Deciding whether you’ll send your child to preschool is one of the biggest decisions you’ll make as a parent. This decision can affect your daily schedule, your child’s education, and how your child learns and interacts with their peers in kindergarten and beyond. While sending your kid to preschool isn’t required, your child will miss out on tons of opportunities if they don’t have the chance to go to preschool.

Why? Well, preschool develops cognitive, fine motor, and social skills by providing an enriching environment complete with professional, nurturing educators and a classroom full of peers developing the same skills. Let Crème de la Crème show you all the amazing things preschool offers.

Preschool Jump-starts Social and Emotional Development

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Preschool provides an ideal setting for socialization and emotional development. Kids in preschool learn how to interact with other people — and that’s a skill they’ll draw on throughout their lives. Kids can find learning how to socialize with their peers difficult at times, so preschool gives kids a chance to learn those essential skills early on. Your child will be with other kids who are also learning how to socialize, so their social skills will develop alongside their friends.

Opportunities to socialize translate to opportunities for emotional development, too. Kids in preschool get to explore their feelings, such as learning how to deal with emotions and express themselves appropriately. All in all, preschool teaches your child to grow emotionally, which is another key part of growing up.

Preschool Develops Compassion

Along with other social and emotional skills, preschool offers a great place for kids to learn compassion. Kids in preschool get to see others their age experiencing great and not-so-great moments through the excitement and frustration of everyday life in the classroom. Kids interact with and learn from others, developing compassion skills along the way.

Preschool Teaches Kids How To Follow Directions

Childhood is a time to learn how to follow instructions, and preschool helps kids master this skill. Kids in preschool get to hone their listening skills as they follow their teacher’s directions and lesson plans. Listening is an important foundation for education at all levels, and kids start to build this skill in the preschool setting.

Preschool Gets Your Child Ready for Kindergarten

Kids who don’t go to preschool miss out on getting a head start for kindergarten. Leaving your home for the first time can be scary for little ones, and going to preschool can get kids ready to deal with this anxiety.

Preschool helps kids adjust to the classroom setting and being away from caregivers for hours at a time. At the same time, sending your child to preschool gives you some time to adjust to the change as well. Leaving home for a school day can be a tough adjustment for a kid, and preschool helps smooth that adjustment period before your child starts kindergarten.

Preschool Helps Kids Learn To Share

Many kids are naturally resistant to sharing toys and other things they feel are theirs. Kids have to learn the skill of sharing, which can only happen if they’re put in situations where they have to share. Preschool offers that setting thanks to plenty of kids around the same age learning the importance of this skill. Kids in preschool are old enough to understand the benefits of sharing, but they have to experience it firsthand to really learn. Being in preschool allows children to see the importance of sharing with friends.

Preschool Teaches Motor Skills

Holding a pencil, tying your shoes — kids develop fine motor skills early on. In addition to providing a great setting for honing social and emotional skills, preschool offers a place for kids to explore how their small fingers function by working on fine movements and dexterity.

Preschool Develops Curious Minds

Preschool provides a rich environment thanks to a curriculum that helps kids build their world. By interacting with other children and expanding their thinking beyond their prior knowledge, kids grow their imagination. They also get the chance to discover topics they find intriguing, developing a curiosity that will open doors in the future.

At the same time, the structure of preschool helps build kids’ brains. Preschool teaches kids how to be themselves, but it also instills the concept of structure through the daily schedule that still stimulates their minds. Kids’ brains get to grow within the structured setting, and they can start to navigate how they learn and process new skills.

Preschool Enhances Language Development

Preschool provides a head start for yet another essential skill: language development. Kids in preschool build the language abilities they’ve started to develop at home, forming a full vocabulary as they learn and then expand on the basics of language. In preschool, kids develop speaking skills and learn new words, building the foundation for expressing themselves for years to come.

Preschool Means Skilled Teachers

Teachers in preschools understand the ins and outs of early childhood education. Your child will learn from professionals who have the necessary skills and education to educate the whole child, crafting lesson plans that hone your child’s social, emotional, and cognitive skills.

Preschool Encourages Individuality

Preschool teaches kids essential skills for following directions and learning in a classroom setting, but at the same time, it invites children to develop their own unique personalities. That’s because the preschool atmosphere encourages kids to figure things out for themselves. Individuality comes when kids discover who they want to be, and preschool helps kids grow into their own person.

Preschool Offers the Freedom To Play

Kids, especially preschool-aged kids, learn through play. Preschool educators understand the importance of learning through play. Kids improve their imaginations when they play with other kids, expanding their curiosity and learning while they have fun and build social skills. The freedom to play is one of the pillars of preschool education.

Sure, you don’t have to send your child to preschool, but there’s no denying all the amazing opportunities preschool offers. Kids who don’t go to preschool miss out on an environment that builds imagination, compassion, and social and cognitive skills. Contact us today to discover a Crème de la Crème preschool near you.