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Four Good Reasons To Send Your Child To Preschool

5 October 2016 by Herminia Washington

In the United States, you do not have to send your child to preschool, yet many parents do. If your child is approaching preschool age, you may be wondering if it's really necessary to send them out of the house so soon. While this is a personal decision and every child is different, preschool does offer a number of benefits. Here's a look.

Children learn to interact with peers their own age.

Unless you have twins, your child probably hasn't spend a significant amount of time with other children his or her age. Getting along with siblings of different ages is quite different than getting along with similarly aged peers. This is a skill your child will have to pick up on in order to get along socially in school, so why not start early? Your child will learn to share with equals, strike up conversations, and play amicably.

Children learn to respect other adults.

Hopefully your child sees you as an authority figure (though a kind one). However, he or she probably does not have the same regard for other adults like aunts and uncles, since they tend to have more of a "friends" relationship with kids rather than being authorities that set rules and guidelines. As much as human beings don't always enjoy following rules and obeying authority, it's a necessary skill to get by in life. At preschool, your child will learn to treat other adults—the teachers—as authority figures. He or she will learn to address them with respect and obey their requests.

Children learn to be apart from parents.

Unless you've been sending your child to daycare, he or she is not used to being out of the home for a long time. When kindergarten rolls around, your child will have to be away from home for most of the day, five days a week. This can be a lot all at once. Many preschool programs are a half day long or only are held a few days a week. This allows your child to ease into the habit of spending time outside the home so spending all week at school is not such a shock.

Children learn to follow a structure.

At home, your child may bounce freely from one activity to another depending solely on what he or she wants to do at the time. Preschools usually adhere to some sort of schedule. For example, 9–10 may be drawing time, and 10–11 may be story time. By going through this process, your child will start to tolerate a more structured schedule instead of indulging his or her every whim. This is important for helping build self control later in life.

For more information, contact establishments such as Learning Tree Schools.

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