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>parents should stay home with the kids and play. That interaction with parents teaches kids far more than a lowly paid preschool teacher will. Do you have kid

>parents should stay home with the kids and play. That interaction with parents teaches kids far more than a lowly paid preschool teacher will. Do you have kids? I have a 2.5 year who has been in a small day care setting (about 10 kids) for 2 years. The effect it has had on her social (and even academic) skills have been pretty amazing. She is learning so much more about how to deal with other people, social interactions, ect than she ever could staying at home with me. >[One parent staying at home with the kids] was done for centuries. Not really. Preindustrial revolution life was much more communal and based around large, multi-generational family units.

nugget 11y ago
What would you recommend to parents who don't want to assign their very young (.5-1 yr old) children to what most folks think of as old school traditional daycare? Do you think daily structured group dates supervised by a rotating parent or guardian would have this same effect? What were the key ingredients that you think made your child have a good experience and concurrently gave you as parents confidence in the process?
- VLM 11y ago
  Assuming your request is genuine and not rhetorical if you live in a decent area the well funded local library has seemingly continuous story reading and kids activities, all completely free (well, free aside from being rich enough to buy a house in that area and pay the related high prop taxes), and when they need to get out and run, the muni parks and rec dept has a fairly staggering variety of classes for minimal to zero fee for residents ranging from formal classes to playground games and toys. Parks and rec has or had a mandate that part of the building code was no house is more than a couple hundred feet (maybe a thousand feet?) from a free muni park, basically every subdivision has a park with kids actively in it, however minimal the park may be. At the very low age you specify the selection is somewhat limited and usually they demand a parent participate with the kid WRT bathroom issues etc. When the kids get older there is more fun to be had, (semi-)organized sports and minecraft night at the library and movie night at the park (they use a projector and screen) and after school clubs and stuff. A condo downtown means the kids will have nothing to do, but the burbs are a lot of fun as a kid and also as a side effect of the cost of entry, they're also relatively safe.
mahyarm 11y ago
Even a few generations ago, 4+ year olds wandered the neighborhood with the other 4+ year olds lightly supervised and played games in the woods. Today that never happens. And in those large family units, all the kids played with each other constantly and barely bothered the parents to do anything.
- leshow 11y ago
  That doesn't happen anymore? Man it's sad to think I was probably the last generation to wander around outside with my friends and play.
  - mahyarm 11y ago
    Well at least in Canada and the USA in many spots. I don't know about europe and other parts of the world. It is pretty sad.
r00fus 11y ago
I think you're taking littletimmy's comments too directly. The goal is that parents need more time, in addition to socialization given by preschools. These days with dual-income families this is hard. With 3+ kids, it's even harder. The real concern is whether families have the choice to keep their kids home a bit more (i.e., say not every weekday) rather than force them to use daycare because they don't have time not to.

nugget 11y ago

What would you recommend to parents who don't want to assign their very young (.5-1 yr old) children to what most folks think of as old school traditional daycare? Do you think daily structured group dates supervised by a rotating parent or guardian would have this same effect? What were the key ingredients that you think made your child have a good experience and concurrently gave you as parents confidence in the process?

VLM 11y ago
Assuming your request is genuine and not rhetorical if you live in a decent area the well funded local library has seemingly continuous story reading and kids activities, all completely free (well, free aside from being rich enough to buy a house in that area and pay the related high prop taxes), and when they need to get out and run, the muni parks and rec dept has a fairly staggering variety of classes for minimal to zero fee for residents ranging from formal classes to playground games and toys. Parks and rec has or had a mandate that part of the building code was no house is more than a couple hundred feet (maybe a thousand feet?) from a free muni park, basically every subdivision has a park with kids actively in it, however minimal the park may be. At the very low age you specify the selection is somewhat limited and usually they demand a parent participate with the kid WRT bathroom issues etc. When the kids get older there is more fun to be had, (semi-)organized sports and minecraft night at the library and movie night at the park (they use a projector and screen) and after school clubs and stuff. A condo downtown means the kids will have nothing to do, but the burbs are a lot of fun as a kid and also as a side effect of the cost of entry, they're also relatively safe.

mahyarm 11y ago

Even a few generations ago, 4+ year olds wandered the neighborhood with the other 4+ year olds lightly supervised and played games in the woods. Today that never happens. And in those large family units, all the kids played with each other constantly and barely bothered the parents to do anything.

leshow 11y ago
That doesn't happen anymore? Man it's sad to think I was probably the last generation to wander around outside with my friends and play.
- mahyarm 11y ago
  Well at least in Canada and the USA in many spots. I don't know about europe and other parts of the world. It is pretty sad.

r00fus 11y ago

I think you're taking littletimmy's comments too directly. The goal is that parents need more time, in addition to socialization given by preschools. These days with dual-income families this is hard. With 3+ kids, it's even harder. The real concern is whether families have the choice to keep their kids home a bit more (i.e., say not every weekday) rather than force them to use daycare because they don't have time not to.