We changed my 3 year old preschool due to moving. The new place doesn't have any learning based or teacher directed activities which is totally opposite of her previous preschool where they were exposed to lot of new things in a creative way. She is a bit behind in fine motor skills so lack of teacher directed activities is not good in my opinion. My DH is fine with whole thing. So if your 3 year old goes to preschool what are they learning ?
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E is 3, she will be four in July, and she attends the nursery class at the local school (preschool year). They do arts and crafts, dressing up, role play, all the usual play activities, but they also do structured learning around numbers, letters, rhyming sounds etc. She has learned to write her name, how to add numbers together.
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Both my children (4.5 and 2) are at the same preschool that caters for ages 1-5 and has all the children together (no separate classes for different ages).
The preschool has "stations" permanently setup around the centre (dressing up, play kitchen, reading nook, play dough, art / collage table, sandpit, jungle gym etc) and also has "pop up" stations that are rotated on a regular basis (duplos, cars, water play, heuristic play, farm animals etc). The Centre has set mealtimes and a morning and afternoon group session but apart from that the kids are free to choose their own activities. The older children do participate in a more structured programme called Te Ruma Wheke, to help prepare them for school and they work on reading, writing and counting etc (this is three morning sessions per week).
Our preschool has themed weeks where all the extra activities relate to a particular theme (off the top of my head they've done cooking, sports, gardening) and the teachers encourage the kids to get involved in the special activities.
My children have both thrived at our preschool and we're really happy with it!
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@Kemma: Our Swedish preschool is very similar to yours. Our "stations" are more in an open space, except the imaginative play toys are in the same area without any rotating elements. There are a few separate rooms for the older kids (Lego, stackable furniture blocks, etc). But it's basically free play. Ours is a forest school, so they spend a lot of time outdoors. It's completely play based with scheduled activities throughout the day and additional lessons for the older kids to prep them for school. However, the lessons aren't formal at all - their purpose is to encourage learning and curiosity.
Our school only focuses on social skills, such as respect, kindness, cooperation, cleaning up after yourself, and friendship. Formal learning is reserved until 1st grade (and school starts 1 year later here). As an American, it took me some time to adjust to the differences, but I've come to love it and LO loves preschool.
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@SugarplumsMom: our preschool is pretty much one big room with the stations dotted around it plus a small room for sleeping, a room for Te Ruma Wheke and offices. The "pop up" stations are usually just set out on the floor then packed away at the end of each day. With regards to our outdoor space, I'm pretty sure my wee guy spends 90% of his time in the sandpit!
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My son went to preschool at a nature center, it was the closest thing I could find to a true forest school like they have in Europe.
They spent at least an hour outdoors a day, on the trails, at the lakes, etc. Then in the classroom, they had stations set up, the typical ones, like art, dress up, sensory bins, blocks, etc.
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My kid turns 3 in September. The constants every day are outside play (he's in school all day and they go out at least 3 times), indoor free play at stations, 2 snacks, lunch, and nap. I would say actual teaching of curriculum takes like an hour of his whole day.
His entire school teaches in theme weeks and each teacher breaks down activities based on the theme. So this week is Earth Day/Recycling. So the books at story time and crafts or music will revolve around the theme. Additionally, each day they focus on one core thing, like a letter, color, an animal, a shape, etc.
The academic goal of the 2 year old room is to know the first letter of their name, what their own name is when asked, basic colors and shapes, and counting a few numbers. Pretty basic. The rest is to be exposed to play, outdoor time, books, art and music daily.
In the 3 room, I believe they want the kids to start trying to write their name by the time they go to the 4 room, recognize the alphabet and numbers, and do more fine motor art projects, like peeling stickers off backing and putting it on paper.
Long story short, I don't think they're things you can't try to do at home. If you have 30 minutes a night you can do lacing cards, peg boards, sticker play, picking up things with tongs or tweezers, sorting beads, etc. and that will probably make up for whatever you think is lacking.
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LO1 went to an arts preschool- so they did movement/dance, music and fine arts (half day plus snack). This was actually perfect in terms of content and he got exposure to playing with other kids in a group setting.
LO2 is in a more traditional play-based preschool. They do a short center time where they talk about holidays and introduce some letters. Then move to centers (kitchen, blocks, art, table toys). Then they have an hour of gym or outdoor time depending on the weather. Lunch and then nap for kids that are staying later. I don't care for this program as much but logistics won out so, oh well.
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