Difference between Kindergarten and Playschool

Key difference: Kindergarten is an educational institution, which forms a child’s precursor to its formal education. Playschool, in turn, acts as a precursor to its kindergarten education.

Kindergarten is a German term coined by Fridrick Frobel, which means ‘garden of the children’. In a kindergarten, a child is expected to be honed in the fundamental knowledge of phonetics and reading, which will further lay the foundation for its schooling in future. A kindergarten experience helps to induce a considerable amount of confidence in children, in their run up to elementary education. Though inclined towards the academic development of children, kindergartens also make it a point to instill in them creativity and craft, with the help of arts and games.

Playschool acts as a predecessor to kindergarten. Playschool involves all the fun and leisure activities that a child is associated with. Being in a playschool helps children to learn to stay away from their parents, interact with their peers and also learn new lessons in an enjoyable manner. The playschool staff ensures that no child feels out of place and takes very good care of them as well. Playschool is also known as playgroup. In essence, playschool is nothing but an informal nursery. Together with recreational activities, children in a playschool get to perform many personality enhancing activities as well.

Comparison between Kindergarten and Playschool:

	Kindergarten	Playschool
Definition	Kindergarten denotes a type of preschool. It generally focuses on five year old children	Playschool refers to an informal nursery group
Types	Upper kindergarten and Lower kindergarten	Groups such as father’s group, nature based group or grandparents group, etc.
Activities	Academic along with extracurricular	Mostly extracurricular
Age group	Children between the ages 3 - 5	Children who are too young to go to kindergarten or preschool
Duration	They operate longer than a playschool	They operate only for a few hours