My son is 13 months and is with a nanny 20 hours a week as I work part time. At some point I'd like to have him in a daycare/preschool setting so that he gets more socialized and used to a bit more structure. He has playdates now but I don't think that's the same. At what age do you think this becomes really important?
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we enrolled charlie in daycare at 18 months, but the fall term didn't begin until he was 21 months. i would definitely say around 15-18 months because that's about when they have a huge word explosion.
also a lot of daycares in our neighborhood only accept kids from 18 months and up, so that must be a big turning point developmentally for kids.
i thought charlie would be with a nanny until he started preschool at 2 years 9 months, but now i am so pro daycare and will send olive as soon as she drops to one nap.
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my LO is not born yet, but my girlfriend has an 18 month hold who has still not said a single word...not even hi or mom! I am pretty sure that it is due to the fact that she spends 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with her mom and no one else. She hardly has any contact with any other human. I think if she had more interaction she would probably know some words.
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@Mrsdaredevil: they never go *anywhere*?!
I honestly don't think you need a daycare setting for socialization. Obviously part of the reason I am a SAHM is financial reasons, why would I send my son to daycare if I'm staying home because it's cheaper?
I plan to have my son have playdates, especially with my nephew, and I'm also a nanny for two kids, so he'll have that interaction weekly. Plus he's in the daycare at the gym 2-4x a week and the church nursery every Sunday, so I think he has plenty of social interaction (and he's only 2 mos old!), but this will continue as he gets older. I don't feel he NEEDS a daycare setting.
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@Coco Bee: mom has no car! The dad has one but he works like crazy and is always gone since mom is SAH. They don't have family close by and the whole situation is weird. Is it just me or is not knowing a single word by almost 19 months considered delayed?
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@Mrsdaredevil: hmm I'm not sure. Some kids develop at different times... but I don't think it's entirely healthy to be at home all the time. What about weekends?
My husband and I share a car, which is why living 2.5 miles from his work is so important to us, he bikes to work or else I can drop him off so I can have the car for the day.
What did your family do while being homeschooled?
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@Mrsdaredevil: @Coco Bee: by 18 months of age you should know at least a couple of words, and i think pediatricians usually suggest contacting early intervention. for reference, charlie could say about 40 words when he turned 18 months old.
that said i have many friends whose kids were speech delayed (not saying any words at 18 months), but they were just late talkers. the reason early intervention is important though is that if there is an actual problem, catching it early has a tremendous effect.
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I'm a preschool teacher and I think socialization is important by 18-24 months. Currently, I'm teaching 4 year olds and its definitely apparent which kids went to daycare or otherwise had social experiences before they started preschool. I've had some kids who are obviously very smart (can read full words/count to 50), but they have no idea how to interact with their peers.
My mom was a SAHM and when I went to preschool, I'd never been to daycare before. However, I had a sister and tons of cousins that I interacted with on a regular basis and I think that definitely helped me become prepared for school.
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@Coco Bee: We were actively involved in our church, so I had a ton of friends through that. In fact, I actually am still super close with three of the girls I grew up with all the way from the church nursery as babies!
We also lived in a neighborhood with lots of kids, and two of the families on our street homeschooled too.
We were a part of a homeschool co-op that met once a week, and I grew up with those kids. Since we were all homeschooled, we had middle of the week sleepovers and got to hang out on weekday afternoons.
We basically lived on a farm, so the five of us had lots at the house to keep busy too (horses, chickens, goats, etc.).
Wow, we were busy!
Edit: don't mean to threadjack -
To answer the question of the OP, I think socialization is important from birth, being around family and friends teaches children how to behave in social situations. My honest opinion is that children are wired to behave according to their developmental stage, so putting children in a group of other kids their age may or may not teach them to do anything new. Concepts like sharing come at a much later age, so I wouldn't worry about putting a kid in day care just so they can learn to share.
I am also staying at home and we have plenty of interaction with the outside world, and *GASP* I don't have a car during the day!
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@ohapostrophe: My son is, I think, about two weeks younger than yours, and he's been in daycare since 12 weeks, and hangs out with a lot of other friends' babies and young kids after work and on weekends. I do think he benefits from daycare in a variety of ways, but I don't think he is necessarily picking up words faster or learning to share or anything yet (as others have said, I think that comes a little later, closer to about 15 months... our best friends' daughter is 15 months and over the last month she has really changed in her behavior towards my LO and definitely has a conception of sharing and giving him back his pacifier if it falls out and "nice touch" and stuff like that). I also don't really think he has friends yet.. he LOVES being around other kids, but I don't think it really matters to him yet whether it's a kid from daycare that he sees every day, or a random kid at the grocery store. I like daycare/preschool for a variety of reasons, and think that socialization is important starting at an early age; at this age I'm not so convinced that the setting matters, but I think you probably would see that difference closer to 15 months.
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I've worried about this a bit, I was just sooo sick while pregnant with number 2 that my first was really unsocialized from 14 months to...well we still don't get out enough. She does seem to have a great time whenever she has a playdate though and seems to know how to interact nicely. And her speech is just fine (because we talk to her?)
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