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What is the Difference Between Daycare and a Learning Center?

Research shows that the first five years of your child’s life are critical in their development. These years set the stage for future success! The foundations of sensory-motor, physical, social, emotional and cognitive development are formed during these years.

More than one million new neural connections are formed every second in the first few years of life.

Your child’s development at every age prepares them for learning as they get older.  Even in infancy, as young as seven months old, children learn social skills and language formation. They form gross motor skills and social interaction as toddlers through two years old. After this stage, they form social relationships, behavior structure, language function, and higher levels of cognitive development. This prepares them for our preschool curriculum and kindergarten readiness.

The best thing you can do for your child is to place them in the care of educated and talented teachers who understand your child’s needs. Our teachers provide a supportive, nurturing environment to guide and empower your child to his or her full potential.

This is why we prefer to use the terms Learning Center and Early Childhood Education, instead of daycare.

What is the difference between a Daycare and a Learning Center?

The dictionary definition of daycare is “daytime care for the needs of people who cannot be fully independent, such as children or elderly people.”

A caring environment for your child is incredibly important. An early learning center should provide both a caring environment and developmentally appropriate early education based on research.

We wanted to take this opportunity to discuss the difference between a daycare center and a preschool or early learning center for a few reasons.

  • Most people are more familiar with the term daycare center.
  • When it comes to this subject, one of the most searched terms on Google is “daycare near me”
  • We’re all about education, so we wanted to inform you of why we use particular terms.

What is our approach, as an Early Learning Center and Preschool?

We’re committed to delivering results for your child and showing the value of our services from the start. 

The L.E.A.P. Program (Learning through Experience, Academics, and Play) is our research-based curriculum developed by our leading industry experts. We apply the award-winning Creative Curriculum, with Indiana Early Learning Foundations, Montessori, and Reggio Emilia philosophies. This innovative, effective and comprehensive curriculum empowers and inspires the youngest learners to achieve developmental milestones and academic results during their most critical and formative years.

To implement our curriculum, we teach our students to learn through play. Every experience and fun activity is treated as a teachable moment where students absorb as much knowledge as possible at the times they are most engaged. 

Through our STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) learning exercises and activities, we challenge our students to explore and discover their natural interests.  Using play-based activities, we implement carefully constructed lesson plans to ensure the STEAM learning becomes a foundation for children to build future academic success on.

We encourage you to schedule a tour of one of our locations to discover the difference between a daycare and an early learning center.