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Comment by mikerichards | Hacker News Reader

My son is only 2, but we decided to get him into "school" last winter.

When my wife was interviewing these places, the choice was between "learning" environments and "social" environments.

We chose the social environment. There's plenty of time for him to learn numbers, letters (he's only 2), but it's more important now for him to to learn to take turns, run around with other kids, bang on the drums and sing when the weekly musician comes in, etc...

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2 seems way, way too young for any sort of school environment.

2 goes almost all the way to 3. There's a big difference between 2 and 3-epsilon.

Depends on what you mean by "school" (NB the quotes in the parent comment). There is a huge variance in options for working parents of a 2-3 year old. From cramped cinder block day care -- aka The Cacophonous Petri Dish; to private nanny; to "forest schools" where kids spend as much time as possible outside digging in the dirt, climbing tree stumps, and learning how to devise and engage in large projects together (yes, a group of 2.5 year olds is capable of this).

I don't think the parent comment was talking about toddler MIT.

Do you have experience with any particular 'forest schools'?

I do. The one I'm familiar with has large garden areas, trees for climbing/wandering around, uncultivated wilderness areas, etc. It's not a vast tract of land, but enough that it seems huge to a small person. Indoor time focuses on exploration of provocations set up by teachers, telling stories, singing, role-playing, etc.

This is interesting. What is it called?

We have a full-time nanny, so this isn't really day-care for us. This is specifically for his socialization and "getting out of the house"

You misunderstood "school". It was 2 days a week from 9 to 1:30 in the afternoon.

Now it's 3 days a week from 9 to 1:30.

Kids can go into school at age 2? I thought Kindergarten started at age 4-5

Here in Singapore they can participate in a playgroup starting 18 months, the weird thing is most of the time it's in a classroom type of environment.

Our daycare has a bunch of "school-esque" stuff. It's almost 100% learning through play, but the kids do have development plans, areas that they focus on learning, etc. "School" is a broad term, and while sitting at a desk is 100% unrealistic for a 2 year old, opportunities for educational play definitely exist.

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