Parental reports of 585 children's childcare experiences during the year preceding kindergarten were used to index the extent of children's involvement in three types of childcare: center-based (e.g., daycare center, Head Start, preschool), informal (e.g., relative-based or sitter-based) and parental. Childcare choices covaried with household SES, with children from higher SES homes more likely to participate in center-based care, whereas children from lower SES homes were more likely to spend time in informal care or parental care. More time in center-based care was associated with higher amounts and stability of peer contact. Modest, but significant, associations were obtained between social information processing variables and children's experience in childcare. Moreover, different patterns of association with social information processing were obtained for each of the three care types. Kindergarten teachers rated children who had spent more time in center-based care as more academically skilled, and children who attended greater amounts of informal care as less academically skilled. Parental care was associated with poorer academic skills only for children from lower SES homes. These results indicate that the type care is an important consideration in contextualizing children's preschool childcare experiences. (Contains 5 tables and 1 figure.)