If you’re a working parent of one or more children below school age, it can sometimes be difficult juggling your parental responsibilities around your work hours. Unless you are able to take your child to work with you, which is usually not the case, you’ll need someone to look after them while you’re away.
You could hire a babysitter or drop your child off at a babysitter’s daycare home, or find a relative or friend who can care for your child while you’re away, but often this last option is impractical and inconsistent and the babysitter option can prove costly over time.
A far better option is to enrol your child in early learning daycare and in this article you’ll discover some key reasons why it’s such a great idea.
A Safe and Secure Environment
Daycare facilities are designed to be safe havens for small children and secure locations where kids can spend the day being cared for by responsible and trained adults. Rather than having a stranger come into your home to babysit your child, when you enrol your child in an early learning facility, there will be a number of adult educators and minders there to care for your child. Daycare centres give parents peace of mind and security, so there’s no need to worry about a thing while you’re at work.
Kids Get To Spend Time With Their Peers
Rather than being at home with just a babysitter or a friend or relative, kids at early learning centres become part of a group, where they can mix and mingle, play, enjoy fun and educational activities together and build their social skills, teamwork skills and self-confidence.
Your child will make new friends, some of which will eventually end up going to the same primary school as them. This is important as one of the hardest parts about those first few days at school is not knowing anyone and not yet having made any friends. Your child will begin the school years already having made some good friends and will feel a lot more comfortable and confident during those first few days.
Children Receive An Education Kick Start
While educational activities are not quite as academic or formal as those in school, all children who attend an early learning daycare centre will receive an education. This is achieved through a curriculum of activities that small children embrace and enjoy. The more fun kids have, the more likely they are to learn.
Through educational systems such as the THRASS and STEM programs, kids learn the basics of mathematics, science, English, spelling, reading, handwriting, computers and more. This means that when they do start school, they’ll be doing so with a background in the basics of what they’ll begin learning in Grade 1.
These educational programs form a part of the school-readiness program, designed to prepare young children for the school years to come.
Children Learn About Proper Nutrition
Children are well taken care of in another important way. Many early learning centres provide children with delicious meals made from the freshest organic ingredients. Good nutrition doesn’t cease there though, as kids are taught the value of eating a healthy diet and some centres even have the kids grow a vegetable patch that they can harvest. These vegetables that they grew themselves are then used to make the meals the kids eat.
A lot of valuable lessons are learned through growing and harvesting their own vegetables and there is a real sense of satisfaction and achievement.
Early Learning Centres Are Fun-Filled
While there is a lot of learning and educational activities taking place within the walls of an early education centre, it’s certainly far from an all work and no play environment. Kids have a lot of fun and even the activities that are designed to be educational are fun-filled as well.
Physical activities such as exercise and physical games are also played, which are vital to the development of strong muscles and fit young bodies. Physical activity also improves brain function.
In Conclusion
As you can see, choosing to enrol your child in an early learning centre is a fantastic option and one that gives kids the very best start in life before commencing the school years.
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