Education is something that we value pretty highly in our society. We have all sorts of institutions available that you can learn things from. Many careers require a whole 18 years of schooling in order to be eligible for a position.
That means that getting an early start is important if you want your child to succeed. No matter where you live, whether you’re looking for education for early childhood Northville or Chicago, your child deserves the start that they need to get to where they’re going as smoothly as possible.
But are these programs really all that they’re cracked up to be? Certainly, you’ve heard other parents sing the praise of these kinds of programs, but if you haven’t enrolled your own child into something like this before it would make sense that you could have some healthy skepticism about this particular subject.
Today, we’re going to be taking a look at what the professionals have to say on the topic. Our goal here is to show you exactly why these programs make sure a big difference. Healthy education as young as possible is always a good thing, but let’s look at why that is together.
An Early Education
As we mentioned, education is something that a lot of people end up spending a good chunk of their lives doing. In fact, as generations continue going on they just get more and more educated. As it stands, Millennials are the most highly educated generation with Gen Z trailing not too far behind, only because not enough of Gen Z have graduated college yet.
With more and more people seeking out higher education, schools are able to be more and more selective about who they’re willing to accept into their programs. That means that getting good grades is very important if your child wants to go to a good school.
That’s where early childhood learning programs enter the picture. These programs give your child a head start on their education before they’re in an environment where they’re constantly being graded for their performance in class.
On average, children that are enrolled in an early childhood education program outperform their peers that were not enrolled in a similar program on all levels of schooling. That means everything ranging from kindergarten to the very end of their academic career, which is kind of a big deal.
Early childhood education programs can also have a big impact on what schools your child is eligible to be enrolled in because of this. It looks good on college applications for your child to be able to say that they’ve been in the education system since they were very young.
There are a lot of things that early childhood education programs do in order to accomplish this, for example:
- Educational toys.
- Games that are geared for learning.
- Arts and crafts that teach children basic skills.
- In-classroom puzzles to help with problem-solving skills.
- Basic lesson plans to prime children for kindergarten and beyond.
Everything that goes on in an early childhood learning program is specifically designed to help the children enrolled to learn and be that much more prepared for the life that they have ahead of them, and that can help them be a lot more successful when push comes to shove.
An Easier Transition to School Life
We’ve already talked at length about the educational aspect of school that could take some adjusting on your child’s part, but there are other things that your child will have to adjust to if they want to be successful in school and in life.
One of the biggest things that children struggle with is learning social skills on the fly. Social skills are complicated, and it can be pretty hard to know how to navigate complex social structures without any background knowledge. It can even be pretty hard to navigate complex social situations when you do understand the rules of engagement.
When you put a child into kindergarten without any sort of preschool or early childhood learning program, you’re expecting for them to hit the ground running not only from an academic standpoint but from a social standpoint as well. That would be a lot for anyone, let alone a child.
When you enroll your child into one of these programs, you give them the chance to adjust to both learning and socializing at the same time. Of course, your child probably socializes with their family. That usually means people like their:
- Parents/guardians
- Grandparents
- Aunts and uncles
- Siblings
- Cousins
- Family friends
All of that is great for the child because it allows them to talk to other human beings and learn a bit about how socializing works, but they haven’t had to go somewhere by themself and learn how to interact with other people their age without the social safety net of their family.
Early childhood learning programs help a lot with that because you’re leaving them to fend for themselves in an environment that is controlled by people that understand the way that children operate. That allows your child a chance to explore their social skills on their own while still being in a safe environment.
Getting your child used to this kind of socializing before they need to be can mean some pretty wonderful things for their academic career, and even for the life that they have waiting for them on the other end of their academic career.
Instead of expecting your child to hit the ground running, early childhood learning centers give your child a chance to get their most basic skills down before you even have to take them shopping for new school clothes for their first day of kindergarten.
That typically means that they’ll be more relaxed and more ready to learn when that time comes around. Being more relaxed in a classroom always has some pretty incredible effects on learning because they’re able to focus more on learning than worrying about figuring out how to interact with the other children.
Because children that go through an early childhood learning program are able to focus more on learning combined with the fact that they already know some of the basics, they’re able to absorb the information they need with a lot more ease. This effect only builds over time.
That effect is exactly why so many children that are enrolled in these early childhood learning programs are able to get ahead so early on. It’s a lot easier when you have a headstart, whether you’re talking about a foot race or someone’s lifetime of an educational career.
Life Skills That Go Beyond Academia
Social skills are not the only skill that your little ones will be learning when they’re enrolled in an early childhood learning program, just like social skills aren’t the only skills that we need to use on a daily basis as adults. Far from it, in fact.
For example, problem-solving skills are incredibly important in the real world. There are hundreds of cases where this is true, for example:
- Your normal route to work is blocked off.
- There are three people and two slices of pizza left.
- You dropped your keys into a hard-to-access place.
- Your expenses are higher than your monthly budget.
- The people that live near you want to carpool and want to take turns driving.
- You get into an argument with your spouse or partner.
The list just continues going on. Problem-solving skills are incredibly important as an adult, and early childhood learning centers have all sorts of things that can help sharpen your child’s problem-solving skills so they can be better at solving problems for the rest of their life.
Problem-solving skills also go hand in hand with decision-making skills, and those skills are really important in your life. Some jobs require hundreds of choices to be made a day, and if your child ends up being an air traffic controller they’ll be especially grateful for the headstart on those skills.
That being said, even though air traffic controllers have a lot of choices to make on a daily basis, most jobs require you to have the ability to make snap choices accurately in order to be sure that everyone involved is safe and is getting what they need.
All of these skills are things that people learn as they grow, but early childhood learning facilities help your child build a good foundation that they can spend the rest of their lives building off. That will make them more successful both in their personal and professional lives.
Getting Your Child Ready
Our adult life makes up the vast majority of the time that we spend on this planet. From the ages of 18 to 65, on average, people are expected to be able to handle themselves professionally while using the skills that they’ve been building for their entire lives.
Whether your child becomes a construction worker, doctor, or anything else, giving them the tools they need to get to where they want to be is incredibly important and can help them live a long, happy, healthy, and successful life.
