Kindy vs Daycare

Ava, who is 3 1/2, is in full time daycare at the moment. No2 is due in October, and to cut costs (and have her closer to home), I'm thinking of putting her in kindy 2 days a week (say Monday and Tuesday) and then having her in daycare for the rest of the week.

Is this a good idea? Is kindy as 'good' as daycare? Do they teach them the same things?

Ella has gone to both daycare and Kindy. We moved house earlier in the year and moved her to the Kindy then as we were moving area so it made sense. I have found them both kind of similar- main difference being that Kindy is a lot bigger (e.g. has more kids but also size wise) and has more different experiences for her (e.g. water slide, pottery wheel, animals etc). Other main difference was that at Kindy she had to bring a lunchbox , so am finding that is going to help prepare her for school. Both had mat time.

 

Kindy hours can vary between kindergartens- our one offers sessional (8.30-12.30) and full day (8.30-2.30) and has mixed ages in the sessions.

There are differences, but you need to go and see your local kindy as there are differences between kindy's too.

Also some daycares do kindy programs with no cost. Ours does 3 x 6 hour days 9-3. Free.

Kindy seems to follow more free play theory than daycare, and also has more children per teacher. 15:1 instead of 8:1.

Drop offs and pick ups can be a pain with new baby, somewhere close might be easier. Also with kindy they have to be there at a certain time, which can be tricky with new baby.

my DD went to kindy and my DS was at daycare for the last 2yrs and has now started Kindy he LOVES it

Personally i perfer Kindy (im a bit bias as my mums been a kindy teacher for 40yrs)although they are all different but he seems to do alot more things at kindy than he did at daycare and learning alot of different things and also i didnt agree with the daycare sleep thing for children 3.5+ as when they go to school they dont get a sleep etc so i dont see how that is preparing them for school


some kindys are still sesional (excuse spelling) but all are moving away from that my DS is at kindy from 8.30-2.30 but some times are different and start at 9 etc so pays to look into them all,

and as someone said above some let them eat whenever they want which i think they call "rolling kai time" they can eat as long as they are seated at a specific eating table , others have set times they have lunch which is good

also some kindys now as they are not sessional have a waiting list to get in, we had DS on the waiting list for about 2mths before he got into the one we wanted.

But pays to call in one day and have a chat to the teachers and then you can see the kids etc and how they all interact

saved us alot of money! we were paying $185pw for daycare 8.15 - 2.30 and kindy is $2 a day and thats just a donation