Advice For Choosing A Preschool

Believe it or not, your child’s education starts as soon as preschool education. Even though it might seem that children spend only playing, it is not exactly so. By attending preschool, children learn about different things, develop their social, motor and cognitive skills, they learn how to behave.

These are all valid reasons for sending your child to a preschool. We can look at it as an essential building block of lifelong education. So, it’s clear that it’s key to make the right decision. And how can we do that? Well, by following expert advice.

It would help if you started with thorough research of available preschools - you can do it multiple ways, but more on that a bit later. Along with compiling a list of potential preschools, you should determine the cost and consider your budget. You should take the class size into account as it plays a crucial role in your child getting full attention and proper education.

As educators are a base for every good preschool, you should learn about them, about their education, experience as well as personality. And finally, you should take a good look at the environment.

Do thorough research

Your preschool selection process requires thorough research. There are different methods you can employ here. The best one to start with is personal recommendations. You can ask around your friends, family members, colleagues or neighbours about their experiences.

This can help you in gaining insight about what kind of institutions there are as well as about their policies. Besides this method, you can also use Google to find nursery care centres in your area. The majority of them have a website, which you can browse through to find relevant information and go through reviews.

All of these pieces of information are helpful and useful, and they can provide a good base for making a final decision. An important thing to remember is that different preschools have different aims.

Some of them aim to provide children with academic knowledge mostly, while others focus more on creativity and social skills. To make the right choice, you should always keep your child and its personality and your expectations in mind.

Consider the budget

Of course, another critical factor that largely affects preschool choice is the budget. When it comes to essential types of preschool, there are two: state and private. However, this highly depends on the country you live in. Usually, the number of children who can attend a state-governed preschool is quite small, and the selection is often based on the height of your income.

Also, in some cases, the quality of in-state preschools can be quite low due to large classes and different budget cuts employed to enable their existence.

So, before making the final decision, you should consider all of these factors and not just the cost perse. Rather, it would help if you were thinking about what the things you get are. Early quality education can go a long way for your child, so it isn’t something you should skimp on.

Ask about the class size

During all aspects of education, class size plays an important role. The problem with large classes and an insufficient number of educators are that children are unable to receive enough one-on-one attention. And it is crucial for their development.

When a teacher has enough time to dedicate to each child individually, it gives them a chance to know the child better. And when they get to know the child better, they can see their affinities, things they should work on and skills they lack. They can use all of these pieces of information to direct them in the right way.

Only with this individual and devoted approach can children progress and gain sufficient education. Another reason in favour of smaller classes is the fact that all the children are different and they learn things in distinct ways.

Some learn faster, some slower, while some learn by listening, some by watching and some by using their hands. To gain the most optimal results, they need to focus on each child individually. And they can’t do that with too many children in their hands.

Learn about the educators

We could say that educators are the essence of preschool education. That’s why you should learn about them before deciding to sign your child up. As mentioned briefly, most preschools nowadays have a website where they disclose some basic information about their employees.

So, you should check this section. All educators must have a degree in early childhood development and teaching so that they can provide your child with valuable learning and prospering environment.

It would be perfect if they also had some experience, but it is unnecessary. There is plenty of good, new teachers who can’t wait to start working and sharing their knowledge and expertise.

Teachers should also have a lovable personality. They should be warm, kind, calm, compassionate and loving. Their relationship with kids should be interactive and close.

Look at the environment

Last but not least, the environment is yet another aspect to look into closely. First of all, it should be clean, orderly and safe for children. Preschool institutions need to have a permit for working that confirms all these health and hazard-related standards.

Next, the rooms need to be spacious and furnished with appropriate child-friendly furniture. There should be plenty of toys - both educational and free play ones.

What’s essential is the policy on maintaining the cleanliness of toys - check how they keep toys clean. Overall, your impression of the institution, both indoors and outdoors, should be overtly positive, inviting and engaging for kids to flourish.

Kids are like plants; they need to be well-nourished and taken care of to grow big, strong and beautiful. Remember that.

About the author

Jess Cooper is a part-time journalist and blogger based in Sydney, Australia. She is an energetic, creative, highly motivated person with plenty of interests. The most prominent areas of interest include makeup and cosmetics, fashion, style, event organization and decoration, healthy food, fitness, learning languages as well as home improvement. Jess loves learning about new things and having the chance to combine those insights with her ideas and spread them to the world. She enjoys having a mindful and well-organized, healthy life filled with all kinds of different activities and interwoven with close friendships.

Tell us your story

Would you like to write for nichemarket just like Abbey has? Find out how to submit a guest post and when you're ready, you can contact us.

Are you looking to promote your business?

South African educational businesses can create your free business listing on nichemarket. The more information you provide about your business, the easier it will be for your customers to find you online. 

Registering with nichemarket is easy; all you will need to do is head over to our sign up form and follow the instructions. If you require a more detailed guide on how to create your profile or your listing, then we highly recommend you check out the following articles.

• How to create a nichemarketer profile
• How to create a nichemarket business listing

Recommended reading

If you enjoyed this post and have time to spare why not check out these related posts and dive deeper down the rabbit hole that is education.

• Trending Hashtags For Teachers & Lecturers
• What Is The International Day of Education?
• Why Should Every Classroom Teach Digital Citizenship?

Tags: Preschool, Guest Post