We’ve all heard the debate over day care vs stay-at-home parenting. And then there’s the well worn discussion of school vs homeschooling. In the middle of the bridge between these two issues is the question: Is preschool necessary for kids whose parents stay home with them?
The advantages of preschool – learning environment and kindergarten readiness, socialization with other children, exposure to a non-parent adult in charge – can all be tackled with a preschool child at home. While children may need these things eventually, they may not need them every day or even on a regular basis. Parenting preschoolers doesn’t require a teaching degree or any special skills, just the willingness to teach your child.
If your home situation is working for you, your child and your family, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t continue right up to your child’s entrance into kindergarten, say Laura Davis and Janis Keyser in an article on iVillage.
Pros and cons of preschool aside, there are rich learning opportunities for your child right at home – exploring the house and neighborhood, the laundry, the kitchen and more, Davis and Keyser wrote. Stay-at-home parents who want to extend their time at home with their children shouldn’t feel obligated to enroll their children in full-time preschool. Instead, parents should explore preschool co-ops, drop-in programs and part-time preschools to expose their children to the benefits of preschool without giving up all their time with them.
Is Preschool Necessary at All?
It’s debatable whether any of it is necessary. Barbara Frank, a Wisconsin mom and author of homeschooling books, blogs about the necessity of preschool. Why rush putting your children in school? she asks in her blog, The Imperfect Homeschooler.
“My issue is with the parents who believe preschool is the only way to raise an intelligent, successful child, or who buy into that so they can do their thing,” she writes. Frank takes issue with 3- and 4-year-old lining up to go to the bathroom all together, being programmed so early to do life’s basic functions on a set schedule.
The playground gossip might imply that going to kindergarten without at least a year or two of preschool is a prescription for failure, but preschool is still considered optional. Experts estimate that 25 percent of all children don’t have a preschool experience at all before they start kindergarten.
There is little research that shows whether attending preschool or staying home with a parent makes any difference in how well kids do in school by secondary school. Any advantage a preschool child may have in kindergarten usually vanishes by second grade, experts say.
The Benefits of Preschool
There’s no question that preschool helps to gradually wean children away from their parents, something that may be beneficial with the rise of all-day kindergarten. Going from being at home with Mom all day to suddenly being in school 6½ hours a day may be a tough transition without the help of at least a short period of part-time preschool.
And sending a child to preschool for a couple of hours two or three days a week allows the stay-at-home parent some time to herself or to spend with younger children in the home.
What’s Right for Your Family
Experts agree there’s no one correct answer to the question, do children need preschool?
“It is a very personal decision to send your child to preschool. It is important that parents don't feel pressured about making the decision,” Davis and Keyser write.
Additional source: “Is Preschool Necessary?” iamforkids.org.
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