#:~:text=Children%20spending%20long%20hours%20in,negative%20effect%20on%20later%20behavior.

If you actually read the studies cited on this blog post you'll see "the data" is not nearly as definitive as the author makes it sound. Talk to any speech therapist that works with young toddlers and they will tell you many 1 year olds with expressive language delays magically start talking when they are in a group setting. Just because they aren't playing cooperatively yet doesn't mean they aren't learning from each other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most daycare providers are preschool teachers. I've seen they do the same as centers. It's just the Daycare are more open for mixed ages.

Also it's not daycare. It's family child care homes. The children go to learn, explore, develop social skills with others. It's about the children and the families, not the care of the day.

The ruggt terns should be Family Child care homes and child care centers

I hear you but I think the child care sector needs to come up with better terms because these don't exactly roll off the tongue. That being said yes it's absurd to insist that "daycare" is the correct term when the professionals themselves don't call it that. Just goes to show how little respect folks have for child care professionals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The data just doesn’t support group learning before age 3 or so. If your goal is to ‘school’ a two year old you would hire a nanny because they are learning from a single caregiver and not from peers. The peers are only competitors for the caregivers attention. Any center that is trying to sell you on STEM classes for 2 year olds is ripping you off. They are usually just trying to distract you from the caregiver ratio.

Look for a high caregiver ratio not a curriculum or ‘school’ before age 3/4. Often an in-home daycare is better in this regard, frankly.

After age 3/4 they do learn from peers so there is definite benefit to a school environment.

Let’s just be honest about the tough choices all parents make and not let an industry try to sell us on non-evidence based nonsense.

https://criticalscience.medium.com/on-the-science-of-daycare-4d1ab4c2efb4#:~:text=Children%20spending%20long%20hours%20in,negative%20effect%20on%20later%20behavior.

If you actually read the studies cited on this blog post you'll see "the data" is not nearly as definitive as the author makes it sound. Talk to any speech therapist that works with young toddlers and they will tell you many 1 year olds with expressive language delays magically start talking when they are in a group setting. Just because they aren't playing cooperatively yet doesn't mean they aren't learning from each other.

In my sample size one family, where my daughter had 1:1 and sometimes 2:1 (two teachers to her alone) care (COVID wasn’t bad for everything) I found she made huge strides when she spent time with her cousins compared to with adults alone. Babies are absolutely fascinated by other children. And everyone I know with two kids praises to the skies the benefits of the first child “teaching” the second potty training.

But also? It doesn’t matter. This isn’t about whether daycare and preschool are good options or whether we all should eat rice and beans and never travel to stay home with our kids.

This is about people who actually care what other parents call their childcare. And that’s nothing but sad. I can’t be angry at someone who has that little validating their parenting that this is what they’re fixed on.