Preschool is very important for children. Not only does it help jumpstart their education, but it also helps children develop proper social skills that will be necessary for elementary school. Here are some benefits of enrolling your child in a half day preschool program:
Social-emotional development – Something that is focused on during early childhood education is social-emotional learning. The focus of social-emotional learning is teaching children how to be aware of their emotions, so they can control how they manage their emotions. Social-emotional skills are not something that is expected to be mastered by the end of preschool, but rather skills that should be introduced as early as possible. Enrolling a child in a half day preschool program will help a child learn how to manage their emotions because they will be socializing with other children. A few opportunities for social-emotional learning at school include mealtimes and outdoor or indoor playtimes.
Allows them to ease into adjusting to school – A full day of school is a lot for preschool-aged children, especially if they have never been to school before. A half day preschool program allows a child to spend half the day at school and the other half at home with a parent, grandparent, or nanny. This can be very beneficial because it gets the child out of the house and socializing with other children, but also still allows them to go home and get more attention than they get at school which is something every child craves.
More time with parents or grandparents – It has been proven that children benefit from a half day preschool program because it allows them to go home and get more one-on-one bonding time with their parents or legal guardian. Not all children will be going home to a parent after a half-day at school, but those that do are getting proper socialization with other kids and quality time with a parent or legal guardian.