daycare vs kindy

biggest difference between kindy and daycare -

one you can work and send your kids to
the other you really cant be working full time and send them to....no idea how the heck i would get ella to and from a kindy session (9-12 30 and 12 45 til 3) or what i would do with her for rest of time

Day care is that...drop her off she spends the day, learning stuff etc....

Kindy is not an option for us.

I had to compare these 2 for an assignment I did. I did sent Vanessa a PM with the info so she may post it for you to have a look at.

My opinions - they both have their place and it depends on what you need for her. Do you need her to be cared for as you have things you have to do during the day, or is it that you want her to have some socialising with children her age??

See I'd argue the difference, Maya was at a traditional daycare from 5 mths and could have stayed there till she was 5, but I felt they didn't have the same emphasis on learning, even the 4 year olds just pretty much played. She did learn stuff, but they didn't have the concentrated reading/writing/numbers activties that they did at preschool.
Community (free) kindy is different tho, that's the one that's sessional.

Bombshell wrote: Kindy to me will always be the laf day freebie....its

a what???

I think you have to look at particular places and how they work rather than making a judgment based on what kind of centre they are.

While I was doing my B.Ed in ECE I visited lots of centres on practicum. Some kindys seemed to be more structured and 'educational' while others were less so, and some childcares were more so than others. It completely depends on the particular place.

As far as I'm concerned one of the benefits of kindy is that they are often near a school so children can get to know other kids they'll be going to school with. And one of the benefits of childcare is the ratios - I'm sorry but saying that children in childcare have everything done for them because there are more teachers is just not true. More teachers means they have more time to give children individual attention and know what their needs and strengths are - and more time to help them through things so they learn to do them themselves.

Having said that - of course it may be your experience of childcare that leads you to say that the teachers do everything for the children. What I should say is it is definitely not true of all childcare!

Were lucky with Alyssa's DC as it is right next door to the kindy and primary school, Some kids are even taken to kindy sessions from DC. Then most of the kids go to the school next door when they are 5 so at least she should know some kids when she starts.
We've done private kindy (when we had a Nanny), Preschool 8-4 or sessions if you wanted and DC. We have never done public kindy because of work commitments. But out of them all I liked the preschool best of all as they were Montessori and when my girls started school they had already learnt the basics of writing, reading and Alex was particularly good at maths. Alyssa is in DC as the preschool doesn't take under two's and I have to work. This time I will probably leave her in DC right through as they seem to have a good learning programme for their older children.
To sum it all up I'd say look around at the different options and really consider what you want your kids to get out of it.