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I think it depends on the kid. My lo is almost two and not ready. Maybe when she's three well try part time.

I think 2 1/2 - 3 based on development.

"Parallel Play -
Around the age of 2 to 3 years, children become more aware of the people in their world, and move from solitary play to parallel play. According to Child Care resources, toddlers at this stage enjoy exploring their environment. As they play independently with toys, they start to see themselves as part of a social group, yet still remain egocentric in their thinking. Children at this stage enjoy playing next to other children with the same game or activity, but they may not interact or play together. For example, two toddlers may play with building blocks at the same time, but they typically don't talk about what they're doing or build a project together. Instead they work on building their own structure separate from each other."

http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/stages-play-child-development-1567.html

I am thinking starting after two years is ideal for us. I was home with J for the first year, and as a part time working mom he has my little brother as a nanny. Eventually I plan to work full time after I finish school.

There are many factors that go into my thinking but many are mostly personal.
I would have been conflicted doing an alternate vaccine schedule if he were in a daycare setting and exposed to/potentially exposing other children- but I was very sure I wanted to delay many of them. So I'm happy with how it worked out thus far. In addition- I like the idea of waiting until his immune system is a little stronger to withstand all the germs.

I also agree with what rawrasaur wrote about social play! If J has play dates- he mostly ignores other babies! So really the socialization aspect of daycare doesn't entice me at this point. I think he'll thrive off of daily interaction with other kids once he's more 2+...

I'm glad I was lucky enough to have had a choice! It's definitely a factor I've considered as far as family plans. I want J to at least be in preschool or kindergarten by the time we have to pay for child care for another baby.

Who knows- I may do daycare earlier with my second if it works out that way! We'll see

I'm planning on starting her around 18 months. She is 12 months and is home with a nanny but gets so excited when I take her to play with other kiddos so she would really thrive in daycare.

@Crumbs: ahahaha, so glad my DD isn't the only one going round scaring kids. She gets right in their faces and squeals.

18 mo-2 years. For Montessori it is helpful to have some language development.

@T.H.O.U.: we love our nanny but she pretty much does a curriculum, so it's different than most situations.

@T.H.O.U.: we just lucked out, I think!

I'm the odd man out of the responses so far, but I think the earlier the better. It's harder once they start having social anxiety; but if they are already in daycare when that hits, for all the babies in our infant room, even if they are wary of strangers, they still are chill with the teachers.

Babies absolutely play with each other socially and interact - it happens WAY before they are 2. Every day the infants are passing toys back and forth, sharing lunch and snack with each other, watching each other paint and "helping" each other with art projects, talking back and forth, touching each other's faces, hair, clothes, etc. They build friendships WAY before they are toddlers; my LO was especially friendly with a couple of older infants who moved to the toddler room several months ago and when we see those babies on our way in/out they wave at each other and smile. So for me, the socialization is huge, and it takes place well before they are toddlers so I wanted her in there making friends and socializing early.

Before I had her, I said never. lol I never went to daycare, but I also had a ton of cousins around. I say 6 months to 1. They start playing around each other then, from what I saw in my LO. She loves all of her friends.