Daycare

Play has been shown to be a very effective way of learning, especially if it’s Montessori style toys. Also, she’s 18 mo. She has her entire life to be in structured school. Most of us never went to daycare and all we did was play during the day and we still learned what we needed to once school started.
Everyone’s at a similar place by the time they have to be in school.
Play is exactly what an 18mo needs. Even at other daycares, the “structure” is just directed play.

not many Montessori style toys.. she’ll play with some cars, there’s like toy dollhouses things like that.
A big part of me putting her in daycare was definitely the social interaction and her paediatrician stressed that to me and because just recently at her 18 month old doctors appointment when they did her assessment of speech, knowledge and overall progression she scored way higher than kids her age at least from what they told me. However everything that she knows/does I taught her. Not saying I want her to be in a classroom with pen and paper learning how to write, but I think I’m most definitely going to look into a daycare with kids her age that has a little more structure to let her thrive.

All of the recent psychological research shows that daycare before age 3 isn’t really necessary (I’m not saying it’s bad, but they don’t need it). At 18 months they are still engaging in parallel play and socialization isn’t really happening yet. Respectfully, I think your doctor is inaccurate with their claims.

If she’s way above kids her age, then it sounds like she’s thriving exactly where she is.
Even if it is only learning from you, which I doubt because she engages with the prod outside of you too. Not saying it’s NOT from you, but I don’t think it’s SOLELY from you, there’s absolutely no issue with learning from your primary caregiver. That’s actually exactly how we learn esp at that age

unfortunately I didn’t have an option not to because I work full time, but it was discussed with her grandmother that she’d watch her and her doctor suggested daycare that way she’d be with kids her age and able to socially interact, but she was with babies most of the time so there wasn’t much social interaction and now she’ll be the only kid at the daycare which is basically the same thing as being at home with me.. or with her grandparents.

respectfully even the educator will tell me “she doesn’t really have to teach her much because she knows a lot” which… I understand she’s where she needs to be but that doesn’t mean she should just play and eat all day and not work on things like motor skills… or putting shapes together, stacking blocks etc… these are all things I do at home with her, which is why I put her in daycare for social interaction because she doesn’t have siblings and isn’t really around kids and I’ve tried play dates and a lot of the times the moms would cancel or it would go on for a couple of weeks and that’s it… and the other main reason was so that she can continue to learn and grow. Now I’m finding myself having to put a little structure in her day as when she was at daycare she was literally allowed to eat all day and by eat I mean snack… so when it came time to her meals she was too full, her naps were all over the place as she’d let her nap when she wanted..

It sounds like you have your decision and your choice! That’s great that you’re able to understand your baby’s needs and act accordingly.

The purpose of Montessori is to be baby/child led. It sounds like you’d like more traditional schooling.
I’ve worked in daycares, and most just offer structured play, but it’s really just allowing the kids to do their thing.
Maybe looking into a specific type of class that her grandmother could bring her to or a one on one nanny to socialize with her and teach her specific things that you want her to learn would be the best fit for your family!