What You Need to Know about Play-Based vs. Academic Preschools
No matter where you live, there are bound to be many different preschools to choose from – and each will be unique in its approach to caring for and educating your child. Despite this variety, though, most preschools and daycares fall into one of two main categories: academic and play-based.
When finding a preschool, it’s important to be aware of how these approaches work so that you can stay involved in your child’s educational journey and find the right preschool for them. Let’s take a look at both approaches, how they differ, and how to weigh these differences when choosing a preschool for your child.
What are academic preschools?
Academic preschools focus chiefly on readying your child for school in an academic sense – that is, ensuring that your child has all the necessary basics to succeed in school. Preschools that use an academic approach tend to be more structured. They are generally teacher-led, with teacher and staff guiding children through a curriculum.
The absolute basics of mathematics, reading, writing, and science are all included in the curriculum, as children learn things such as counting, the alphabet, and how to read. This isn’t to say that this approach doesn’t leave room for any unstructured time – academic preschools still recognise that kids are kids, and they allow for plenty of playtimes, either indoors or as an outdoor recess.
Further, while there is more structure and teaching, lessons are much more interactive than in higher levels of school, as children are permitted to make mistakes and work through them rather than simply receiving a grade.
Overall, academic preschools aim to prepare children for life as a student – the idea being that they will be able to “hit the ground running,” academically speaking.
What are play-based preschools?
Perhaps unsurprisingly, play-based preschools are less structured than their academic counterparts, and they focus on letting children explore their interests. Children in play-based preschools spend most of their time at different stations within the classroom. These stations typically focus on a theme – such as a kitchen, a sensory area, an arts and crafts table, and much more.
Children don’t move through these stations on a rigid schedule – generally, they’re allowed to spend as much time at a station as they like, letting their interests guide them. Teachers in play-based preschools aren’t wholly uninvolved, however – rather, they take a hands-off approach, roaming around the stations and interacting with the children one-on-one.
Basic lessons may be taught – on numbers or the alphabet, for instance – but these will be more infrequent (and possibly even shorter) than in an academic preschool.
The philosophy behind these kinds of preschools is that the best way for children to learn is through play, not through direct instruction. Play-based preschools also aim to foster social and emotional skills – important to learn in the early years of life.
How do these approaches differ?
The clearest difference between these kinds of preschool education is the amount of formal instruction children receive.
Put simply, academic preschools aim to give children a thorough grounding in many subjects through teaching, while play-based preschools will have little to no formal instruction whatsoever. The other major difference lies in who sets out the activities under each approach.
Teachers and staff do play a role in play-based preschools – they set up the stations, for instance, and may even rotate them out during the year. But they are much less the leaders under this approach, instead taking a backseat to what the children want to do in a given day.
Academic preschools, however, are teacher-led, as teachers set out the curriculum and direct each lesson.
How are these approaches similar?
These approaches to preschool aren’t diametrically opposed – in fact, in a few key ways, they’re working toward the same goals.
Under both styles, children are met with a plethora of learning opportunities. Academic preschools set this out in a schedule manner, but children in play-based preschools will learn as they interact with peers, their teachers, and the environment around them.
While these preschools have different educational focuses, both strive for maximising early childhood development to help children get a jump-start on success.
Finally, while the philosophies toward academic matters might differ, both academic and play-based preschools are, at their core, geared toward making children more independent and mature.
Conclusion
As you’ve probably gathered from this article already, these approaches to preschool create vastly different experiences for the children enrolled – but they aren’t incompatible philosophies.
Rather than being exclusively academic or play-based, many preschools will pick and choose aspects from both approaches, creating a blend that the teachers and leaders believe in.
Deciding on a preschool isn’t easy. But if you know your child and where they’re currently lagging, you’ll be able to find the right preschool to get them off to a great start – whether it’s academic, play-based, or anywhere in between.
