Preschool

After this week's reading, and starting my daughter in preschool this month,  I have been thinking more about the benefits preschool. I remember a friend telling me, "preschool is just a glorified way to get your kid out of the house during the day." I disagree since my daughter, Blake, started.

I am noticing she is more comfortable already in social settings with other children. I also swear that her ability to put together longer sentences has happened in the past couple of weeks. Is it possible that she had a burst of language skills all of the sudden and is just experiencing growth in general? Sure! But, I'm thinking that school has something to do with it. Like Berger (2011) states, children of this age group are "language sponges."

Not only is Blake expanding her vocabulary, but she is having socialization that she did not have before when she was simply home with me or other family members. She is learning how to interact and what is socially acceptable and what is not. This is important for children who will enter kindergarten. Preschool also gives kids the feeling of school, for shorter lengths of time. Many kindergartens now have gone to full day programs, and if a child has no sort of structure of this manner prior to kindergarten, I would imagine it would be more of an adjustment.

All in all, I think preschool is valuable and I think I already see evidence of it being beneficial to my daughter's development.