I have for a very long tíme often heard kindergarten and preschool but I have no idea what the difference is. It’s almost important to me because I am a teacher to children ages 1-6. Am I teaching in a kindergarten or a preschool? My friend also told me about a different kind that I hadn’t heard of and don’t remember the name to. Plz help.
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Preschool comes before kindergarten. It’s not part of Elementary school and isn’t part of the pu lic school system. Kindergarten starts when kids are five, turning six (it varies based on birthdays)
You can’t really compare it to what you’re teaching, because it’s a whole different system
> In the United States, kindergarten is usually part of the K–12 educational system, but attendance is not compulsory across the country; each state determines whether or not kindergarten is compulsory. Forty-three of the fifty states (the exceptions being Alaska, Idaho, Minnesota, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, and Pennsylvania) require school districts to offer a kindergarten year, either for a full-day or a half-day.
> In most schools, children begin kindergarten at age five for one year. Students develop skills such as numeracy, literacy, and a greater awareness of the world around them geographically, scientifically, socially, and culturally.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindergarten
> In the United States, nursery school is provided in a variety of settings. In general, preschool is meant to be voluntary and promote development in children through planned programs. Preschool is defined as: “center-based programs for four-year olds that are fully or partially funded by state education agencies and that are operated in schools or under the direction of state and local education agencies”. Preschools, both private and school sponsored, are available for children from ages three to five. Many of these programs follow similar curriculum as pre-kindergarten.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preschool
Kindergarten starts at age 5 or 6. It’s considered the first year of the public school K-12 system (in most cases).
Preschool is more like daycare that prepares kids for kindergarten. Ages tend to be 3-5 or so.
There’s also Pre-K which can be between the preschool and kindergarten stages.
1 year olds don’t go to school – that’s daycare.
Where are you located?
In the US, pre-school is optional early childhood education that typically starts around age 3. More structured than daycare but still more based on play, crafts, singing, and such. Pre-schools are typically private programs charging tuition, and are self-contained schools for young very kids (although sometimes they may share building with elementary school).
Kindergarten is the first year of universal public education in the US, the first year of elementary school. Kids are typically 5 when entering kindergarten.
I have heard of the term kindergarten used more broadly to represent preschool/daycare in other countries however.
pre school is simply the grade *before* kindergarten
Preschool is 3-4. Kindergarten is 5 years old.
What did you go to school to teach? That feels like a very broad range.
In my state you go to school between 4-6 years after high school to become a Kindergarten teacher.
What kind of exams/schooling did you have after high school? What is your license in?
Age and curriculum/activities
Preschool is sorta like optional prep before school. For kids in that 3-5 age. They go over a lot of stuff that parents should have taught before they go to school. Shapes, numbers, letters, social skills, sharing, songs, animals, etc. It can also be religious and through churches. Its more about introducing kids to structure and other kids their age before they go to actual school.
Kindergarten is formal school, starting at 5 years old. Within the first month they are being introduced to reading and writing for example (at least, in current times).
Daycare is supervised care for when the parents are at work. There can be learning, but its mostly just supervised child care.
Preschool is in the name. K-12 is school and that is PRE school.
We have 3K, Pre K and Kindergarten as well in NYC funded by Govt. We even have class for 6 month old toddler but you have to pay for it unless your income is very low so govt fund that too.
Pre-school is more about play and building socialization skills. It is often not highly structured. And the people who “teach” it do not need much training, if any.
Kindergarten is part of formal K-12 education. It is regulated by the state (in public schools) and has curriculum and expectations. While socialization is an important part of kindergarten, and grade school in general, there is more of an academic focus. It is taught by licensed teachers.
Nursery school: usually daycare but some like mine, had an education component. Minimum age may vary but can go as young as 3-6 months old and up to 4 or 5. Most nursery schools/preschools have cap limits on how many kids they can accept and are more expensive for infants, babies, or toddlers still in diapers. The kids usually nap at some point during the day. Some daycares are really just parents who are licensed to have kids stay over at their house during the day on a semi-official basis. Our neighbors did that for a few years. They don’t anymore. It wasn’t official but they were allowed to do it.
Some nursery schools like mine had a daily structure with educational content and reading, play time. Some daycares are run by large corporations such as Google as a courtesy to their employees. A friend of ours did this. We got to tour it on a weekend when it was closed. They had very specific age ranges like almost newborn to 6 months, 6 months to 18 months (?), 18 months to 3 years, and 3, 4, and 5 aged classrooms. It looked incredible.
Other daycares are like the scene in “Pursuit of Happyness (sic)” where the kids just watch tv all day long. Nearly all daycares/nursery schools are private. Daycare can also be a sort of drop in/pick up type of thing whereas a nursery school might have more structure but again there are no specific rules other than heath and staffing standards. They are often expensive.
Preschool: Not mandatory but generally ages are 3 and 4 years old. The kids go to preschool for either a full day or a half day. Sometimes a preschool will offer half day 2 days a week in the morning and another option is half day for 2x a week in afternoon or 3x on the other days. Preschool is sometimes publicly funded and sometimes private. The trend is more public options than when I was a kid. Usually they do arts and crafts, activities, learn a few things and lots of playtime. For full day preschool, they often have a nap hour. Generally for preschool unlike day care or esp nursery school, kids must be potty trained unless they have a disability.
A trend of late I’ve seen is “TK” which is transitional Kindergarten. TK is short for transitional kindergarten. It is what Kindergarten used to be and is offered to 4 year olds (sometimes young 5 year olds depending on bday or development). It is often held at the elementary school and is structured more like school. TK’s popularity seems to have increased lately. My son did that.
Kindergarten: For 5 year olds. It still has elements of play but it’s more academic than preschool / tk and naps start to get phased out. Kindergarten is offered in pretty much all places as part of the public school system. Of course there are private schools to, but it is generally well regulated.
After-school: A program that may or may not be offered by the city, school, or district itself. Featuring after school activities, homework help, or an educational or recreational club (such as sports) which bridges the gap between school release in the mid afternoon (2-3pm) and when parents get off from work. There are some tax benefits for these programs for kids under 12 or 13, when it phases out because most states consider that age usually okay to be at home by themselves.
Daycare is someone watching your kid anywhere from 0 and up.
Pre-school is like daycare except it’s for 3-5 year olds and has a specific focus on teaching them basic educational concepts that they’ll need for kindergarten. It’s totally optional, you can send your kid to kindergarten without them having gone to preschool, they just have to pass the same tests as kids who did go do.
Kindergarten is typically for ages 5-6. It’s essentially preschool part 2 with some more concepts added (numbers 0-100, etc.) but it’s different because it’s in the k-12 cluster where universal public education is required.
Source: I went to both pre-school and kindergarten and I’m studying education lol
Kindergarten is the start of primary school in the US and it compulsory starting at age 6 in CA.
From what i know, preschool is optional.
My city’s school district offers preschool at low to no-cost