Why Finding the Right Childcare Matters to Your Child’s Development
Childcare has an important role to play in promoting children’s social, emotional, and academic development. At childcare, children learn valuable skills that can help to prepare them for success at school and beyond.
Choosing the right childcare centre is essential when it comes to ensuring that your child has a strong educational foundation. Here’s why finding the right childcare matters to your child’s development.
Learning new concepts
At childcare, your child will learn new concepts and ideas, building skills and knowledge in key learning areas. Most childcare centres encourage children to learn numeracy, literacy, and science concepts.
All childcare centres are different, so it’s important that you choose a centre that shares your early education philosophy. Does your child’s centre take a play-based approach to learning, or are academic programs more structured?
The right centre should help your child enhance their existing knowledge and build on their interests. A positive early education experience can help your child develop a love of learning.
Developing skills
Childcare helps children develop a range of important skills, which can help them to navigate future learning opportunities. Your chosen centre should support your child to face new challenges and discover new ideas.
Some childcare centres offer additional learning programs, which may include sustainability, music, sport, technology, or a foreign language. When choosing a childcare centre, think about the programs that you think will be the most beneficial to your child’s learning.
It’s a good idea to also consider how you can continue to build on the skills your child learns at childcare at home.
Making friends
Making friends is an important part of attending a childcare centre. The friends your child makes at childcare might even be their friends for life!
At the right childcare centre, your child will be encouraged to learn social skills like sharing, kindness, and conflict resolution. Ensure that your chosen centre shares your goals and beliefs so that your child is taught consistent social skills.
Building friendships at childcare is the first step to preparing your child for the social components of future learning and professional environments.
Preparing for school
Childcare can help to prepare your child for school, supporting them to develop the skills and understandings they’ll need to succeed.
A good childcare centre should have tailored school readiness programs, and educators should be able to introduce concepts and routines that mirror those your child will need in a school environment.
To ensure that your child is getting the most out of school readiness programs, it’s important that you choose a childcare centre with effective teaching strategies in place. It’s also a good idea to choose a centre with some similarities to the kind of school your plan for your child to attend.
MyXplor is a great resource if you’re still looking for the right childcare centre for your child. The site provides location-specific listings to help you find centres near you. For example, a child in Camden, New South Wales, might visit the MyXplor Camden listing to find local centres.
