By A pre-school, also called nursery school or pre-school, is a learning environment or early childhood education centre providing early childhood education, educational activities and instruction to young children before they start compulsory education in school. It can be either privately run or publicly funded, and can be subsidized by state funds. The pre-school provides a nurturing environment where children learn academic skills, social skills and other important life skills, such as how to communicate with peers and how to behave appropriately when dealing with adults and peers. This allows them to gain confidence in themselves.
What Does ‘High-Quality’ Preschool Look Like?
Depending on the type of pre-school program chosen, a child is usually introduced to a number of different subjects including art, music, geography, computer science, physical education, mathematics and more. In some cases, the child may also learn about the world of animals, nature, and even the environment. Pre-schools are normally located in kindergarten, junior high or elementary school and can be one or more centres. A number of pre-schools offer special services, such as childcare, after-school care and/or summer camp, all of which are often free or very affordable. The pre-school may also provide a variety of extra-curricular programs for young children, including sports, drama, singing, dancing, art classes, swimming, computer classes, arts and crafts and more. Pre-schools often have some form of home schooling support for parents, which helps to ensure that parents can attend their child’s lessons and make sure their children get what they need.
While many parents choose to send their children to pre-school as soon as they are old enough, other parents opt to take their children out of pre-school until they are three or four years old. However, there are some pre-schools that provide a very comprehensive educational experience for children. These may include both music lessons, art lessons, computer lessons and physical education lessons. In addition to these lessons, parents and other professionals who work at the centre may give individual attention to each child in order to ensure their educational needs are met. After school is generally available at this age, but many parents choose to enroll their children into school or after school programs. Once they have completed pre-school, parents can then send their children off to school and then continue to complete the academic programs they were enrolled in when they were pre-schoolers.