Background if you don't know: I worked 4 days per week with LO in daycare 2 days and with my mom 2 days until she was 20 months old. (There was a period she went to daycare 4 days when my mom was injured, too.) LO went to a small church-based preschool for daycare. She struggled a lot but we loved them. We recently moved and now I work very lightly from home and SAH with LO.

Because everyone in the universe is moving to our city, daycare/preschool wait lists are kind of bonkers. 1-2 years is typical. We are looking for part-time preschool for LO next fall. She will be almost 3. I think I will probably be pregnant with another LO by then or TTC so I want to give her socialization and structure outside home before a new baby joins us.

Many of the preschools in our area are actually daycare centers. You have the typical Goddard, Primrose, Bright Horizons, etc. I initially ruled these out - #1 because from what I know they don't really offer part-time schedules so we would pay for more time that we need or use, and #2 because what we're coming from (small religious preschool) is pretty different.

Still, I am wanting to look at a variety of schools to compare and get an idea of what would fit LO best. As much as I would love to find something like her school back home in our new city, I also need to think about that what she needs at 3 years old is different than 10 months old.

I do love that daycare centers seem to offer a lot of different activities. They all seem to emphasize that they start a preschool curriculum at ages 2 or 3.

So... Did you look at daycare centers? Should we?

ETA: I know that a common differentiator between daycare and preschool is that preschool is more academic, or the teachers are more educated/experienced, etc. But honestly in my preliminary research in the area this hasn't been the case except for specific types of schools like Montessori. And there are Montessori daycare centers here. The biggest differences seem to be the hours/schedules and ages that they take.