Should You Send Your Child to Preschool?
If you have a child between the ages of 2 and 5, you know you have an important decision on what to do for preschool. It’s a decision that I struggled with…should I homeschool or send them to a private or public preschool? I saw benefits to both, but which one was really the best?
I have 3 boys, and two of them have gone through preschool. Since I always seem to do things unconventional, we decided to try out both options! We homeschooled AND we tried out a church preschool. 🙂
When my oldest was 2.5, I started doing preschool at home with him. In fact, after starting preschool at home, I began blogging about it here! As a former teacher, I was so excited to start teaching him at home. It was awesome! We did so many experiments, crafts, and activities together. After teaching him for a year, I wrote my eBook, The Preschool Journey, which is a preschool curriculum geared to help children prepare for Kindergarten.
We followed my curriculum and used activities found on Pinterest to shape our preschool at home for 2 years. My son has a birthday in the fall, making him one of the older kids in his grade. Since I knew he had third year of preschool ahead of him, I began to pray about changing up what we do for preschool. He is a fairly social kid and has no problem playing with friends, but I wanted something else to work on social skills and learning with other kids his age. After talking to my neighbor, she told me about a great church preschool in our town. I was a bit hesitant to sign up since I enjoyed our time homeschooling. I felt a tugging on my heart that he needed something different this year, so I signed him up for preschool three mornings a week.
From the start, it was awesome. He’s had an amazing year and has learned so much. He grew a lot socially, spiritually (since it’s a Christian preschool), and academically. Also, having a teacher relationship has also been good for him. I’m so thankful we decided to make this change for this year.
I’m also glad that we spent two years homeschooling. I am currently homeschooling my second boy (who is 3). We have had a blast doing preschool at home this year and he is very eager to learn.
Here are my thoughts on the benefits to both options:
Homeschooling:
- create lessons to meet the child’s needs
- relaxed schedule
- time for in-depth studies with a topic of interest
- know exactly where they are at academically
- work at the child’s pace
- scheduling appointments is easier
- opportunities to sign up for classes (Kindermusic, gymnastics, etc.)
- more time to build the parent-child bond or sibling bonds
- lots of time to do messy, hands-on experiments
- more time at home and less time driving around
- tuition is free 🙂
Public or Private Preschool:
- opportunities to interact with peers
- structured schedule
- less pressure on you for their academic achievements
- learn how to thrive without mom or dad 🙂
- opportunity to improve social and emotional development: sharing, playing with others, solving problems, speaking in front of peers, and communicating needs to the teacher.
- more variety of materials to learn with (like books, math manipulatives, learning games, etc.)
- can make a child more motivated to learn
I know it’s tough to decide what to do. There’s a lot of social pressure to send your child to preschool, but you don’t have to feel bad about homeschooling your child. YOU decide what’s best for your child and it may change from year to year (like it did for us!). If you decide to teach preschool at home, just know that it’s a wonderful way to give your child a rich learning experience.
If you’d like a curriculum to help you get started with teaching preschool at home, check out my eBook called The Preschool Journey or my Preschool Alphabet Packet.
Now it’s your turn…what are your thoughts? What would you add to these lists?
I think it’s actually neat to teach them as they are younger and then transition them into preschool as they get a little older. Thank you for sharing your experiences.
I love hearing about your pre-school curriculum and how that’s worked at home for you. I’m more open to the idea of keeping my child home for pre-school. I agree that it’s beneficial for the child to have one on one time with the teacher, as well as have lessons that meet the child’s needs.
My nephew started at the age of 4. He was exposed to a lot of stimulating kids shows prior to that. He didn’t seem to have any problems socializing with the other kids since he played with the neighborhood kids at the park. Forwarding this to my sister. Cheers!
Thank you for the post. I have a child that getting to the age were we need to decide school options. I really like how you posted the benefits between homeschooling and preschools. I can see how it would be important that your child learn to be without parents. I think it really helps them to develop social skills.
I have a 2 year old son and initially I was not sure whether I should send to a preschool or not, I thought home schooling would be better, but after I met a couple of my friends and their kids who were of the same age as my son I realized that even though my son was fairly social and had a couple of friends, there were other aspects that he needed to learn, So I decided that it would be best for him to attend a preschool, and the decision has proved to correct till now!He is completely enjoying the whole experience and has learned quite a lot!
I teach at home. my kid goes to church actitives twice a week. not school but church and club. more then enough time to pick up bad behaviors from kids who go to public school. and are allowed to watch bad TV shows like Brats. At home I can also teach her at her pace. 3 yrs and doing Saxon math K. but slower on ABC’S. normal preschool level for that and # and writing. but as she gets those we go on. not repeat over and over with no forward. repeat is good mixed with forward. so she doesn’t get left behind and she doesn’t get held back either. I love homeschool and having my kid right here to teach the right way. Like teaching Homeopathy, NOT med science Dr’s, as a good community
I am a teacher and just like you I’m also a mother. Because of busy schedule my time is limited to teach and accompany my kids always. Though it is really good to teach personally with your kids, I would still recommend to send your children to preschool. There, they will not only learn but will also develop their social aspects. They can encounter other children and can play with them. They will start appreciate the beauty of having friends and will not afraid to mingle with others.
No, there is no need of sending a child of 2 or 3 years to a pre-school. It is better to teach the fundamental education to the children. Its the parents can teach better than any other. Yes one can prepare lessons to teach the basics by understanding the child’s ability. And the early days are much important period in life, because child will learn everything whatever they are taught. It’s no other than parents can teach them what is right and what is not.
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I see the benefits in home schooling and going to a preschool. The most important thing is that your child is learning. Like you said, a great option is enrolling your child in preschool a few days a week. At Children of America you have that option. Either part time 5 days a week or full time 1-5 days a week. It’s completely up to you the parent. If you’re interested in finding a location near you visit – http://www.childrenofamerica.com/locations.cfm
More than anything, I want my son to be in preschool for the social aspect. I think that a kid that spends all day at home with mom or dad is nice, but not the best social skill builder. He needs to be among peers for the best social skills building.
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