Key difference: Daycare is the term coined for an institution that takes care of those children during daytime, whose parents/guardians are out on work. A Montessori is a kind of nursery school, founded on the principles of Italian educator and physician, Maria Montessori.

A daycare institution provisions parents/guardians to drop off their children during work hours, so that they can be looked after for such duration. Daycare as a practice may be carried out by the extended family members of a child, or by a nanny, or even by a babysitter. There’s also no hard and fast rule as such for the place where daycare has to be performed. Daycare centers function especially for the purpose of minding children. A caretaker may also offer to look after the child at his/her home itself. Some daycare establishments are also in the habit of teaching children basic school lessons, and groom them in behavioral and disciplinary traits as well.      

A Montessori school provides a very relaxed yet educational ambience for a child to study in. Based on the philosophy of Maria Montessori, an Italian physician and educator, this school is essentially a nursery of sorts, which aims to educate children through intuitive learning and play-based methods. In such a school, the focus lies more on the practical facet of education, rather than the theoretical facet. Montessori believed that young children thrive on their natural instincts of curiosity and spontaneity, to discover and learn new things, which has to be well exploited in order to stimulate their mental growth. This forms the basic tenet of the Montessori way of learning.

Comparison between Daycare and Montessori:

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