SWMR - clueless about daycare, preschool, kindergarten process

bumpuser10331514 · November 2014

I don't even know where to begin. I will talk to my DC about how long the kids can stay there, but want to have a little more info so I don't make myself look bad.

I know that I want to enroll the kids in kindergarten when the kids are each 5, and that my main priority up until then are for them to play. I think kids learn best through playing and being active/interactive. We have limited financial resources. I also assume it's inevitable that we'll be dropping the kids off at two different locations at some point.

There's a free preK program here for 4-yr-olds, but not sure what kind of programming those sorts of things offer and what kind of environment they would be in (I don't have high hopes since it's free). It's probably paid for by our school taxes and part of the public school system. There's also a private preschool and preK through a local museum which I bet is awesome, but probably also expensive.

So - what is montessori? What is preschool? What is preK? When do you transition a kid out of DC? What are good options when finances are limited? Any advice on what questions to ask as I look into our options?

djm31012 · November 2014

Montessori is pretty much exactly what you described you are looking for. its an emphasis on independence, freedom (within reason), and respect for a child's natural mental, physical, and social development.

Pre School starts as young as age 3 and goes until 5 (or kindergarten). You would have to visit different schools to see what their curriculum is and if its a fit for you and your children. We have a co-op in our town thats very inexpensive but parents need to volunteer their time as sort of "payment." All the others are private, as is Montessori.

Our daycare goes until Kindergarten, and then also has an after school program. It is your choice if you want to leave your child in daycare until they are ready for kindergarten. Our daycare curriculum evolves and develops as the kids get older, so they do more structured play/projects/actual learning even in daycare. I think if finances are tight, I would keep my child in day care, especially if you are happy at your center.

As far as what to ask: is there nap time, are meals/snacks served, what is the educational background/experience of teachers, what is the educational philosophy of the school (if not MOntessori, because then you would know), is there a lot of active play to develop gross and fine motor skills, how do they handle discipline.

emberlee3 · November 2014

DS was in a play based preschool until kindergarten. We loved it. Not strict Montessori, but many ideas/practices influenced by Montessori. His transition to kindergarten has been wonderful.

To avoid 2 drop offs this year, we took DD (2yo) out of daycare. We have a nanny to take DS to/from school and take care of DD.

I am torn on what to do next year. We could keep our nanny and just put DD in a PDO for a few hours per week. Then I could send her to public preK at age 4. I'm excited about the public program (play based). Or I could put her in Montessori for 2 years, but that's $$$.

I don't think there's one right answer. DH and I try to do what seems best for our family as a whole, rather than focusing on what might be our first choice for each child individually.

sugarbear0524 · November 2014

My son is 3 and goes to preschool. It has a great balance between play and academics. He will start free, public pre-K next August at 4 (if he gets a spot, it's done by lottery system). If not, he will do the pre-K program at where he is now. Then he will go to kindergarten at 5.

One of the big benefits of him going to pre-K at his local elementary school is that the curriculum and rules will build into Kindergarten. The preschool where he is now will pick him up after school and he will attend their after school program.

You might consider that the expectations for what kids should know in kindergarten have changed a lot. Now they are expected to know their numbers, letters, colors, etc. before they start. Quite a few of them are reading in kindergarten.

Leap08 · November 2014

Our daycare transitions to preschool at age 3 and goes through pre-K. They also have a before and after school program and provide transportation to area schools. Unfortunately, they do not do transportation to our elementary school (we live in a different school district - DC is near my work). So next year when DD1 starts kindergarten we're going to have to do something different. I really do not want to do two drop offs. We most likely are going to move to an activity center that does preschool starting at 3 (for DD2) and before and after school with transportation to our elementary school. They also have other activities at this center - rock climbing, gymnastics, cheer leading, swimming lessons (all for an additional fee of course). It is more expensive than I'd like, but there just don't seem to be a ton of convenient options for us and older kids seem to really love going to this place.

HobbityBarb · November 2014

One of the main reasons we chose the preschool my kids went to is that it was the preschool associated with the elementary school that we wanted to go to, so going to the preschool meant they were already getting familiar with the elementary school and getting to know some of the kids that would be there kindergarten class mates.

I was a SAHM at that stage so I needed them to get used to being in a class setting. If you're daycare offers programming up to kindergarten, then your kids are already getting that experience, so I think the only reason I would move would be if I had chosen their elementary school and that school had an attached pre-school.

2chatter · November 2014

Short answer: It is all rhetoric. Kids whose parents work are in a variety of programs, most of which are labeled things that don't really mean anything consistent. In some areas Pre-K versus Preschool denotes whether the program is of the Head Start variety as opposed to the $$$ kind. I'd decide where you want your child at the start of kinder (academically and socially) and find a program that meets your family's needs. Here, the kids are not given books until late October in K, so my reading-at-four rebellious-except-in-the-face-of-authority child regressed insanely (because books given to you by your mom don't mean anything, "mom, you are not the teacher and the teacher said we don't have to read yet").

bumpuser10331514 · November 2014

ClaryPax said:

Montessori is a specific teaching style/ school started by Maria Montessori. I would recommend getting a book on it from the library or looking at their website for more information. There is a lot to know about it. They have specific criteria.

Preschool in our DC is up until age 3, then they call it Pre-K for the 4 year old room.

Are you against public school in general? You kind of came across that way because you said it was free, so probably not good but then you said it was from the public school taxes. If you are in a good school district there should be no difference in quality between their Pre-K and their regular school age programs. I think there is a difference between Head Start and Public School Pre-K though not in terms of quality but in terms of how they are funded.

Oh, god no. I'm 100% pro-public school. We moved to our neighborhood b/c we wanted public school and the ones here are awesome. You're right that I did say it like it was a negative, but it was just a stream of consciousness. I actually view the tax-funding aspect to be a redeeming quality. Especially b/c we pay the highest school taxes in the entire nation. I want some free sh!t.

ET remove profanity. That first cup of coffee is a kick in the pants.

ss+el · November 2014

Free (Universal) preschool is very regulated by the state here. My son's PreK program was fantastic. I wasn't going to worry about sending him and now I'm glad I did. He is going to the same school for Kindergarten, so I can see where the K teacher transitions from concepts started in PreK, which is nice.

Sorry, can't help with when to transition out of daycare. DH and I have worked opposite shifts for most of our marriage, so we rarely used daycare and have no basis for comparison of the transition from daycare to school.

MickeyM04 · November 2014

I'm a little late to this thread, but I wanted to add that some daycares are very preschool-esque, so you might find a good daycare that sort of functions as a preschool for you.

For example, our DC, the 2 year old room is "junior preschool," the 3 year old room is "preschool 1", the 4 year old room is "preschool 2" and there is a 5 year old room that is pre-K. That one confuses me a bit because I think most Kindy's start at age 5, but I think it's because they move the kids by age so theoretically if your child turns 5 in November, they won't be old enough for Kindergarten, but they would not keep him in the 4 year old room for 10 more months. So I think the pre-K room is for the kids who turn 5 after the start of the school year. So for us, I am happy at our center and I don't see the point of moving to preschool at age 3 because the next room is basically preschool. And the 2+ rooms all do circle time, story time, art time, etc. Plus I know in the 3 year old room they start working with them on letters and numbers. So me personally I can't see what we would get out of preschool as opposed to DC.

MommyAtty · November 2014

The private school where we plan to send our kids starts at 3 with preschool, then 4 is pre-k, and 5 is kindergarten. So at 2 we put her in three day per week "school" in our neighborhood that we are referring to as "wee school." But it's just to get her used to listening to people who aren't related to her, sharing toys, and coexisting peacefully with people her size. So any daycare would have fit the bill for us. At the private school, they start doing gentle academic stuff at 3 and life gets a bit more regimented, but it's still 80% play.

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SWMR - clueless about daycare, preschool, kindergarten process

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