How is a day care center developmentally appropriate for young children?
I partially agree with Akasha. However, think a daycare center can actually enhance the development of a child. Children in well-run centers have routines, engage in age-appropriate activities, socialize with other children thereby developing language among other skills. If I kept my child at home with me, I would not have all the same manipulatives and other supplies to engage my child in projects aimed to enhance her development. I could, of course, set routines and patterns and provide healthy lunches and snacks, but I know that I, like a lot of people, would sometimes slip up or be distracted by other jobs, etc. At a daycare, the job of the providers is to do all these things, so if it is well-run, they don’t have other jobs to distract them. They are trained and they enjoy what they do. They have more experience than I do. Having said all that, if I had the choice, I would keep my child home with me. It’s how we are wired to develop.
I don;t really believe they are. A child should be with their parents if at all possible, but in some cases schooling of some sort is nesessary in young children. My son is 3 1/2 and has been going to a developmental preschool (ran by an actual school distric and in an elementray school) since he was 2 years 8 months. He was sent there because he was not learning to talk and they found out he had Sensory Integration Disorder. Since my son has been at the school he has started talking and learned to deal with alot of the problems he has. It is a very social enviroment, more like day care and it has helped him alot. So I guess it depends on the child also. I do believe children should be with their parents no matter what, but some children need that time to be socially active with other children or people who are trained to teach them. In the event that there is absolutly nothing wrong with your child, and they spend time regularly with other children when at home and their parents teach
ideally, it’s great to have young children home with their parents – realistically, parents both have to work and daycare centers are there for them. If the center can focus on socialization, hands on activities and empowerment, you got it. I do advocate preschool though – it’s very needed with the demands of kindergarten coming up but after preschool, the child goes home or to a daycare center.
