Do you think preschoolers benefit from childcare?

Childcare will not hurt your child. However, you need to pick a wonderful place for your child, a place where they will pay attention to her and not just plunk her in front of a tv for the time you are gone. Why not visit a few places with your daughter and see how she reacts to them, and how the people react to her? Usually by about 2½, most children—even those who have been very clingy—are raring to get to going into the world. If your child has not been exposed to anyone else during these two years, it might be a bit difficult for her, but really she needs to know that there are other people who will also care for her in the world. Especially if it is for short periods of time—hopefully she will have fun. Most important though is to pay attention to her and her needs—take it slow if that is what she wants. She may surprise you though.

I think a play group with other parents and children is a lot more useful than leaving a two year old at a commercial child care. You might also consider leaving the child with a relative she is used to. I keep my grandson every weekend and he is much more willing to go out in public, as a result of being exposed to staying here overnight.

When my daughter was around 18 months old I put her in day care part time so she could interact with other kids. I didn’t have any friends with kids her age and she was the first, so there were no cousins or siblings to play with yet. She loved going and it was good for her. When I was on maternity leave with my son, I kept taking her to day care two mornings a week because she loved to go so much. It was worth the money. It would probably be good for your little one to spend some time away from you. She needs to get used to that anyway, or it’s going to be really, really hard when she goes to kindergarten.

I think it has its benefits. Part time day care can be good for social development and for them to interact with other children to form bonds. I was in day care since I was 4 years old full time and I have made a lot of friends that I still have over the years. Though the downside is your child has a greater chance of getting sick and bringing those germs home and such. As long as their is a strong foundation at home I don’t see a problem.

My older child went to a church run daycare from 8 weeks until age 4. My youngest went to the same daycare until 15 months, and then stayed home with me. The thing that I like about a good day care center is that the activities are child centered and developmentally appropriate. Children are not dropped in front of a television set so that mom or an in-home caregiver can attend to other things that need to be done.

When you’re looking for a center, the things to look for is a director with an early childhood education degree, low staff turnover, and small class sizes. Look at the room design from a child perspective, and not an adult’s. Are there play materials accessible? What does the activity plan looks like for a typical week? What are parent communications like? Are there opportunities to meet other parents? How are new developmental skills taught? I still maintain friendships with fellow daycare parents, and my oldest daughter’s best friend is one from daycare.

I think try it. She might surprise you. If she hates it you will change your mind and do something else. My sister-in-law hated the idea of putting her children in aftercare at their elementar school (I know this is different, but I will try to get to my point quickly). Finnaly after making herself crazy juggling work, and relying on her mother, who really could not do everything required to entertain the kids, she relented and signed them up for aftercare. She felt like a horrible mother, and was terrified her children would hate it, especially her daughter who was more clingy at the time. Well, the children LOVED it! You don’t know until you know.

And, sometimes children are clingy when their mother is present, but not when she is away.

Now, you have said it is just a few hours a week. I say do it. I went to nursery school 3 days a week from the age of 2.5 to 4 and for me it was playing with other kids, and gave my mom a break.

For me the biggest draw back about being in day care is your daughter might get a few more colds per year, which is annoying.

I worked in a toddler classroom for several years, and we sometimes had a two year old start in our class after only being home with Mom or Dad. Usually, the transition was kind of rough. At that age, kids still have separation anxiety but aren’t mature enough to be comforted by the idea that Mom or Dad will be back soon to pick them up. Kids who started part time usually took a couple of weeks to settle in, but after that, they did great and had a lot of fun. Most likely your daughter would need a little time to adjust to being away from you. At first she may cry when you leave, and be sad off and on while you’re gone. Then, she’ll cry when you leave but perk right up once she knows you’re gone. After a while, she’ll be too busy to bother saying goodbye to you. She’ll bond with her caregivers and learn she can trust them to meet her needs. Honestly, the first couple of weeks might be rough, but then it’s smooth sailing. In all my years working with toddlers, I never had a child take more than two weeks to adjust.

High quality childcare has a lot of benefits for both you and your child. She gets to socialize with other children and learn expected school behaviors. She’ll participate in activities that will help her develop fine and large motor skills, creativity, language, and early math concepts. She’ll have fun and not even realize how much she’s learning. I remember when my daughter was in preschool, she said to me “I don’t learn anything at school. I just have fun.” By that time she could recognize and write all the letters and numbers, was starting to read, and could do math problems in her head! You also benefit from the experience and knowledge of your child’s teachers. Working with kids helped me learn to be a better parent, and talking to my kids’ caregivers also really taught me a lot. The teachers are like an extra support system for your family. So yes, childcare can be very beneficial.

The key is to find a daycare with exceptional standards. There are many articles available online on how to find a high quality daycare center or home daycare, but if you have any specific questions you can PM me and I’ll be happy to give you some things to look for or questions to ask.

you need to find a pre-school that you believe will offer our child something in addition to what you can teach them – I have chosen (not for financial reasons) to put my oldest into a Montessori program which has been excellent at developing his intellectual abilities..they have done an amazing job so far.