Is once a week for daycare a waste of time( 2 years old)

[Ohky0815]

You do realize children, they dont "socialize"? At 2, they dont need friends or how to share or life lessons.

While i realize your wife needs sleep, what have you been doing for 2 years about this? Why now the sudden change? What if daycare isnt your magic answer? Someone posted here and its true, your child will be sicker and learn behaviors you dont want them to.

You have other options, you just have to look for them. Your child is TWO, she doesnt need "school", she needs a sitter to watch her while your wife sleeps. A local teen sitter or someone can do that without the cons of daycare.

[monumentus]

Originally Posted by daboywonder2002

i want my 2 year old in daycare but i cant afford fulltime. Once a week would be $87 dollars. more manageable to my pocket. i dont get daycare assistance but i do have FSA daycare. twice a week would be $158. would once a week be a waste since we could have to get her readjusted over and over again. once a week would be better money wise. but twice a week would probably be more beneficial to my daughter. just being out of the house and being around other children her age will be good for her.

Surely whether it is time well or poorly invested will depend on:

a) What the child gets out of that time in care (such as variety of environment, education, socialising and so forth)

and

b) what YOU get out of that time that you can spend not looking after the child but investing it in other things.

[RRBC]

Originally Posted by daboywonder2002

i want my 2 year old in daycare but i cant afford fulltime. Once a week would be $87 dollars. more manageable to my pocket. i dont get daycare assistance but i do have FSA daycare. twice a week would be $158. would once a week be a waste since we could have to get her readjusted over and over again. once a week would be better money wise. but twice a week would probably be more beneficial to my daughter. just being out of the house and being around other children her age will be good for her.

I personally would disagree with the people saying daycare would not benefit your daughter. It may be because the daycare my son (and in another month my daughter) attends is truely a great one and focuses as more of a preschool than daycare (set schedule, different classrooms for different age ranges with 2-3 teachers assigned to the classroom, the developmental goals for the age range listed outside the classroom and activities they use through the week/month to help each child with those, etc.).

Yes, the daycare tends to get your kid sick - for the first couple months expect lots of colds, but then their immune system figures it out and illness is rare.

The time spent with kids their own age is great - again the daycare we use is great and is owned by someone who graduated in early education so she makes sure the classrooms use best practices - but my son's classmates learn from him and he from them. It does socialize, encourage talking, encourage direction taking. They learn how to behave around others and what is and is not acceptable behavior.

The schedule is great too - each classroom above infants has it posted outside with times beside each activity and, as inconvienent as it is to have an 11am-1 or 2pm nap time on weekends after a 10:30/10:45am lunch, we follow the meal/snack and nap schedules on weekends/holidays and he does very well with that consistency.

The classrooms have specific stations/places for each type of toy or activity (puzzles in one place, time out/sad time in a specific place, blocks, animal toys, kitchen toys, etc.) so they learn to put things away in their designated place, and that helps us make sure he puts his things away before moving on to the next activity at home.

Did you tour the daycares/preschools with your daughter at a non-nap time? Seeing what the classrooms, schedules, teachers and kids are like makes a huge difference in the quality of time spent there. Even if your daughter only goes once per week - treating it like more of an activity than daycare - making sure it is what you want really is key. If you can afford it though I would really encourage two days over just one.