Did you know that, in 2020, the percentage of 3- to 4-year-old kids who were enrolled in school was 40%? Additionally, the number of children who were enrolled in nursery school was 3.5 million.
If you’re thinking of enrolling your young child in an early childhood learning program, you might feel that you need more information. If you want to know as much as possible before they start and you don’t, you might be stressed.
Fortunately, in this early childhood education guide, we’ll review what early childhood learning is and why it’s important.
Finally, you can get all the information you need and ensure your child receives the right education for them. Read on to learn more.
What Early Childhood Learning Is
Early childhood learning is what your child learns from the moment they’re born until they begin going to kindergarten. As for early childhood education, this is the education your child receives at this time—usually during their preschool years.
Why Early Childhood Learning Matters
There are many reasons why childhood learning matters. First of all, when your child receives a childhood education, they improve their social skills. When they attend preschool, they’ll learn crucial skills such as taking turns with other children, sharing, and listening.
When pre-school teachers are teaching your child, they’ll use stories, games, songs, and more. They’ll do these activities to teach the children in the classroom how to interact.
Play is one of the critical components of learning social skills. These social skills are necessary for your child as they move forward in life.
One of the most important social skills your child will learn is how to express their emotions, such as anger, sadness, and happiness. They’ll also learn how to cope with feelings.
Another important social skill your child will learn is listening skills. This will occur in the group setting of the classroom.
Because there are more children than teachers, children will begin to learn, naturally, to take turns. Additionally, circle time is a structured activity that helps hone the skills of taking turns and listening.
Finally, children will learn to cooperate in an early childhood education setting. This is important, especially, for kids who are only children.
Better Academic Performance
Another reason why early childhood learning at preschool matters is because it leads to better academic performance once children are attending K-12 school. According to a study, children who went to preschool before they started preschool performed better in reading and math.
Additionally, there was a direct correlation between children who stayed with their parents at home and underperformance in school.
Another study demonstrated that early childhood education has another impact. According to this Harvard study, it leads to the chance being lower of a child being in special education placement.
This study also demonstrated that children who receive an early childhood education are more likely to graduate from high school.
Other studies have demonstrated this, too. They’ve demonstrated that graduation rates and academic performance are better for students who had an early childhood education.
Additionally, studies have shown that kids who didn’t have an early childhood education have a 60% graduate rate. This is as compared to kids who did, whose graduate rate is 80%.
A Lifelong Love of Learning
Another benefit your child will experience if they attend an early childhood education program is that they’ll develop a lifelong love of learning. When children are in preschool, their lessons occur through fun activities and games.
They’ll be able to discover so much about the world around them. They’ll also have access to toys, art, and music that they don’t have at home.
Through this early exposure, your child will feel inspired to desire to learn more. They’ll develop a passion for gaining knowledge—and this passion will last for their whole life.
Improved Confidence and Self-Esteem
When your child attends a preschool program, they’ll experience a large amount of positive reinforcement. Additionally, the interactions they have with their classmates and teachers will be positive. These interactions, early on in your child’s life, will build up their self-esteem.
As a result, they’ll feel more confident. This will be confidence they have throughout their life.
Better Attention Span
When a child has a good attention span, they’re good at focusing on a specific task they’re working on. They do this well by blocking out outside stimuli, whether it’s noises or a visual stimulus. Once your child is attending school, a strong attention span is important when it comes to their success.
Unfortunately, building up your child’s attention span can be challenging. This is especially the case in today’s modern, digital age.
Many children need assistance from a parent or early childhood educator to have a strong attention span.
This is where attending an early childhood education program can make a huge difference. They make this ability part of the learning process they use.
When your child attends preschool, they’ll begin to understand at what times they’re supposed to be working and at which ones they’re supposed to be playing.
Additionally, when your child is at preschool, they won’t be exposed to screens as much. This is helpful because being in front of a screen can shorten your child’s attention span.
Diversity Exposure
When children attend an early childhood education program, they’re often exposed to a greater amount of diversity. They’ll interact in class with peers who aren’t just like them. So when your child goes to preschool, they’ll get more diversity exposure.
This diversity might be in religion, socioeconomic status, class, or race. This will open up your child’s eyes to the diversity of the world and help them to understand how people can get along when they’re different.
This will be beneficial not only to your child but also to the future of the world.
STEM Skills Foundation
STEM, also known as Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math is an important skill set for children. When your child goes to preschool, they’ll get early exposure to this skill set. When this early exposure occurs, they’ll both be better at STEM and develop critical thinking skills.
This is useful on many levels. First of all, it will be helpful for your child in several subjects when they’re at school.
Second, this can be helpful for your child far into the future. This is because, in many jobs, STEM skills are valuable.
Staying Healthy and Active
Another important benefit your child will experience by attending an early childhood education program is that they’ll stay healthy and active. If the preschool they attend emphasizes physical activity, your child will stay active and learn simultaneously.
Your child will be able to experience structured outdoor time. They’ll explore nature, run around, and have fun on the playground. At preschool, they’ll also have the chance to play tag with other kids and engage in sports.
This physical activity is important because it will help your child be active as a habit. This is important to implement at an early age because it will help to build your child’s healthy lifelong habits.
This will have a positive impact on your child’s overall lifetime health.
Boosting Creativity
Another great feature of early childhood education programs is that they provide a space where children can be creative and messy. Art projects are an important part of preschool education and go hand-in-hand with what the children learn.
For example, your child might learn about Thanksgiving while making the classic hand turkey.
In some childhood education programs, children will also get music exposure. Your child will have the chance to learn about sound, play instruments, and sing at an early age.
Music is an important skill in itself. Additionally, there’s the benefit that dancing, clapping, and making music can help to develop your child’s fine motor skills.
Additionally, early arts exposure through early childhood education is as beneficial as STEM and social skills programs.
Need More Information?
Now that you’ve learned why early childhood learning in an early education program is important, you might need more information. Maybe you want early childhood education tips before your child starts going to preschool, for example.
Whatever information you need, we can help. At Montessori Downtown, we’re experts when it comes to early childhood learning. We also offer a variety of Montessori programs for children.
These programs include a School of Infants, School of Toddlers, Montessori Pre-Primary, Montessori Elementary, and more. To learn more about our programs, check them out now.