How many days in preschool?

[peaceron]

My daughter turns 3 in September and will be starting preschool.

They have 3,4, or 5 day options. She’ll be there from 9am to 11:30.

Any evidence that points towards more or less days being beneficial? I decided to put her in for 4 days Mon - Thursday so she can stay home on Fridays and maybe go to the mosque with her dad. She’s getting pretty bored at home even with library story time and gymnastics class, toys, play dates etc.

I thought 4 (and even 5) days would be great but my friends (who are enrolling in the same preschool) insist that even 3 days is too much for a 3yo. They are also alternating days - M W F so kiddo gets a day on/day off.

I though Mon - Thurs would be better because it’s a more consistent schedule instead of going to school one day and then staying home and then going again but now I’m not so sure.

 

[andybrooks]

@peaceron 4 days is great. So is five. That whole alternate day stuff is such an American thing (to me, from EU, living in the US). She is doing 2.5hrs/ day. That’s perfect. She can learn the routine and not have every day be “Monday”.

(For reference, my kid goes 5x/ week, 3hrs/day). It’s been so good for him to gave that daily routine.

 

[peaceron]

@andybrooks How old is yours? Does he/she understand the transition to “weekends”?

 

[andybrooks]

@peaceron He started preschool as a newly four year old.

But he knew about work days vs. weekends we’ll before. I think by the time he was two he was clear on the difference since there is a difference in the family schedule/ routine/ availability based on weekend/ workday even if he wasn’t in school. It was a non issue when he started school.

 

[guevaraj]

@peaceron A number of studies that find positive impacts of preschool (particularly in mixed income groups) are looking at the Boston model. That was 30 hours per week, so part time. In general, research supports the value of part time preschool around age 3, but a lot of it looks at 9-3ish, and I haven’t seen anything that disaggregates half day vs school day vs full day.

In general, consecutive days are easier for a kid to wrap their brain around than alternate days. It helps them get into a routine and start to feel more comfortable.

 

[tgia413]

@peaceron My older son (now 4.5) started preschool when he was 1.5 and had to go full time because we were both working full time. By the time he was 3, we had a new baby who I was going to be staying home with, so we decided to reduce him to a part time schedule and we chose 3 days a week (M/W/F). Our school either offered M/W/F or T/Th as the part time options. Tbh while my child doesn't generally have issues adjusting to routines and is pretty flexible, the "one day on, one day off" schedule can be kind of difficult. He'd be used to an action packed, very structured day at school and then I felt the pressure to make his days at home stimulating enough, not to mention I had a baby at home as well. Otherwise I could tell he was kind of bored. I have friends with children who do 4 consecutive days, or 3 consecutive days, and it seems to be a bit smoother for them.

My son is in PreK-4 this year and it's a full time program, so that choice was made for us (and is the choice I would've made anyway). While we had no real issues with the M/W/F schedule, I did find the alternating days to be a little bit of an annoyance. I think the 4 consecutive days with Fridays off is a great balance.

 

[gawdlover]

@peaceron These posts blow my mind.

Mine has been in daycare since 3mo (now almost 3y) from 8am-5pm 5 days a week.

She loves it.

 

[peaceron]

@gawdlover The research suggests that full time daycare is harmful to children under 3yo.

 

[gawdlover]

@peaceron Everything is relative, do additional research and read the important part about how context matters. Some people don't have a choice, but you pick the best option and make it work as best you can in the situation.

 

[peaceron]

@gawdlover Of course context matters but objectively, full time daycare is not ideal.

 

[guevaraj]

@peaceron It’s really not that simple. Full time daycare is not optimal for later behavioral outcomes for middle and high income kids with alternative quality childcare options. Objectively, full time daycare is the optimal solution for later life behavioral and academic outcomes in certain circumstances (eg for lower income kids who may not have a quality alternative option).

But optimal always, always always depends on what you’re optimizing for: eg, if you’re optimizing for later life earnings, or life expectancy, it may well be worth your while to use full time daycare from a young age in order to live in a different census tract than you would otherwise be able to afford, particularly because the benefits of living in those areas are highly correlated with when you moved there (the earlier in life the more pronounced the outcome differential). Optimal depends on your end point, everyone’s end point is different and you truly cannot (and are dramatically misreading the literature if you think you can) make as sweeping a claim as “objectively, full time daycare is not ideal [for any child in any circumstance]”