What are the benefits of preschool vs daycare? Is preschool required?

Most parents mix up daycare and preschool quite often. Though both of it are related to childcare and child development, they both are different in India.

• Daycare — This is mainly for childcare. They also have childhood education trained staff.
• Preschool — It is a setup that can be considered as a less formal class before the kid moves to kindergarten. Kids learn both academic and social skills in the preschool which helps in a smooth transition to kindergarten.

Daycare

• Age: Young Children (18 months or younger to toddlers (up to 3 years)
• Duration of Program: A year around( Monday to Friday), usually in sync with working parents.
• Class setting: Should develop social skills. Learns to work in groups, skills that make them independent like wash their hands, etc
• Teaches social, cognitive and emotional skills.

Preschool

• Age: 30 months(2.5 years to 5 years)
• Duration of Program: June to March, Monday to Friday.
• Class setting: Should develop academic and social skills. Learns numbers, pre-reading skills, and basic mathematical skills. Class behaviour.
• Learns to be independent like making their own decisions or confident to their abilities.
• Some daycares have preschool on the same premises. Kids who are eligible for preschool (Above 3 years), moves to daycare after their preschool hours gets over.

So whether your child is in Daycare or Preschool or both, you can access all their activities and reports instantaneously with Illumine childcare management app. This app helps the staff to provide a real-time update of the kids in the daycare or preschool to the parents.