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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]That sounds like a huge hassle.  I have no idea why working parents (except in DC where it's free) bother to choose these "preschools", unless they've been fooled by the marketing that a "preschool" is somehow inherently better than "child care." Obviously you have to look into each individual program carefully, but there are good and bad preschools just like there are good and bad child care centers, and plenty of child care centers do as good or better at supporting early learning and development as preschools do (while also being open the hours and days working parents need.)  Slapping the name "preschool" on a program doesn't tell you anything about the quality, it just tells you that the program is not likely to prioritize working parents' schedules and needs.  Yet parents keep assuming they are magically "better"...[/quote]

My kid went to both a preschool and a daycare center and I can tell you it’s not just marketing. There is a huge difference. The private preschool my child went to was heads and shoulders above the daycare. The stuff he brings home, the things they are able to do, the activities, the expectations - it’s not even close. People are not stupid. The schedule is a hassle, but to me, it is absolutely worth it if the family can deal with the long summers and breaks. They are very clear that they are first and foremost an educational institution, and not a childcare center. If anyone wants that, they need to be looking at a daycare.

There was actually nothing wrong with the daycare my kid went to. The teachers were very nice, but the classrooms were chaotic. Very high number of kids in a class because the center has to maximize income. They could barely do anything because there were so many kids, which meant the likelihood of behavior issues much higher. The teachers were really trying their best but they couldn’t do much. He got super bored there. If I had no other choice but daycare, I would choose a bilingual/immersion daycare. At least that will give the kids a challenge and learn something even if the whole day is just playing and going outside.

People with choices will always have it easier. What [b]I don’t understand is how people choose these schools knowing what the schedules are like and then complain about childcare during the breaks. Don’t choose a preschool with long breaks if your jobs or family situation cannot handle it.[/b] [/quote]

You say there was nothing wrong with the daycare and then go on to list all the things that were wrong with it lol

Not every daycare is the same and not every preschool is the same. There are many preschools with larger class sizes than the one at DD's daycare.

Also, while I get what you are saying about not using preschool if your job doesn't allow it, it can be confusing when they offer before and after care ostensibly for working parents. We did consider preschools that seemed lovely and I remember thinking oh, we'll figure something out for those few weeks, grandparents can help etc. Well fast forward we ended up keeping DD at her daycare for a variety of reasons and turns out grandparents are getting too old to watch DD for more than a couple days in a row, and work is now super busy in the summer when it didn't used to be. And as this thread shows, alternative child care options to cover those periods are few and far between.

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The daycare, in my opinion, is more of a babysitting service. They kept my kid safe and provided a place to socialize under the supervision of teachers while I was working. Many people don’t mind it being just that. I had issues with it but that’s a me problem. That’s not a problem with the daycare or how it is run. That’s what I was trying to say.

I only had issues with it because I had options to send my child somewhere else. If I didn’t have any options, it would have been a fine place to continue sending my child. I know they will take care of him. But I wanted more than just childcare. I wanted him to do more things which was why I chose the preschool despite it being a hassle.

The preschool is NOT a babysitting service. The dual working parents’ schedule is not their problem. Their priority is to “educate” kids. They are very clear about that during the tours. They have a ton of breaks and teacher workdays. I could only send my kid there because I was working part time. The summers for the preschools were ridiculously long. It’s not a few weeks. It’s a few MONTHS, not including the breaks during the year as well as random days off. People should be aware of this. Even if they offer before and aftercare on school days, they are not going to provide any childcare for the 2 weeks off winter breaks, 1 week of spring break, 3+ days at Thanksgiving, and all the random teacher professional days. And the big one - nearly 3 months of summer. That is not a place designed “ostensibly for working parents.”

Camps for 3 year olds are not as prevalent as for a child 4+ and sometimes they don’t cover all the weeks. If a family has 2 parents who needed to work all year, don’t have flexible jobs, or don’t have ironclad backup childcare for all the breaks, they should not ever consider a preschool type of care. It shouldn’t be an option on the table. [/quote]

Wow that's a lot of lost learning time- did you supplement over the summer?[/quote]

No, I didn’t feel the need to. He learns a lot at school already. I am a former teacher and it’s not about how long kids are in school. What’s important is what they actually do in the classroom. What can the teacher accomplish with the group of kids? What are the behavioral expectations of the school? What are the consequences?

There is a lot of built in wasted time in a regular school day, add in behavior issues and the kids might be lucky to get 15 minutes of direct instruction in a 7-8 hour school day. I have seen it and lived it. If your kid is stuck in a class with intensive behavioral issues, they’re not going to be learning much even if they’re there 12 hours a day and they go to school year round. They’re just going to be sitting around watching the teachers being stressed out. There is a lot of turnover at the daycare and it is not hard to see why. When my kid was there, is was constant. Teachers leaving all the time, new assistants coming in every 2 days, etc. At the preschool, I noticed the teachers were much happier. Possibly due to the breaks they get compared to the daycare teachers. The same teacher and assistant were there the entire year. No one left. [/quote]

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