What is the best age to put a kid to the pre-school. Is it two and half years or earlier?
One doctor told me that schools like Euro Kids and the likes put too much pressure on the kids which will affect their brains in the long term. Any ideas on this one?
This is an interesting question, of course there is no right answer to it. If we look at the norms across countries we will see a huge variation, and there are so many different types of preschools, and every child matures differently. Where I live most preschools only accept childern from 3 years up, a few at 2 1/2, and very few at 2. My daughter is currently 14 months, she is very social, she walks, talks, is almost potty trained, and she is starting to read out loud. I think she will be ready for preschool at 2, but I am pretty specific in what I am looking for. I don’t want a traditional school that puts a lot of pressure on the really young children. I am currently exploring and researching Montessori. I also found a Spanish immersion school with a focus on music that looks like it may be a great option for her to start with. My plan is to start her with 2 or 3 mornings per week and see how she likes it, how much she is learning, and then adjust as needed. Ideally I would like a school that will teach her something that I could not teach her as well at home (like Spanish and music - they are not my areas of expertise).
Everywhere is different. In America, kids don’t start preschool until they’re 4. Before that, they are just in a daycare setting with minimal learning and a lot of social interaction. It really just depends on the norms in your country and what you are looking for in the ways of learning and socializing.
Even in America (which is where I am also) the age varies significantly. I have found a few preschools that accept 2 or 2 1/2 year olds, but they are certainly the minority. Also, if your child is potty trained early you do have more options open to you since that it typically the reason children are not admitted before 4.
I would be careful of anything labeled “preschool” here in America if it’s for a child under 4. Most of them aren’t like school at all. They might color and have story time, but that’s about the extent of the learning. There are some, yes, in fact my church has a great preschool that I’m hoping to enroll my son in next year, even though I think he will already know most of what they will teach. I mainly want him to socialize. He is never around any other kids. However, I wouldn’t send him to a day care setting, I want there to be some structured learning involved.
I am from India and I would like an Indian view on putting the kids in pre-school. Also would anyone vouch for a day school?
I have heard many good reviews about Eurokids. In fact, one of my friend’s 2-1/2-yo cries on sundays that she wants to go to school. I think it would be more of social interaction and teaching them what we are already teaching them at home. I don’t think that should be called as a pressure. If that is, then it would be contrary to our Doman parents belief of teaching kids early. Most people are new to early learning stuff. So it is a general opinion that if we teach things early, we are putting pressure on them.
That aside, one of my friends said that her 2-1/2-yo son learnt to tie shoelace and learnt to eat with a fork pretty well after going to Eurokids.
hi jayshree, I am from India & my son is 2 .7 yrs old. He goes to planet kids since he was 2 yrs old.
both of us are happy with his school . he goes there for 2 hrs daily.
I decided to send him for a play school because we stay in an apartment where there are very few kids to play with & just talking him to the park didn’t seem enough for me.
He learn’ t a lot of new things in school. every month they have a new topic to deal with. new rhymes according to the theme of the month. he loves to play with kids & have learnt to eat a lot of different things. its fun time for them.
I never felt that he is been pressurized for anything.
As for the age in India play school is not compulsory but from 3 yrs nursery is compulsory. there is no concept of home schooling.
Hi,
I am in Singapore. The Infant care here takes in babies as young as 2 months old. So, My child actually goes to Infant care at the age of 3 months old as we need to work and there is no other families members to help us. Domestic helpers came across our mind but after having serious though, we stil chose the infant care as the teachers are trained to handle the babies.
My child is 21 months now, he seems to learn alot from the childcare. He sings and dance when he comes home and he talks a lot with proper language. Some things are not being though by us are being though in the shcool. He is also a very independant child.
I have read on few Shichida’s book and he was mentioning that starting the child with early education will definately not effecting the brain and infact, if we don’t let the child have early childhood education, that might affect the brain.
Good luck 
cheers,
verolpj
One girl in our building put her 1 yr old daughter in Euro kids, by 18-20 mths she was able to speak good English. This doctor i was talking about stays in my building, she was actually saying that it puts burden on the babys brain at this stage which we may not be able to identify now but will come up at a later stage. Thats why i am a bit confused about this Early Learning concept.