Parenting comes with critical decisions all the time. As a parent, you have responsibility for your child’s life. The decisions you make not only affect your child’s early life but also some aspects of their future. You have to weigh every decision you make and ensure it’s the best. One decision every parent has to make in Singapore is whether to enrol their child in preschool.
Of course, this is not mandatory in the country with formal school starting at the primary level. But over the years, preschool Singapore programmes have become an integral part of education. In this post, find out why preschool is the most important decision you make for your child.
Preschools and Socialisation
1. Building Friendships
At home, your child has an easy time with everyone trying to help. The socialisation environment provided at home is insufficient and doesn’t prepare your child for the realities of life. In preschool, your child has to interact with strangers and form friendships.
The child learns the value of building trust and loyalty. For a preschool teacher, nothing is as exciting as seeing these relationships develop. For a parent, you’ll have to listen to endless stories about new friendships formed at school.
2. Learning Teamwork/Cooperation
In preschool, your child gets out of their comfort zone and starts interacting with other kids. This might not look like a big deal, yet the decision has a huge impact on your child’s life. In the school environment, your child learns how to cooperate with other kids and coexist harmoniously.
The first days of school are tough for every child. With time, their teacher creates an environment to help them collaborate. As kids discover the benefits of collaborating, they team up more often and manage difficult tasks.
3. Learning to Compromise
Life is difficult if you try doing things your way. Learning to compromise is a smart way to live peacefully and achieve great things in life. For a child who has just come from a comfortable family setting, settling in the preschool environment is hard.
The child wants everything to go their way, but with time, they learn the importance of giving in to others. This is one of the most important skills your child learns in school.
4. Appreciating Diversity
In modern Singapore, you have people from all backgrounds. While adults still struggle with diversity in schools and in the workplace, kids can easily embrace each other. The preschool environment prepares your child for a diverse society.
They meet children from all races, religious backgrounds, and other groups. Your child learns to respect everyone they meet from an early age, which makes them good citizens.
5. Learning Responsibility
Before your child attends a preschool programme, they fully depend on you. At school, your child becomes responsible. For instance, your child learns how to wash hands, use the toilet, take care of their stuff and much more.
Preschool for Academic Foundation
1. Developing Cognitive Skills
In preschool, kids do much more than play games. The concept of preschool as a phase of fun and play is long gone. Teachers in these programmes are highly trained and they appreciate the critical role they play in a child’s life.
Preschool prepares a solid foundation for your child’s academic development. Here, teachers use innovative activities to help your child learn languages, math skills, letters, reading and pre-writing skills.
Every activity the teacher chooses aims to boost your child’s cognitive development. From rote reading, singing, making sounds, to storytelling, the child has an opportunity to start developing academically.
2. Understanding Structured Environments
At home, everything goes and the child doesn’t observe any rules. Most parents struggle to control their kids in an environment where everyone wants to make the child happy. Preschool is an important step in a child’s life as it introduces them to a controlled or structured environment. The school setting has a leader and the child has to observe rules.
3. Preparation for Formal Schooling
The preschool routine also includes time management and other structured activities. Learning to observe rules helps the child easily adapt in formal school and even later in life. If your child enrols on a quality preschool like Lorna Whiston preschool they learn important skills to prepare them for the tough Singapore education system.
Preschool and Physical Development
1. Developing Fine Motor Skills
Have you ever noticed how a child struggles to hold a crayon or a pencil? It doesn’t come naturally. This is part of fine motor skills which your child can develop early if they attend preschool.
Here, the teachers prepare activities such as painting and drawing and observe how each child works with the tools provided. These activities help a child’s coordination and make it easier to learn other important skills such as writing.
2. Developing Gross Motor Skills
Your child must stay active for physical growth. At home, you might not have adequate safe space for your child to play at an early age. In a preschool programme, the teachers create activities such as ball catching and other games to help children exercise and develop their gross motor skills.
Wrapping Up
Are you wondering whether preschool is important for your child? These are just some of the reasons to help you make the right decision. Preschool is a critical stage of growth and development for your child. By making the right decision, you gift your child an opportunity for early development.
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