As a parent, you want what is best for your child but sometimes figuring it out can be difficult. Deciding what to do for preschool is one of those challenging decisions.
Some moms want a little break from the demands of motherhood, other moms are eager to jump start their child’s academics while others desire more social opportunities for their child. Many moms feel pressured by family or friends who insist that sending a child to preschool is the best thing to do.
Is preschool the best option for your child? Are there benefits to keeping your child at home during the preschool years? If you are feeling hesitant about sending your little one away to preschool, be encouraged by these benefits to keeping your child at home during the preschool years!
More Consistent Discipline and Character Training
During the early years your child is learning what is right and wrong and how consequences are tied to their actions. Your home provides an opportunity for consistent discipline and character training. It can be difficult for a young child to process one set of rules and consequences at home and another set at preschool. Keeping your child at home during the preschool years gives your child a stable, consistent environment to grow in their understanding of consequences and what is right and wrong.
Reinforces Family Bonds
Young children need to feel secure and loved. As you spend time with your child meeting their needs, playing with them and sharing life moments together, you are developing and reinforcing healthy and necessary bonds. Your preschooler is looking to you for guidance on how to respond to the world around them. When you keep your child at home during the preschool years, you are able to reinforce those precious parent-child bonds that you have been working so hard to create. These years also provide excellent opportunities to strengthen sibling relationships and to build family unity.
Protects Your Child from Early Exposure to Ideas and Behavior Contrary to Your Values and Beliefs
Preschoolers have a never ending supply of “why” questions! As the parent you have a great opportunity to answer your child’s questions in a way that affirms your values and beliefs. Keeping your child at home during the preschool years protects your child from early exposure to ideas and behavior contrary to what your family believes. These negative ideas and behaviors could come from teachers, classmates and even the curriculum. Remember that even Christians differ in their values and what they think is appropriate for young children to know and experience.
Builds a Foundation for Homeschooling in the Older Years
Nurturing your relationship with your child during the preschool years helps establish a solid foundation for homeschooling in the older years. Many children who attend a preschool develop a traditional school mindset. They start to think of you as the mom and someone else as the teacher while getting use to the structure of a classroom. When it comes time to bring them home for homeschooling in the older years, you will have to deprogram many of the things they have come to associate with learning.
When you keep your preschool child at home you are affirming that you are mom and teacher (along with cook and maid and all the other roles you play in your child’s life). You will have less obstacles to overcome when you begin formal education at home because your child will already be use to learning at home with you.
For more on the benefits of keeping your preschooler at home check out this book by Susan K. Stewart. {affiliate link}
Need more information on preschool at home? Check out these posts.
Important Questions to Ask Before Purchasing Preschool Curriculum
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