The importance or necessity of preschool in shaping the future of a child is a debated topic. Theoretically, if you can nurture your kids at home yourself, there is nothing better. However, there are circumstances when you cannot and a preschool becomes necessary. Even if you can afford to give your child the valuable gifts of time, care, and attention, certain things may never be done if your child is home-taught. Indeed there may be some adverse effects of preschooling, but for the most, the good far outweighs the bad. Keeping aside the debate over the necessity of preschools, let us now have a glance at 10 good reasons your child should go to a preschool. Keep reading!
1. Children are lonelier these days than ever
Most of us in our generation did not go to a preschool. Not only because preschools were not as abundant as they are now. We did not need to. Even as late as in the 80s and 90s, families were bigger, parents were less busy, and social connections were stronger than they are now.
Both of my parents were working. My mother started from home by seven in the morning, and returned not before six at evening. But my paternal grandmother was there to take care of me (she still lives with us now and just finished cooking a superb dish), and my maternal grandparents also lived in close proximity. Living in a suburb, I grew up playing in the fields, plucking flowers and fruits, and running about the neighbourhood. You too probably had a similar childhood.
Do our children have a similar one? Our families are nuclear, and apartments are smaller. Green fields are fast yielding places to jungles of concrete. In my locality, there is not much playground left for children, and definitely no more streets to run about without worrying of rushing vehicles. Migration to far away places is also more common than it was in the 1980s, and most of the times our parents do not shift with us. Our children often do not live with their grandparents any more, and mostly not with cousins. They grow up alone. Quite alone.
2. Everyone else may be at the preschools
Such, such were the joys.
When we all girls and boys,
In our youth-time were seen,
On the Ecchoing Green.
William Blake's famous lines are almost already reduced to history. What adds to the loneliness of our children is that neither there is much greenery left, nor much sport is to be seen. If almost every other kid in the block is sent to a preschool, your child should be sent to one, too. He or she will feel better with kids than staying home, alone.
3. Preschools make your child ready for kindergarten
Admit it or not, the world is becoming even more and more competitive and fast-paced. Leave alone high schools and colleges, getting your child admitted in an elementary school or a preschool is also getting more troublesome day by day. It might be a rat race, but if that is the norm of the majority, you would have to accept it. Even kindergartens are becoming more and more academic and competitive. Pre-maths and pre-literacy skills are almost always asked for.
This is where a play school can come handy, because in a good preschool, acquiring those pre-maths or pre-literacy skills do not interfere with your children's playtime. A teacher of a play school should understand how young minds develop, grow, and learn. There are several features of a good preschool that you should keep in mind while choosing one, and this is an important one. A good preschool will both engage them in play and make them ready for kindergarten by synchronizing learning and playing activities with their physical, emotional, and cognitive abilities.
4. Structured environment facilitates learning
A structured environment helps young minds acquire new skills and socialize better. The teachers are there to direct the kids's activities towards positive goals. However, in a good preschool, this structured environment has to be largely invisible to kids. There should be disciplinary rules and directions, but the kids should never feel them burdensome. The structured environment of a preschool encourages children to socialize, which is as important a skill these days as academics!
5. Preschools develop the right social and emotional skills
When your child is two to three years old, it is time to take some time away from parents and family to help the child learn socializing with other kids and adults. Around this age, children learn to build trusting relationships with people outside their family, and no one is probably better to teach your kid such skills apart from a caring teacher in a preschool. Children in a play school learn to communicate with their teachers and their schoolmates, thereby developing warm relationships and long-lasting values. A good teacher would also help the child overcome its negative aspects like excessive anger, fear, or frustration that may be largely overlooked by family members. Also, in a play school environment, a child can notice how other children respond to a certain trait in his or her character that helps nurturing the right values. For example, a bullying child seeing another child getting hurt for such behaviour is more likely to correct than being directed to do so by an adult.
Advertisements
6. Preschools nurture curiosity in young minds
The preschool environment is completely different from that of the home in which the child has grown up so far. This creates an excellent opportunity for the child to see, discover, and learn new things. This has two great benefits; on the one hand it evokes curiosity in the child's mind, on the other, it helps enrich his or her vocabulary. In a good preschool, the teacher should be able to help the child take even the slightest possible inroads into new experiences and discoveries. For example, a child might come across a butterfly in the play area of a preschool, which he or she has never seen so far in his or her sixth-floor apartment in a highrise building. Ideally, a good teacher would take this opportunity to not just tell the kid that it is a butterfly, but at the same time, draw his or her attention to its shape, movements, and colourfulness. The child can also be introduced to a brief life-cycle of butterflies. The story of how ugly caterpillars become beautiful butterflies and help flowers bloom would surely be as magical and charming to children as fairytales.
7. Preschools help children with language skills
Language is more effective when it is acquired than taught. Preschools often help children acquire (yes, acquire, not learn) new words. This is simply because the environment of the preschool is different from that of home or other places the child has so far been to. This makes the child curious to know what those unforeseen things are called. Sometimes the teacher tell the pupils the names of those things, or the pupils enquire themselves, but most of the times, they acquire that knowledge simply by picking up words from conversations with the staff or fellow kids.
It is generally observed that between 3 and 5 years of age, children's vocabulary increases from about seven-eight hundred to more than two thousands. The sentences they speak become complex and almost adult-like. In a preschool, the teacher initiates thought-provoking conversations. Apart from communication with the teacher and peers, children are also helped in enriching their language skills from listening, reading, singing, and reciting activities.
8. Children love growing up, and learn actual things through make-believe
Children love to grow up and act like adults by imitating them. Good preschools encourage them to perform simple tasks that the adults do, like making their bed or arranging the breakfast table. Such activities increase their confidence and competence. I have also seen a play school where kids were introduced to the concept of market through play and make-believe. The teacher was the imaginary shopkeeper, who sold toys. There were different sorts of toys of different prices. The children could buy them only if they could count money (both coins and bills) and pay that price properly. This idea can also be tweaked to introduce the concept of value; children will be entitled to toys only if they do certain works. For example, plant a tree if you want a soft toy; make the bed if you want that shotgun!
9. Preschools teach children how to take care of self and others
Human beings are social animals, and the preschool is your child's foremost opportunity to learn that. As children start performing several tasks under the guidance of able teachers, including chores, their confidence and self-reliance increase. Also, this is the time when children start showing their special abilities in, or fondness of, a certain subject. Some may draw better. Some are better singers. Some are expert in doing chores neatly. As their confidence and competence keeps growing, a good preschool encourages its students to assist fellow pupils in their weaker areas. The teacher also can make several groups according to competence, who will mutually help others group in achieving certain tasks. Elder children, or veteran preschoolers, can also be of excellent resource to newbies, helping them in doing chores around the school.
And this has multiple benefits. On the one hand, the children will develop like fellow-feeling, compassion, camaraderie, and teamwork. On the other hand, repeated performance of something a child is already good at will facilitate further excellence. You never know that your kid who shows every other kid how to throw a ball at a stamp may come to be, after decades, the leading wicket taker for the country!
10. Preschools help the children develop good motor skills
Ah yes, we were talking about throwing a ball at a stamp. Or catching it. Or kicking a ball into the net. Or throwing the ball into the basket. Or driving baby cars.
Will every child doing these ultimately become fast bowlers, footballers, or F1 drivers? Not necessarily. But what can be guaranteed is the development of better motor skills. Better than those children who stayed at home and missed these opportunities. Please note that I am not against homeschooling your child; if you can tick of all the points in this checklist for homeschooling, you may very well steer clear of a preschool.
However, in most cases, we do not have in our homes the diverse equipment to nurture and develop young minds that a preschool can boast of. Often, we do not have that much space in our houses either. Good preschools should have a sufficient play area, both indoor and outdoor, where such motor skills can be nurtured. Yes, apart from sports, indoor activities can also help develop fine motor skills: cutting papers with a scissor or sticking something with glue are commonest example of indoor activities that improve fine motor skills and cognition.
Remember, preschools complement home teaching, not contradict it.
If the teachers of your child's preschool do not pay attention to what you think and suggest, it is an indication that you should change the school.
Nobody knows your kid better than you. An ideal teacher in a good preschool should remember that, and regard you as an expert about your child. Frequent parent-teacher meetings are necessary. Good preschools also encourage that parents and teachers develop a close, informal bond so that the child can be taken care of in a better way.
When that can be done, what the child learns similar things both at home and at the preschool. Children excel when the preschool and home teachings complement each other instead of contradicting. For example, as we have just discussed, several preschool activities help children acquire fine motor skills, but there are several activities that can increase motor skills at home as well!.
You might also want to read:
Advertisements
0 comments:
Post a Comment