Why should you send your little one, your preschooler to a formal preschool? What is the importance of preschool? What are the benefits? What is your child going to learn by going to preschool? Let’s look at the answers to these questions together.
During play, children learn. At preschool they get to play and learn during organized activities designed to help them with this learning. They learn social interaction, physical skills, cognitive skills, creativity and self esteem.
One of the most obvious benefits is the socialization your child will get. This is something that every two, three and four year old needs. You can try to organize opportunities for social interaction at home or other settings. But the group activity that your child will get at a preschool on a weekly basis cannot be duplicated by you in any other way.
During this social interaction your child will learn invaluable lessons. They will learn how to share, how to take turns, how to share their teacher’s attention, how to follow directions from other adults, how to wait in line and how to raise their hands. These are all important social lessons that many adults could still learn. Your child will learn rules of interaction with others. They will learn what is proper and what is not. In today’s society it would be nice if all adults had learned these rules. Look around you; can you guess which adults went to preschool and which did not based on their social interactions with others?
The preschool years are a time when bodies are growing at a rapid pace. Children can do something new everyday it seems. At preschool they can race with other children to learn how fast their bodies can go. Combine this with jumping, skipping, hopping, dancing, lifting and crawling. “Wow, I didn’t know I could do this”, I have heard children say. They are checking out their buddies to see what they are doing too. Their physical skills will be challenged daily at preschool.
