Better curriculum or better community?

[Anonymous]

Right now my 3 year old is in a preschool program that has been great. The only downfall is there’s only 1-2 kids he will go to elementary with, although they are good friends of mine. In contrast, there’s another program down the street that 10 children he will go to elementary with are in. The current school has a great reputation for preparing the kids for school and he has a late birthday. The second school is play based entirely so doesn’t prepare kids as much academically for kinder. I absolutely love the teacher he will have at our current school for prek-4. Would you switch for the sole purpose of having that fun community of peers and kids prior to kindergarten? I’m friends with them but we miss a lot of the get together because school doesn’t align.

[Anonymous]

Part of preschool is learning how to make friends. He doesn't need to line up his friends for elementary school now.

[Anonymous]

Some would say the play-based program has the better curriculum.

[Anonymous]

No. It’s hard to see now but having lots of friends at his age does not matter at all and moving up to K with an intact cohort doesn’t matter. You could switch and he could not wind up being friends with any of those kids after a week of K. You can’t manufacture his social life to that degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. It’s hard to see now but having lots of friends at his age does not matter at all and moving up to K with an intact cohort doesn’t matter. You could switch and he could not wind up being friends with any of those kids after a week of K. You can’t manufacture his social life to that degree.

That is good advice. I don't have older kids so don't quite know how the friendship dynamics work in elementary. I don't want him to miss meeting all of his peers.

[Anonymous]

Stay, play based doesn't prepare kids as well. He'll be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some would say the play-based program has the better curriculum.

+1 This is so true!

At the age of 3, play based is age appropriate. I would have put him in play-based from 2-4. But since you've already put him in an academic based preschool I wouldn't switch for 1y only since you like his current one.

I wouldn't factor in the number of friends at this age since it doesn't really matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. It’s hard to see now but having lots of friends at his age does not matter at all and moving up to K with an intact cohort doesn’t matter. You could switch and he could not wind up being friends with any of those kids after a week of K. You can’t manufacture his social life to that degree.

Plus, just because they will all be at the same ES doesn’t mean in the same class. Our ES has 5 Kindergarten classes. DD is super excited that she and 3 of her friends from daycare will all be going to the same ES for K, and we’ve had to remind her that they may all be in completely different classes at that point.

If you and your child are happy at your current location, no need to switch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some would say the play-based program has the better curriculum.

+1 This is so true!

At the age of 3, play based is age appropriate. I would have put him in play-based from 2-4. But since you've already put him in an academic based preschool I wouldn't switch for 1y only since you like his current one.

I wouldn't factor in the number of friends at this age since it doesn't really matter.

Play based for sure at this age!

[Anonymous]

It doesn't matter. Do you remember what you you doing when you were 3?
If your child is happy that's all you should be looking at now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some would say the play-based program has the better curriculum.

+1 This is so true!

At the age of 3, play based is age appropriate. I would have put him in play-based from 2-4. But since you've already put him in an academic based preschool I wouldn't switch for 1y only since you like his current one.

I wouldn't factor in the number of friends at this age since it doesn't really matter.

What is an “academic preschool” ... what are examples of “academic preschools” in the area? I’ve heard of play-based or Montessori...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Right now my 3 year old is in a preschool program that has been great. The only downfall is there’s only 1-2 kids he will go to elementary with, although they are good friends of mine. In contrast, there’s another program down the street that 10 children he will go to elementary with are in. The current school has a great reputation for preparing the kids for school and he has a late birthday. The second school is play based entirely so doesn’t prepare kids as much academically for kinder. I absolutely love the teacher he will have at our current school for prek-4. Would you switch for the sole purpose of having that fun community of peers and kids prior to kindergarten? I’m friends with them but we miss a lot of the get together because school doesn’t align.

Kids from play based curriculum do better in life, so I'd move him for the better curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some would say the play-based program has the better curriculum.

+1 This is so true!

At the age of 3, play based is age appropriate. I would have put him in play-based from 2-4. But since you've already put him in an academic based preschool I wouldn't switch for 1y only since you like his current one.

I wouldn't factor in the number of friends at this age since it doesn't really matter.

What is an “academic preschool” ... what are examples of “academic preschools” in the area? I’ve heard of play-based or Montessori...

In Arlington the most popular “academic” preschool is little ambassadors. You won’t see that listed on any preschools website, but you can tell by the way they describe learning. More academically based preschools will usually describe specific skills they will be teaching the kids often academic based. At a preschool fair the director did verbally say they are more academic based. You can see it in how they describe their curriculum, saying kids will be practicing writing numbers for example:

https://www.littleambassadorsacademy.com/preschool

Then here is the pre-K curriculum: https://www.littleambassadorsacademy.com/prek

They will of course still use fun ways to learn many of these things but it’s usually much more structured and the activities more teacher led rather than child led. You can see in their photos for example all the days of the week, the weather on the wall, etc similar to what you might see in an elementary school classroom. The approach is not particularly supported by research foe this age group, and isn’t what I would choose but parents that go to little ambassadors LOVE it so it is a well run program. And some parents feel more comfortable seeing all that structure which I understand

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right now my 3 year old is in a preschool program that has been great. The only downfall is there’s only 1-2 kids he will go to elementary with, although they are good friends of mine. In contrast, there’s another program down the street that 10 children he will go to elementary with are in. The current school has a great reputation for preparing the kids for school and he has a late birthday. The second school is play based entirely so doesn’t prepare kids as much academically for kinder. I absolutely love the teacher he will have at our current school for prek-4. Would you switch for the sole purpose of having that fun community of peers and kids prior to kindergarten? I’m friends with them but we miss a lot of the get together because school doesn’t align.

Kids from play based curriculum do better in life, so I'd move him for the better curriculum.

Not necessarily. We tried both for my child. Play based was a waste of time and just child care. Changed to an "academic" preschool with academics, structure and routines and child thrived. It set him up really well for K and future success. Child thriving years later in school. Having learned to read early, and given basic writing, math and other skills early on really helped.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right now my 3 year old is in a preschool program that has been great. The only downfall is there’s only 1-2 kids he will go to elementary with, although they are good friends of mine. In contrast, there’s another program down the street that 10 children he will go to elementary with are in. The current school has a great reputation for preparing the kids for school and he has a late birthday. The second school is play based entirely so doesn’t prepare kids as much academically for kinder. I absolutely love the teacher he will have at our current school for prek-4. Would you switch for the sole purpose of having that fun community of peers and kids prior to kindergarten? I’m friends with them but we miss a lot of the get together because school doesn’t align.

Kids from play based curriculum do better in life, so I'd move him for the better curriculum.

Not necessarily. We tried both for my child. Play based was a waste of time and just child care. Changed to an "academic" preschool with academics, structure and routines and child thrived. It set him up really well for K and future success. Child thriving years later in school. Having learned to read early, and given basic writing, math and other skills early on really helped.

I will say that our play-based preschool focused a lot more on academic preparedness the year leading up to kindergarten. It was a lot of play up to that and I was having my doubts a bit but it worked out fine. DS was more than prepared for kindergarten.