XP: What's the difference?

CountryatHeart

In daycare for a 3/4 year old and preschool?  DD attends daycare and when they turn 3, they move into the preschool room.  She's still going all day like she did before, and it seems pretty similar to her 2 year old class, in terms of learning and stuff, just new material. 

Alot of my mom friends are talking about "choosing a preschool".  Is there a difference in what I am doing and what they are doing?

KristinKD

I don't think there's much difference between a preschool and a daycare preschool room in terms of curriculum. I think the main difference is in the schedules, as daycare preschool is usually full day, while preschool is typically half day. (There are some full-day preschools, but half-day is the norm; around here, I know of only one that offers full-day.)

Did your mom friends use daycare? If they didn't, they'll have to "choose a preschool" once their kids reach preschool age, while you did your choosing when you chose your daycare. If they did use daycare and are still talking about choosing a preschool, it may just be that they want to move away from the daycare setting and into a traditional preschool instead.

jlw2505

At my daycare, the preschool program which starts at 2 1/2 (Pre1) 3 year olds in Pre2 and 4 year olds in Pre3 and then they move into the school age program.  In the preschool classes, the kids learn more - spent time on letters, writing them and learning them, working on cutting, coloring, learning numbers, the alaphabet.  It is all play based but more educationally focused than the infant and toddler programs.  IF you daycare center has a good preschool program, it is no different than someone looking at a preschool - many none daycare based preschools are simple not full time and many daycare preschools do the "school" type of stuff during certain hours of the day only and then do more play things during the rest of the day.  The only different I feel in the daycare preschool is when you get to the year before kindergarten program.  My older DD is in a PreK program that is through the school district and is very much a program geared towards getting the kids ready for kindergarten - still play based but they have a lot more rules and spend more time during educational things more like you would see in a kindy classroom than in a daycare setting.  The 4 year old room at daycare is still very play focus and in my opinion does not do a lot of kindergarten readiness stuff.