Choosing Early Childhood Education Verses Day Care

Alternatively, many parents opt to place their toddler in a learning environment, rather than a day care center. There are many advantages to introducing your little one to an early childhood education program. These types of programs will help them achieve the skills that will carry them through their whole life. If you are ready to sign your child up for an early childhood education program, then you may need a few tips to ensure you are successful in finding the best preschool for your little one.

Research your schools

There are plenty of different schools available to you, which offer early childhood education. You will want to put the effort into ensuring that you choose the right one:

• Price: this is probably going to be a major factor. You will want to choose a school that you can afford.
• Curriculum: when you are researching schools, you will want to take a look at their curriculum. Basically, you will want to know what they are going to be teaching your child. Obviously, your child will still be in their formative years. This means that they are not going to be learning anything too strenuous. However, the whole idea of sending them to a school like this is to give them a ‘boost’ in life, so you want them to be doing a little bit more than playing with toys the whole time!
• Talk to the teachers: it is important that you talk to the teachers of the target school before you opt to send your child there. Obviously, you want your child to be placed in a school where you have a good rapport with the teachers. You will want the teacher to be giving you feedback every step of the way so you know your child is progressing.

 The early bird catches the worm

It is important that you start to fill in the school application as soon as possible. There are two reasons for this:

• Top schools in your area will be filled up quickly. They also tend to have early cutoff dates when it comes to sign-ups. If you do not get in there early, then your child will have no chance of attending that school.
• You will be able to visit the school and find out how it operates.

 Check the operating dates of the school

You should always check the ‘operating dates’ of the school, just to make sure that it lines up with your schedule. You don’t want the school to be ending if you are still at work. This would mean that you need to pay for someone else to care for your child, which can be quite expensive. Many of the top schools do not operate on the major holidays, which can cause issues if you are working on these dates. At least during the sign-up process, you will be able to know which days you will need to make alternate arrangements.

Remember, you should register your child as soon as possible for early childhood education. The sooner you register them, the more chance you have of getting them into the school of your choice.