• "Multi-age groups offer children opportunities to develop and practice social skills.

• "There is a wider range of behavior and performance that is likely to be accepted and tolerated by the adults as well as by the children themselves."

• "There is often less competitive and more cooperative or helpful behaviors."

• "Mixed-age group care is more like a home setting and often a more comfortable and secure setting for young children."

• "Siblings are not separated."

• "By design, mixed-age group care is geared more to the needs of individuals. Children in such groups have greater freedom to develop at their own rate."

• "Older children learn to adapt their language and social skills to relate with younger children, often learning patience, compassion and problem solving skills."

• "Younger children are challenged by older children and often engage in more complex activities then when they play with same age peers."

Joni Levine - Childcare Lounge