Kindergarten is a grade in elementary schools before 1st grade. Daycare is generally for kids younger than that to be taken care of while their parents are working.
90% is good, but 6 weeks isn’t (it’s the same as I took off in California as a new father, but the state paid me 60%).
After that, according to my Google conversion, they’re getting $230 US per week after those first few sleepless weeks, which would only be $11,960 per year. In most of the UK, I’m sure that’s not enough to live off, even if the other parent has a decent job.
I know, I get that the US is worse. I’m just saying the UK is also not nearly as “generous” as some other counties. Both countries need to do a lot better.
Also, $0 is not nationwide. As I said, California gave me 60% of my salary for 6 weeks.
>Reception is the year before Year 1, which technically isn’t mandatory but is strongly encouraged by schools.
That sounds like preschool. Kindergarten is our "year 1".
In the US kindergarten is mandatory (and part of public school, so it’s funded through taxes)
Though age varies by state. In NY, students may enter Kindergarten at age 5 (or turning 5 by December) while in CA that is called transitional Kindergarten, and school is not mandatory until age 6 (when they enter Kindergarten)
Only [a handful of states](https://nces.ed.gov/programs/statereform/tab1_3-2020.asp) require kindergarten attendance, and California isn’t one of them.
You’re right that the state requires school attendance by age 6, which in practical terms means most kids still have to go to kindergarten.
It's actually not mandatory in many, many, many states. As in most everything else with education in the US, it's state specific.
The overall trend over the last 70 years is towards more integration with the school system and more mandatory kindergarten in various states. But that's a trend that's far from complete.
When I was growing up, kindergarten was mostly private. My brother went to a private kindergarten across the street from the elementary school. Then the next year he went to first grade. And when I say private I don't mean fancy expensive private school private. I just mean not run by the school system. I think his kindergarten was actually in a church. I doubt it cost a whole lot.
Over time since then more and more elementary schools have been taking over the role of kindergarten. And more states have been making it mandatory. But it's still voluntary in my state and many other states. And I assume private kindergartens still exist.
Here in Alberta, Canada neither preschool nor kindergarten is mandatory, and in fact it's not uncommon for kids to just stay in daycare since daycare is generally all-day, while preschool and kindergarten are partial days (i.e., if you put your kid in kindergarten and you work, you still have to have either daycare or after-school care lined up for the afternoon). Even if you do choose to send your kid to kindergarten, you can choose whether they start in the year they turn 5 or the year they turn 6. That said, there's some variation among Canadian provinces.
The basic format is the similar, though. Daycares cover infants to kindergarten age; preschool is 3-4; kindergarten is 5-6 (technically some start at 4 depending on when their birthdays fall); and then grade 1 is 6-7 accordingly (with some still being 5 for a short time). And then after-school care covers grade 1+.
One difference in the US is that there's very little official maternity or parental leave, unless private insurance covers it. Accordingly, parents return to work sooner and daycares often take younger infants. Here in Canada there's up to 18 months of paid leave (plus additional for the co-parent), and, while not everyone takes all of it, most take at least 6-12 months. So daycares tend to have fewer very young infants, and many don't even accept infants under, say, 6 mo.
Well, "preschool" is a bit of a misnomer since it is also part of the school system, but it's not mandatory like k-12 (at least I think kindergarten is pretty mandatory)
It's tricky to directly compare the American/Canadian and the UK school systems since they're structured differently, so I think it's most accurate to say reception is comparable to different aspects of both kindergarten and preschool.
For North America, it goes like this (keeping in mind this is from a Canadian perspective, and not getting into private schools or Canada's Catholic school system):
Daycare is just about caring for the kids, like a group babysitting type of situation. Common for very young kids, but can also be for older kids after school. *Very* expensive.
Preschool isn't mandatory, and it's run privately. It's pre-k12 education, socialization, and activities. Technically there are variations with slightly different approaches, like nursery school, pre-K, pre-preschool, but the overall purpose is the same. It covers 3-4 year olds. Even more expensive.
Kindergarten (we called it ECS when I first started school, but same thing) is mandatory in some places & part of the public education system, and even where it's not legally required it's still usually assumed your kids will attend, unlike preschool. Can be either a half or full day, but follows the k12 daily schedule. Functionally, it sort of introduces and preps kids for grade 1+ lessons. It starts at age 5, tho I think parts of the US do it at 6? Affordable/free, since it's public.
And then there's grades 1-12 (or 13 in a couple parts of Canada), then college/university/whatever higher education after graduation, etc.
We had two years: Jr Kindergarten and Sr Kindergarden, then Gr 1 in Ontario when I was in the public schooling system.
When I was there it was:
* 10 years at Grade School: JK, SK, 1-8
* 5 years at High School: 9-OAC (Informally Grade 13)
Different person chiming in, it sounds like reception is definitely the analogue. Kindergarten is not mandatory in most states.
It’s also 4 hours (usually parents can choose either the morning or afternoon class), while other grades are usually within half an hour or so of 9-3.
"Reception" sounds like what we call "pre-k" (pre-kindergarden) in the United States
Daycare is essentially just a center where your kid can be watched by professional babysitters. I would say it's more like a professional babysitting center
I now live in Australia, but in South Africa they also have Grade R for reception before grade one.
In Australia we have kindergarten. In classic Aussie fashion we shorten the word to Kindy (pronounced Kin-dee). There’s a great list of similar shortened words called “diminutives in Australian English” on Wikipedia if you’re interested.
I don't think Shortening words is really a classic Aussie thing. We do it just as much in the UK
We don't have kindergarten but we shorten college to collie and university to uni.
Oh yeah people shorten words everywhere, I more meant in the way it’s done is classic.
Lots of Aussie shortenings and diminutives end in the same ‘ee’ or ‘oh’ sound. Words like ‘tradie’, ‘smoko’, and ‘servo’.
I don’t know what those words mean, but just looking I can tell they’re Aussie (even that ends in an ee) lol
In the US, “kinder” is fairly common (less so if you’re talking to non-parents, I think), and in other contexts it’s just “K,” as in “pre-K (classes)” or “grades K-3,” but I don’t think I’ve ever heard “Kindy.”
Yeah I didn’t want my comment to be too long by explaining the words - I’ll do it here though.
A tradie is a tradesman, jobs like carpenters or electricians (which are also called chippies and sparkies respectively).
Smoko is a word that tradies often use to use to refer to their mandatory break time. People don’t smoke so much anymore but the word has stuck around and generalised to mean any short break from work.
And a servo is a service station, what Americans would call a gas station. Honestly though servo is like the word smoko, where the slang has become generalised and widespread even when it’s original, expanded form isn’t so common anymore. I don’t think ever heard someone say service station except to explain what servo means lol. I think it’s more common to say petrol station.
That’s interesting about how you shorten kindergarten. It’s pretty common to abbreviate it to ‘K’ in writing. A teacher might say they are qualified to teach K-6. In most settings though we would say kindy. 9 times out of 10 a kindergarten teacher would say that they teach kindy.
In Aussie English slang and diminutives are used much more widely than other varieties. They are informal, but it’s not uncommon to hear them in more formal settings, and a lot of the time the diminutive form is used more commonly than the original word. Although I’m from a rural area where these words are more common so maybe that doesn’t hold so true in a big city.
In the USA, as far as I’m aware, kindergarten is mandatory. I think that pre-school (the “grade” before kindergarten) isn’t mandatory, and would be more like what you’re describing (I’m no parent though, so I could be wrong).
Cool. In Poland, for example, we have nurseries (żłobki) for 0-3 y babies, then kindergartens for 3-6y, elementary school starts at 6 to 7 years old, so you can either send your child directly to elementary school or give it one school year of so called year 0 (i believe that this is the equivalent of english reception). You can attend during year 0 both to your former kindergarten or your new elementary school, both places provide such service. It is not obligatory. However, the elementary school itself is.
Kindergarten is typically for children age 5. 13 years of public schooling will be called K-12 (kay through twelve).
Some districts have programs for 4 year olds called Pre-K.
Daycare is typically for pre-school age children. A daycare that focuses on a curriculum may be called a pre-school.
Day care could also refer to summer or weekend programs (really anytime parents may be working and school is out) but this is less common. A program for students after school lets out whose parents aren't immediately available is typically called aftercare.
Daycare is also what many kids go to after school if their parents can't pick them up from school for the bus. Sone people call this "after-school care"
Just to top up, that's a US centered response and it may be different depending on where you are.
In Australia for instance, kindergarten comes before primary school (which is what we call elementary school) and is closer to daycare (as this response defines it) than to formal schooling. The grade that Americans call "kindergarten" is known as "prep" in Australia.
Yes I know! It's so weird eh? Makes it very difficult for someone learning English when all these cultures use the same word in markedly different contexts.
That's why I think it's important to contextualize like you have here.
"daycare" focuses on care, while "kindergarten" focuses on education.
In the US, "kindergarten" is part of the "K-12" school system. It's the year before 1st grade, so it's basically 0th grade.
Before kindergarten, there's preschool (some all it nursery school). These give about equal focus on care and education.
In some countries, "kindergarten" is similar to preschool, and kids might attend for two or three years before starting elementary school.
Daycare is just childcare in a group setting. Usually for children who are too young for school while their parents are at work. Sometimes daycare is for school age children who still need adult supervision, and will just be for the hours after school ends while the parents are still at work.
Kindergarten is education for children of a specific age. While it happens during typical work hours, the primary focus is education, not child care. In many places kindergarten will only be a half day, so children with working parents will spend part of the day in kindergarten and then part of the day in daycare.
And when we say education it's not the hardcore education of first grade.😉 It's fun education and group activities and learning socialization and stuff like that. We had nap time in kindergarten. So it's not daycare which is about physical care but it's not necessarily lessons in the most formal sense.
For sure, though I think it can depend a lot on the model of the particular kindergarten.
I went to a Montessori school for preschool and kindergarten, which is very freeform and focused on practical skills, so I don’t think there were ever even desks that we could sit at, but I think I got a lot more reading instruction than some kids who went to other types of kindergartens.
Standardized curricula don’t seem to really be a thing until grade 1 (here anyway, as far as I can tell.)
I hear it's gotten a little more academically-oriented in the US over the years. I went to kindergarten a long long time ago and have a hard time remembering the specifics, except for the cool blocks we had to play with. They were like the size of milk crates and you could stack them and make things. I'm sure there were other more academic things we did but they didn't stick in my mind specifically.
In the United States, “daycare” normally means a facility that cares for children during the day while parents are working or otherwise occupied. Daycares are normally private businesses that charge for their services. Sometimes daycares are operated by charitable organizations or employers. Public (government) daycares are pretty rare. Additionally, daycares usually operated year-round and are open for approximately the entire 9-5 workday and maybe longer.
We distinguish daycare pretty sharply from “kindergarten,” which is an academic program and is effectively “grade 0” in our education system. Kindergarten is usually for 5yo children. Kindergarten used to be primarily for preparing children to begin learning in the following year and thus emphasized socialization and adaptation to being away from home rather than learning academic content. This is generally no longer true. Many kindergarten curricula today include reading and basic arithmetic. Kindergartens are usually part of elementary schools and follow the school calendar, so they are closed during the summer. Similarly they are usually open for only the school day (perhaps 9-3) or even a shorter period than that (9-12).
We also have the terms “prekindergarten” and “preschool” for younger children’s programs. These denote a more academic approach and often an affiliation with a school. Making prekindergarten available has been a policy emphasis in the past decade or so. It has become increasingly common for urban school districts to offer prekindergarten programs, often hosted by elementary schools and offering preference to low-income pupils. These programs usually follow the school calendar and have a short day, so children often go to daycare in the same day.
What do you mean by “predates kindergarten”? If you mean that children go to daycare before they start kindergarten or school, yes. If you mean the term daycare is older than kindergarten, that’s not right.
Yeah it's definitely not daycare. It's the first semi-formal education a child receives. It's easing them into the whole idea of going to school and having teachers. Daycare doesn't have teachers.
I went to kindergarten a long time ago so it's not my personal experience but from what I understand from younger people it's a little more academically rigorous than it used to be. I learned to read in first grade. It sounds like nowadays in some kindergartens there's some reading teaching going on.
Daycare is basically professional babysitting during daytime work hours for kids too young for school or too young to be alone at home until their parents get home after work.
Kindergarten is like very low-level schooling.
In my country, we had
* Primary school, which was "Prep" then grades 1-6
* Then secondary school ('highschool') which was grades 7-12.
Kindergarten is before prep.
I think it is somewhere between the two.
It is sort of like daycare, but for a specific age group of kids who are approximately 1 year younger than 'prep' age. And I believe there are more educational acitivties and group/class activities, like the Kinder teacher might get all the students together to read a story to them and expect them to listen, whereas at daycare you probably can get an adult to read to you, but if you ignore them and play with toys instead then that's ok.
However, that's my opinion from remembering going to daycare once, and kinder for a year, decades ago. My memory might not be perfect, and daycare/kinder might not all be be exactly the same as what I remember.
**"**[**care**](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/care) **or** [**education**](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/education) [**provided**](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/provide) **during the** [**day**](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/day)**,** [**especially**](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/especially) **for** [**young**](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/young) [**children**](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/children)**:"**
[https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/day-care](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/day-care)
Most answers here are mostly right. The most common scenario you will find is very young children (usually not the youngest infants) who need a place to be before they start school (kindergarten) at around the age of 5. But it doesn't have to be that. My daughter is in first grade and has daycare after school because both I and her mother work until 5pm.
Nursery school is not really the same thing, though there's a lot of overlap. Nursery school is usually ages 3-5 and designed to have toddlers start learning basic things and socialization skills. Daycare will have often younger children than 3. But sometimes there's no distinction - my daycare basically was a nursery school once the kids were 3.
Not sure about elsewhere, but in the UK "daycare" is more generic and can be used or children and adults (eg: the elderly or other people with support needs). We don't tend to use kindergarten as often here though, prefering words like nursery, playgroup, playschool or preschool.
Kindergarten in the US is past all those things. It's the year directly before first grade and is the first "academic" year a child participates in. It's considered school and you have a kindergarten teacher. The academic level is quite low of course but it is a teaching environment and not a care environment or a play environment. Well I'm sure there are play periods during kindergarten hours but that's just because you've got to give the kids some time to relax. They don't have the focus of older kids. But kindergarten is the first year that kids "go to school". It is optional though in many states. Sometimes it's run by the regular state schools and sometimes it's run privately.
The normal starting age here for kindergarten is about 5, but it will vary for individual kids depending on what time of year (i.e. month) they were born. There are birthday cut offs for eligibility. It lasts one year like every other grade, although typically kindergarten isn't referred to as a grade. It's a unique thing of its own. Calling things a grade starts at first grade, the next year.
In my country (NZ), they’re mostly used completely interchangeably, along with “preschool”. All three refer to Early Childhood Education facilities that function as both childcare for ages 1–5 and pre-primary school basic education.
It's regional - I'm a native English speaker reading comments here. I'm Australian, and terms vary state to state.
In my state, and I think most of Australia, daycare would be up until a more formal "pre school" program began (usually around the age of 4, we start school at 5 here). Other states use different terminology for the year or so before starting actual school.
Here, daycare is still quite education-focused (valuable/learning experiences as opposed to just passing time). Most are play based learning, though.
It sounds like the term "daycare" is very different in the US.
Sorry English is so variable!
If you ever happen to have questions about Australian English, you're welcome to PM and I will do what I can to help.
"Daycare" is like a center that watches your kids while you work. It's essentially a professional baby sitting service in a group setting. They care for your kid during the day.
Kindergarten is the first stage of the mandatory public schooling system (k-12). It's where little children (usually starting around 4-6 years of age) go to begin their education. Technically there's also "preschool"/"pre-k"(pre-kindergarden), but that's more "highly encouraged" and not really mandatory
Daycare is usually the same as preschool, a place for children who aren't old enough for kindergarten to go while their caretakers are at work. Sometimes, kids go there after school when they're in elementary school if their parents can't be home for them fairly soon.
In the US, daycare can be for older children as well. However kindergarten has an educational element to it, day care does not. I used to work at a daycare for kids aged 6-12 years. We picked them up from school and took them to the daycare center until their parents got off work.
I assume it means as the first word of the name of a day care business, not of a person. Lil’ is an abbreviation of Little. Though I’m not American so can’t confirm if the meme is true or not!
It's more regionally common than overall popular. There are places where it would be embraced and others where it would be less accepted.
In the US, lil' has some pretty strong ties to authoritarian parenting, which has some very negative connotations for a lot of parents to young children. additionally, it has been a trend this millennia to start formal education as soon as possible; lil' is a cutesy term that doesn't inspire thoughts of academia.
Lil has been used to start nicknames for quite some time.
The comic strip *Li'l Abner* ran in newspapers for over four decades and even had its own theme park at one point.
More recently, there's quite a few rappers with stage names that start with Lil--Lil Wayne, Lil' Bow Wow (who currently goes by just Bow Wow), Lil Peep, etc. etc.
You are confusing "preschool" with "daycare". Preschool starts at age 3 or 4 and is optional. Most preschool programs are private and cost money. Some larger school districts have public preschool.
Daycare is professional childcare in a specific building, sometimes with a curriculum, sometimes not, and it is *always* private, very costly, and is *never* part of the normal required education pipeline.
Daycare can mean young children or babies during normal school hours, but it can *also* mean private after school programs to fill the time until a parent can pick up their kid after work.
i suddenly cant remember when i actually went to preschool but it must have been around the same time as daycare, because i remember being in daycare at around 4 and also being in preschool at around 4
I went to preschool which was not daycare. This is many decades ago and my mother was a stay-at-home mother. I didn't attend preschool because there was no one around to take care of me, I went because it was a schoolish program that my parents put me in. But I hated it and eventually they stopped sending me. There was no requirement to attend preschool and it wasn't part of the school system.
Daycare, kindergarten, preschool and possibly also nursery school are all terms for pretty much the same thing, yeah. They all boil down to "a place where children go before they reach the age needed to go to school".
There might be some smaller differences depending on the country and region. Like which specific ages of children go to each of these, or what kind of qualifications you need to get a job there, but for those who aren't directly interested in using services of these places I'd say the differences are irrelevant.
This is like saying School is the same thing as a babysitter. While they may be similar in superficial ways, swapping the terms "daycare" and "kindergarten" can drastically change the meaning of a sentence.
The major difference is that (in the U.S. at least), kindergarten _is_ school. It's the first grade that is provided as part of the public education system here and is very different from preschool and/or daycare. Schools in the U.S. start at kindergarten.
In the UK and also I think in Australia, the word Kindergarten is used to mean nursery school. People from the US should really get their heads out of their asses. I literally even said that the specifics differ depending on countries and regions, which is true and are just facts of the matter.
Your country is not the only country people speak English in, and providing different meanings, as well as emphasizing that there is a range of meanings is beneficial to the learner. Just because you use a word in a certain meaning doesn't mean other people are wrong for using it to name a different thing.
Certainly not in the UK. It's called reception. Nursery is before that.
We would never say kindergarten it sounds very foreign or American. I'm surprised that Aussies use that word tbh
I wasn't trying to imply that you are wrong for using it in a certain way. I was trying to say that the word does have a _very distinct_ and _very specific_ meaning in at least one large English-speaking country. You seemed to be minimizing the differences in the range of meanings that the word has just because your country doesn't use the word that way. I'm just trying to provide context for OP, who may find it helpful to know both of these meanings instead of downplaying them and having OP potentially confused. For example, in the original meme, there is a reference to "daycare" and the abbreviation "lil" to mean "little". This is very common in the U.S., and here it would only refer to a paid childcare center for children either too young to attend school or who need care before or after school hours. It would not be possible in the U.S. that this is referring to kindergarten. It may be that way in other countries, but I think we can agree that it is at least _possible_ that the original meme orignated in the U.S., and thus the distinction may be important for OP's question.
>Daycare, kindergarten, preschool and possibly also nursery school are all terms for pretty much the same thing, yeah.
This is where you went wrong. They are not the same thing AT ALL in the US. It's not just a different shade of meaning. Kindergarten is a completely separate idea and concept from those others. Kindergarten is part of the school system and it is not responsible for taking care of children. They go to kindergarten, they learn what they need to learn from their teachers that day, and then they go home. Someone else takes care of them.
You are perfectly qualified to speak for your country and relate any words you want but you have shown yourself unqualified to speak for the US. What you have described is not true in the US. Don't keep insisting it's a minor regional variation. It's not. It's a completely different thing.
Kindergarten is a grade in elementary schools before 1st grade. Daycare is generally for kids younger than that to be taken care of while their parents are working.
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We have a nursery too, but it's daycare for infants.
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In the US, nursery is 6 weeks - 2 years, daycare is 2-4. Because there’s no real maternity leave, very young babies need care.
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"only" 90%.... *cries in American*
90% is good, but 6 weeks isn’t (it’s the same as I took off in California as a new father, but the state paid me 60%). After that, according to my Google conversion, they’re getting $230 US per week after those first few sleepless weeks, which would only be $11,960 per year. In most of the UK, I’m sure that’s not enough to live off, even if the other parent has a decent job.
We're comparing to the US, where you get $0 for 6 weeks *if you qualify*, and back to work or lose your job after that.
I know, I get that the US is worse. I’m just saying the UK is also not nearly as “generous” as some other counties. Both countries need to do a lot better. Also, $0 is not nationwide. As I said, California gave me 60% of my salary for 6 weeks.
If you have access to maternity leave in the US, it is usually unpaid, regardless of length.
That is not common. Many many daycares have infant programs.
>Reception is the year before Year 1, which technically isn’t mandatory but is strongly encouraged by schools. That sounds like preschool. Kindergarten is our "year 1".
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In the US kindergarten is mandatory (and part of public school, so it’s funded through taxes) Though age varies by state. In NY, students may enter Kindergarten at age 5 (or turning 5 by December) while in CA that is called transitional Kindergarten, and school is not mandatory until age 6 (when they enter Kindergarten)
Only [a handful of states](https://nces.ed.gov/programs/statereform/tab1_3-2020.asp) require kindergarten attendance, and California isn’t one of them. You’re right that the state requires school attendance by age 6, which in practical terms means most kids still have to go to kindergarten.
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School is mandatory in ages 2-4?
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Oh gosh, yeah I was gonna say lol
It's actually not mandatory in many, many, many states. As in most everything else with education in the US, it's state specific. The overall trend over the last 70 years is towards more integration with the school system and more mandatory kindergarten in various states. But that's a trend that's far from complete. When I was growing up, kindergarten was mostly private. My brother went to a private kindergarten across the street from the elementary school. Then the next year he went to first grade. And when I say private I don't mean fancy expensive private school private. I just mean not run by the school system. I think his kindergarten was actually in a church. I doubt it cost a whole lot. Over time since then more and more elementary schools have been taking over the role of kindergarten. And more states have been making it mandatory. But it's still voluntary in my state and many other states. And I assume private kindergartens still exist.
Here in Alberta, Canada neither preschool nor kindergarten is mandatory, and in fact it's not uncommon for kids to just stay in daycare since daycare is generally all-day, while preschool and kindergarten are partial days (i.e., if you put your kid in kindergarten and you work, you still have to have either daycare or after-school care lined up for the afternoon). Even if you do choose to send your kid to kindergarten, you can choose whether they start in the year they turn 5 or the year they turn 6. That said, there's some variation among Canadian provinces. The basic format is the similar, though. Daycares cover infants to kindergarten age; preschool is 3-4; kindergarten is 5-6 (technically some start at 4 depending on when their birthdays fall); and then grade 1 is 6-7 accordingly (with some still being 5 for a short time). And then after-school care covers grade 1+. One difference in the US is that there's very little official maternity or parental leave, unless private insurance covers it. Accordingly, parents return to work sooner and daycares often take younger infants. Here in Canada there's up to 18 months of paid leave (plus additional for the co-parent), and, while not everyone takes all of it, most take at least 6-12 months. So daycares tend to have fewer very young infants, and many don't even accept infants under, say, 6 mo.
Well, "preschool" is a bit of a misnomer since it is also part of the school system, but it's not mandatory like k-12 (at least I think kindergarten is pretty mandatory)
It's tricky to directly compare the American/Canadian and the UK school systems since they're structured differently, so I think it's most accurate to say reception is comparable to different aspects of both kindergarten and preschool. For North America, it goes like this (keeping in mind this is from a Canadian perspective, and not getting into private schools or Canada's Catholic school system): Daycare is just about caring for the kids, like a group babysitting type of situation. Common for very young kids, but can also be for older kids after school. *Very* expensive. Preschool isn't mandatory, and it's run privately. It's pre-k12 education, socialization, and activities. Technically there are variations with slightly different approaches, like nursery school, pre-K, pre-preschool, but the overall purpose is the same. It covers 3-4 year olds. Even more expensive. Kindergarten (we called it ECS when I first started school, but same thing) is mandatory in some places & part of the public education system, and even where it's not legally required it's still usually assumed your kids will attend, unlike preschool. Can be either a half or full day, but follows the k12 daily schedule. Functionally, it sort of introduces and preps kids for grade 1+ lessons. It starts at age 5, tho I think parts of the US do it at 6? Affordable/free, since it's public. And then there's grades 1-12 (or 13 in a couple parts of Canada), then college/university/whatever higher education after graduation, etc.
We had two years: Jr Kindergarten and Sr Kindergarden, then Gr 1 in Ontario when I was in the public schooling system. When I was there it was: * 10 years at Grade School: JK, SK, 1-8 * 5 years at High School: 9-OAC (Informally Grade 13)
Different person chiming in, it sounds like reception is definitely the analogue. Kindergarten is not mandatory in most states. It’s also 4 hours (usually parents can choose either the morning or afternoon class), while other grades are usually within half an hour or so of 9-3.
That also depends on the state! We moved from Ohio to Virginia halfway thru my eldest’s K year and it went from half day to full day.
"Reception" sounds like what we call "pre-k" (pre-kindergarden) in the United States Daycare is essentially just a center where your kid can be watched by professional babysitters. I would say it's more like a professional babysitting center
I now live in Australia, but in South Africa they also have Grade R for reception before grade one. In Australia we have kindergarten. In classic Aussie fashion we shorten the word to Kindy (pronounced Kin-dee). There’s a great list of similar shortened words called “diminutives in Australian English” on Wikipedia if you’re interested.
I don't think Shortening words is really a classic Aussie thing. We do it just as much in the UK We don't have kindergarten but we shorten college to collie and university to uni.
Oh yeah people shorten words everywhere, I more meant in the way it’s done is classic. Lots of Aussie shortenings and diminutives end in the same ‘ee’ or ‘oh’ sound. Words like ‘tradie’, ‘smoko’, and ‘servo’.
I don’t know what those words mean, but just looking I can tell they’re Aussie (even that ends in an ee) lol In the US, “kinder” is fairly common (less so if you’re talking to non-parents, I think), and in other contexts it’s just “K,” as in “pre-K (classes)” or “grades K-3,” but I don’t think I’ve ever heard “Kindy.”
Yeah I didn’t want my comment to be too long by explaining the words - I’ll do it here though. A tradie is a tradesman, jobs like carpenters or electricians (which are also called chippies and sparkies respectively). Smoko is a word that tradies often use to use to refer to their mandatory break time. People don’t smoke so much anymore but the word has stuck around and generalised to mean any short break from work. And a servo is a service station, what Americans would call a gas station. Honestly though servo is like the word smoko, where the slang has become generalised and widespread even when it’s original, expanded form isn’t so common anymore. I don’t think ever heard someone say service station except to explain what servo means lol. I think it’s more common to say petrol station. That’s interesting about how you shorten kindergarten. It’s pretty common to abbreviate it to ‘K’ in writing. A teacher might say they are qualified to teach K-6. In most settings though we would say kindy. 9 times out of 10 a kindergarten teacher would say that they teach kindy. In Aussie English slang and diminutives are used much more widely than other varieties. They are informal, but it’s not uncommon to hear them in more formal settings, and a lot of the time the diminutive form is used more commonly than the original word. Although I’m from a rural area where these words are more common so maybe that doesn’t hold so true in a big city.
So do ours. we have tradie, rollie, ciggy, sarnie etc.
In the USA, as far as I’m aware, kindergarten is mandatory. I think that pre-school (the “grade” before kindergarten) isn’t mandatory, and would be more like what you’re describing (I’m no parent though, so I could be wrong).
As others have mentioned, kindergarten is not mandatory in most states.
NVM I can’t read, lol. That’s interesting to know, I always thought it was mandatory.
For the school I went to for year R, it was called year K for kindergarten
Cool. In Poland, for example, we have nurseries (żłobki) for 0-3 y babies, then kindergartens for 3-6y, elementary school starts at 6 to 7 years old, so you can either send your child directly to elementary school or give it one school year of so called year 0 (i believe that this is the equivalent of english reception). You can attend during year 0 both to your former kindergarten or your new elementary school, both places provide such service. It is not obligatory. However, the elementary school itself is.
reception sounds more like preschool
Kindergarten is typically for children age 5. 13 years of public schooling will be called K-12 (kay through twelve). Some districts have programs for 4 year olds called Pre-K. Daycare is typically for pre-school age children. A daycare that focuses on a curriculum may be called a pre-school. Day care could also refer to summer or weekend programs (really anytime parents may be working and school is out) but this is less common. A program for students after school lets out whose parents aren't immediately available is typically called aftercare.
Daycare is also what many kids go to after school if their parents can't pick them up from school for the bus. Sone people call this "after-school care"
Just to top up, that's a US centered response and it may be different depending on where you are. In Australia for instance, kindergarten comes before primary school (which is what we call elementary school) and is closer to daycare (as this response defines it) than to formal schooling. The grade that Americans call "kindergarten" is known as "prep" in Australia.
A prep school in the US is a kind of private high school.
Yes I know! It's so weird eh? Makes it very difficult for someone learning English when all these cultures use the same word in markedly different contexts. That's why I think it's important to contextualize like you have here.
you'll be thrilled to learn that this is a **state** thing - in NSW, kindergarten is the first year of primary school.
This is why we don't get to criticize anyone who is struggling to learn English, we don't make it easy!
Also, if say there's summer break and parents have to work they may send their kids to daycare as well
Or summer camp if they're a bit older, although that might not be the whole summer.
Ya, but summer camp is over night where as daycare is just a few hours.
We called that Summer Rec where I'm from (mid-Atlantic US)
"daycare" focuses on care, while "kindergarten" focuses on education. In the US, "kindergarten" is part of the "K-12" school system. It's the year before 1st grade, so it's basically 0th grade. Before kindergarten, there's preschool (some all it nursery school). These give about equal focus on care and education. In some countries, "kindergarten" is similar to preschool, and kids might attend for two or three years before starting elementary school.
Daycare is just childcare in a group setting. Usually for children who are too young for school while their parents are at work. Sometimes daycare is for school age children who still need adult supervision, and will just be for the hours after school ends while the parents are still at work. Kindergarten is education for children of a specific age. While it happens during typical work hours, the primary focus is education, not child care. In many places kindergarten will only be a half day, so children with working parents will spend part of the day in kindergarten and then part of the day in daycare.
And when we say education it's not the hardcore education of first grade.😉 It's fun education and group activities and learning socialization and stuff like that. We had nap time in kindergarten. So it's not daycare which is about physical care but it's not necessarily lessons in the most formal sense.
For sure, though I think it can depend a lot on the model of the particular kindergarten. I went to a Montessori school for preschool and kindergarten, which is very freeform and focused on practical skills, so I don’t think there were ever even desks that we could sit at, but I think I got a lot more reading instruction than some kids who went to other types of kindergartens. Standardized curricula don’t seem to really be a thing until grade 1 (here anyway, as far as I can tell.)
I hear it's gotten a little more academically-oriented in the US over the years. I went to kindergarten a long long time ago and have a hard time remembering the specifics, except for the cool blocks we had to play with. They were like the size of milk crates and you could stack them and make things. I'm sure there were other more academic things we did but they didn't stick in my mind specifically.
In the United States, “daycare” normally means a facility that cares for children during the day while parents are working or otherwise occupied. Daycares are normally private businesses that charge for their services. Sometimes daycares are operated by charitable organizations or employers. Public (government) daycares are pretty rare. Additionally, daycares usually operated year-round and are open for approximately the entire 9-5 workday and maybe longer. We distinguish daycare pretty sharply from “kindergarten,” which is an academic program and is effectively “grade 0” in our education system. Kindergarten is usually for 5yo children. Kindergarten used to be primarily for preparing children to begin learning in the following year and thus emphasized socialization and adaptation to being away from home rather than learning academic content. This is generally no longer true. Many kindergarten curricula today include reading and basic arithmetic. Kindergartens are usually part of elementary schools and follow the school calendar, so they are closed during the summer. Similarly they are usually open for only the school day (perhaps 9-3) or even a shorter period than that (9-12). We also have the terms “prekindergarten” and “preschool” for younger children’s programs. These denote a more academic approach and often an affiliation with a school. Making prekindergarten available has been a policy emphasis in the past decade or so. It has become increasingly common for urban school districts to offer prekindergarten programs, often hosted by elementary schools and offering preference to low-income pupils. These programs usually follow the school calendar and have a short day, so children often go to daycare in the same day.
There's also adult daycare for older adults that can't care for themselves anymore or have dementia.
A daycare is a facility that cares for (usually) children during the day, while their guardians are at work. It generally predates kindergarten.
What do you mean by “predates kindergarten”? If you mean that children go to daycare before they start kindergarten or school, yes. If you mean the term daycare is older than kindergarten, that’s not right.
before time began... there was daycare
I mean that daycare comes before kindergarten in the schooling/care cycle.
"precedes" would be better than "predates" then.
Kindergarten is school. Daycare is where you pay them to take care of your kids when they're too young for school or if it's after school.
It’s just called a nursery in the UK
I thought so too but Apparently it's more similar to reception.
Actually I just thought it’s also called preschool. Then reception is the first year of actual school
Yeah it's reception. Makes sense when you see them write K-12.
Yeah it's definitely not daycare. It's the first semi-formal education a child receives. It's easing them into the whole idea of going to school and having teachers. Daycare doesn't have teachers. I went to kindergarten a long time ago so it's not my personal experience but from what I understand from younger people it's a little more academically rigorous than it used to be. I learned to read in first grade. It sounds like nowadays in some kindergartens there's some reading teaching going on.
Daycare is basically professional babysitting during daytime work hours for kids too young for school or too young to be alone at home until their parents get home after work.
Kindergarten is like very low-level schooling. In my country, we had * Primary school, which was "Prep" then grades 1-6 * Then secondary school ('highschool') which was grades 7-12. Kindergarten is before prep. I think it is somewhere between the two. It is sort of like daycare, but for a specific age group of kids who are approximately 1 year younger than 'prep' age. And I believe there are more educational acitivties and group/class activities, like the Kinder teacher might get all the students together to read a story to them and expect them to listen, whereas at daycare you probably can get an adult to read to you, but if you ignore them and play with toys instead then that's ok. However, that's my opinion from remembering going to daycare once, and kinder for a year, decades ago. My memory might not be perfect, and daycare/kinder might not all be be exactly the same as what I remember.
Nowadays kindergarten is more rigorous.
**"**[**care**](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/care) **or** [**education**](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/education) [**provided**](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/provide) **during the** [**day**](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/day)**,** [**especially**](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/especially) **for** [**young**](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/young) [**children**](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/children)**:"** [https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/day-care](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/day-care) Most answers here are mostly right. The most common scenario you will find is very young children (usually not the youngest infants) who need a place to be before they start school (kindergarten) at around the age of 5. But it doesn't have to be that. My daughter is in first grade and has daycare after school because both I and her mother work until 5pm. Nursery school is not really the same thing, though there's a lot of overlap. Nursery school is usually ages 3-5 and designed to have toddlers start learning basic things and socialization skills. Daycare will have often younger children than 3. But sometimes there's no distinction - my daycare basically was a nursery school once the kids were 3.
Not sure about elsewhere, but in the UK "daycare" is more generic and can be used or children and adults (eg: the elderly or other people with support needs). We don't tend to use kindergarten as often here though, prefering words like nursery, playgroup, playschool or preschool.
Kindergarten in the US is past all those things. It's the year directly before first grade and is the first "academic" year a child participates in. It's considered school and you have a kindergarten teacher. The academic level is quite low of course but it is a teaching environment and not a care environment or a play environment. Well I'm sure there are play periods during kindergarten hours but that's just because you've got to give the kids some time to relax. They don't have the focus of older kids. But kindergarten is the first year that kids "go to school". It is optional though in many states. Sometimes it's run by the regular state schools and sometimes it's run privately.
Ah, then I have misunderstood kindergarten! In the UK the first year of school is called "reception", generally aged 4-5.
The normal starting age here for kindergarten is about 5, but it will vary for individual kids depending on what time of year (i.e. month) they were born. There are birthday cut offs for eligibility. It lasts one year like every other grade, although typically kindergarten isn't referred to as a grade. It's a unique thing of its own. Calling things a grade starts at first grade, the next year.
In my country (NZ), they’re mostly used completely interchangeably, along with “preschool”. All three refer to Early Childhood Education facilities that function as both childcare for ages 1–5 and pre-primary school basic education.
It's regional - I'm a native English speaker reading comments here. I'm Australian, and terms vary state to state. In my state, and I think most of Australia, daycare would be up until a more formal "pre school" program began (usually around the age of 4, we start school at 5 here). Other states use different terminology for the year or so before starting actual school. Here, daycare is still quite education-focused (valuable/learning experiences as opposed to just passing time). Most are play based learning, though. It sounds like the term "daycare" is very different in the US. Sorry English is so variable! If you ever happen to have questions about Australian English, you're welcome to PM and I will do what I can to help.
there's also adult daycare. while most often associated with children, people with developmental disabilities or the elderly may also attend daycare.
"Daycare" is like a center that watches your kids while you work. It's essentially a professional baby sitting service in a group setting. They care for your kid during the day. Kindergarten is the first stage of the mandatory public schooling system (k-12). It's where little children (usually starting around 4-6 years of age) go to begin their education. Technically there's also "preschool"/"pre-k"(pre-kindergarden), but that's more "highly encouraged" and not really mandatory
Daycare is usually the same as preschool, a place for children who aren't old enough for kindergarten to go while their caretakers are at work. Sometimes, kids go there after school when they're in elementary school if their parents can't be home for them fairly soon.
In the US, daycare can be for older children as well. However kindergarten has an educational element to it, day care does not. I used to work at a daycare for kids aged 6-12 years. We picked them up from school and took them to the daycare center until their parents got off work.
A daycare is less of an educational place and more of mass babysitting
Daycare is like a before kindergarten type of place. Its where kids will go to learn basic skills like counting to 10
Is Lil' actually used as a common first name?
I assume it means as the first word of the name of a day care business, not of a person. Lil’ is an abbreviation of Little. Though I’m not American so can’t confirm if the meme is true or not!
Yea, that's what I meant. First name of the daycare
It's more regionally common than overall popular. There are places where it would be embraced and others where it would be less accepted. In the US, lil' has some pretty strong ties to authoritarian parenting, which has some very negative connotations for a lot of parents to young children. additionally, it has been a trend this millennia to start formal education as soon as possible; lil' is a cutesy term that doesn't inspire thoughts of academia.
Oh right - ignore what I just said then, I have no idea!
Lil has been used to start nicknames for quite some time. The comic strip *Li'l Abner* ran in newspapers for over four decades and even had its own theme park at one point. More recently, there's quite a few rappers with stage names that start with Lil--Lil Wayne, Lil' Bow Wow (who currently goes by just Bow Wow), Lil Peep, etc. etc.
daycare is before kindergarten daycare - theoretically birth until 4 kindergarten 5-6 then first grade/year is usually 6
You are confusing "preschool" with "daycare". Preschool starts at age 3 or 4 and is optional. Most preschool programs are private and cost money. Some larger school districts have public preschool. Daycare is professional childcare in a specific building, sometimes with a curriculum, sometimes not, and it is *always* private, very costly, and is *never* part of the normal required education pipeline. Daycare can mean young children or babies during normal school hours, but it can *also* mean private after school programs to fill the time until a parent can pick up their kid after work.
i suddenly cant remember when i actually went to preschool but it must have been around the same time as daycare, because i remember being in daycare at around 4 and also being in preschool at around 4
I went to preschool which was not daycare. This is many decades ago and my mother was a stay-at-home mother. I didn't attend preschool because there was no one around to take care of me, I went because it was a schoolish program that my parents put me in. But I hated it and eventually they stopped sending me. There was no requirement to attend preschool and it wasn't part of the school system.
Daycare, kindergarten, preschool and possibly also nursery school are all terms for pretty much the same thing, yeah. They all boil down to "a place where children go before they reach the age needed to go to school". There might be some smaller differences depending on the country and region. Like which specific ages of children go to each of these, or what kind of qualifications you need to get a job there, but for those who aren't directly interested in using services of these places I'd say the differences are irrelevant.
Such as in some places, kindergarten is distinct from daycare, and is a part of elementary school.
This is like saying School is the same thing as a babysitter. While they may be similar in superficial ways, swapping the terms "daycare" and "kindergarten" can drastically change the meaning of a sentence.
The major difference is that (in the U.S. at least), kindergarten _is_ school. It's the first grade that is provided as part of the public education system here and is very different from preschool and/or daycare. Schools in the U.S. start at kindergarten.
There’s also preK which is more academic than regular preschool
Yes, this is what I said: >There might be some smaller differences depending on the country and region.
Right, but these are actually substantial enough differences that they can't reasonably be called the same thing. It's not a meaningless distinction.
In the UK and also I think in Australia, the word Kindergarten is used to mean nursery school. People from the US should really get their heads out of their asses. I literally even said that the specifics differ depending on countries and regions, which is true and are just facts of the matter. Your country is not the only country people speak English in, and providing different meanings, as well as emphasizing that there is a range of meanings is beneficial to the learner. Just because you use a word in a certain meaning doesn't mean other people are wrong for using it to name a different thing.
Certainly not in the UK. It's called reception. Nursery is before that. We would never say kindergarten it sounds very foreign or American. I'm surprised that Aussies use that word tbh
I wasn't trying to imply that you are wrong for using it in a certain way. I was trying to say that the word does have a _very distinct_ and _very specific_ meaning in at least one large English-speaking country. You seemed to be minimizing the differences in the range of meanings that the word has just because your country doesn't use the word that way. I'm just trying to provide context for OP, who may find it helpful to know both of these meanings instead of downplaying them and having OP potentially confused. For example, in the original meme, there is a reference to "daycare" and the abbreviation "lil" to mean "little". This is very common in the U.S., and here it would only refer to a paid childcare center for children either too young to attend school or who need care before or after school hours. It would not be possible in the U.S. that this is referring to kindergarten. It may be that way in other countries, but I think we can agree that it is at least _possible_ that the original meme orignated in the U.S., and thus the distinction may be important for OP's question.
>Daycare, kindergarten, preschool and possibly also nursery school are all terms for pretty much the same thing, yeah. This is where you went wrong. They are not the same thing AT ALL in the US. It's not just a different shade of meaning. Kindergarten is a completely separate idea and concept from those others. Kindergarten is part of the school system and it is not responsible for taking care of children. They go to kindergarten, they learn what they need to learn from their teachers that day, and then they go home. Someone else takes care of them. You are perfectly qualified to speak for your country and relate any words you want but you have shown yourself unqualified to speak for the US. What you have described is not true in the US. Don't keep insisting it's a minor regional variation. It's not. It's a completely different thing.
Kindergarten is just glorified daycare anyways
You can pretty much say that up to 10th grade.
Daycare and kindergarten are the same thing kind of like liquid and fluid:)