How important is preschool in raising successful kids?

[clibbyjo]

My homeschooled baby boy went to a Montessori preschool for a year because it was set up to be held the same time the older kids were in enrichment classes. He liked it well enough and it was more play than anything else which is what I liked about it. (Yes, it was taught by a trained Montessori teacher who was homeschooling her oldest kids and running this for the little ones.)

Homeschool enrichment classes start for kids as young as age 3, so it is kind of like most homeschooled kids who do enrichment classes through a co-op do a version of preschool because most do take classes at ages 3 or 4.

[Kaylee]

There's a discussion about this on my local mom's group board, and one thing I'm noticing is that they are expecting kids to know a lot when they start kindergarten. We had a county/state sponsored pre-K for 4 year olds, and it seems like they are expected to have either done that or been in an education-oriented preschool because the things that they are assumed to know when the start Kindergarten now are things I remember learning in school as part of the Kindergarten curriculum.

I do wonder if the positive effects are only for preschool, or if the same could be achieved by a SAHM who took the time to make sure her kids had playgroups & social activities and also took the time to teach basic skills they would need for starting school. Then again, I also realize a lot of parents don't have the time or resources to do those things, so preschool is filling an important gap there.

I don't have my son in preschool because he is so young and I don't want to leave him anywhere long-term until he is able to speak and tell me what's going on. The day cares in this area really suck, as in there have been 2 home day cares busted for for meth labs and several for sexual abuse just in the past year or two. For now, I use the on-site child care at my gym, so he gets about 2 hours there 5-6 days a week and seems to enjoy it & we do play dates a few times a month. I don't doubt that socialization and structured learning is a good thing, but I am still really iffy about leaving my child with people I don't know.

[Kitten]

Preschool is not important in and of itself. What is important are the skills that many children only seem to learn in preschool. Children who are kept at home, but read to, played with, offered a variety of creative and exploratory activities, provided with a variety of interesting and engaging materials, introduced to music and science and language and math and art concepts, taken to new and interesting places and encouraged to discuss their experiences, allowed to spend unstructured time with other children in a variety of play activities, taught the basics of social structure (waiting your turn, sharing, listening, etc.) - these children will do just fine without preschool.

If all those things are available to a child outside of a preschool environment, then the "need" for preschool is non-existent. If the child would not have these opportunties outside preschool, then preschool is probably essential to establishing the groundwork for success later on.

[bananacat]

This actually isn't new and I have known about this for a long time. The effect is biggest among low-income and disadvantaged kids. Some economists have analyzed that for every dollar the various levels of government spend on preschool programs like Head Start, they will save two dollars down the road on court, prison, police, and welfare expenses.

Kids in middle class homes who have parents with plenty of free time and the education to teach their kids the basics generally don't see much of an effect with extra preschool (although it certainly doesn't hurt). But for disadvantaged kids, learning the pre-basics can be the difference between thriving and struggling in kindergarten, and that can influence the path for the rest of their education.

[Feberin]

I think preschool activites are important. I don't think it matters if they are doing them in a preschool, daycare, at home or enrichment type classes. If I'm staying at home when my son reaches preschool age then I plan on trying to get him into the free preschool at the local high school that is only a couple hours a few days a week. It's just high school students teaching it but I participated when I was in high school and it provides a chance to work on social skills. For the actual skills I will probably just work on those at home. We might do a music class or something. And we'll go to storytime regularly at the library. I feel like that mix would give him all the skills that one would get out of preschool without the costs. I am amazed at how much even a two day a week preschool can cost.

[Austin]

I do wonder if the positive effects are only for preschool, or if the same could be achieved by a SAHM who took the time to make sure her kids had playgroups & social activities and also took the time to teach basic skills they would need for starting school.

I made sure my children had all those opportunities. We took advantage of practically every educational or enrichment opportunity our community has to offer. Things like children's theatre, tumbling, play dates, play groups, arts & crafts, numerous library programs. . . I could go on and on. They were highly socialized kids. But those were things that my children did with me, and while that was great, I felt there should be more than just what I could offer. That intuition/feeling had nothing to do with whether I thought I was a good SAHM or not, because it wasn't about me.

We did not send them to preschool until they were four. We knew we wouldn't be sending them to kindergarten until they were six (they all have summer birthdays and this was something my husband felt strongly about, a decision we've never regretted), so three half-days a week at a reputable preschool seemed like a good option. And it was. It gave them just enough independence and a sense of accomplishment (from which self-esteem springs, IMO).

Our eldest did a year in preschool, and then through a friend of my husband's, he was recommended to be a peer model for a class of children with physical disabilities. He had a blast that year. He already knew how to read and his numbers and all of that - the great thing about it was not academic. It was an environment that nurtured his sense of empathy, his strong commitment to justice, and his optimism. He learned things that year that he would not have learned, to the great extent that he did, in any other environment, including being home with me. I can draw a straight line from his activism of today to that experience sixteen years ago.

I don't think that every single kid has to go to preschool, but especially in districts with all-day kindergarten, it is something to consider, along with other options. It's tough on some children to go from spending all day at home with mom to all day at school.

[Olivia]

Preschool is not important in and of itself. What is important are the skills that many children only seem to learn in preschool. Children who are kept at home, but read to, played with, offered a variety of creative and exploratory activities, provided with a variety of interesting and engaging materials, introduced to music and science and language and math and art concepts, taken to new and interesting places and encouraged to discuss their experiences, allowed to spend unstructured time with other children in a variety of play activities, taught the basics of social structure (waiting your turn, sharing, listening, etc.) - these children will do just fine without preschool.

If all those things are available to a child outside of a preschool environment, then the "need" for preschool is non-existent. If the child would not have these opportunties outside preschool, then preschool is probably essential to establishing the groundwork for success later on.

I agree with this. It makes sense that a good majority of disadvantaged kids also wouldn't have those opportunities without preschool.

I'll send my kids to a half-day preschool program, preferably 3 days a week, when they're 3 and 4. I think I could teach my children just as well (or possibly better) at home for academics when they're small, but I think preschool would be fun for them. And of course, the standing-in-line and whatnot are skills they might as well start learning then, that would be one thing I couldn't teach at home. Kindergarten is so (excessively, in my opinion) academic now, I would think having classroom etiquette skills already begun developing would be beneficial to them.

[Wolfie]

I don't have my son in preschool because he is so young and I don't want to leave him anywhere long-term until he is able to speak and tell me what's going on. The day cares in this area really suck, as in there have been 2 home day cares busted for for meth labs and several for sexual abuse just in the past year or two.

Which is why my niece is in a chain day care/preschool and not in a home daycare. My dad worked too long for DSS to even trust home daycares.

I went to preschool, as well as my siblings, it was good for us to get out and learn the "routines" of school.

[Buzzard]

What is it about preschool that makes those who go successful?

Is it being in a classroom with 15 other kids of the same age?

Or is it what they're learning and how?

Because the one you really can't replicate at home. But if it's more the second, then the disadvantage only comes in if the parents aren't able/willing to teach the child what they need to know and provide appropriate opportunities to relate to others of their peer group and other ages. And that one would be affected by economic or social situations.

I think that preschool is important because it teaches socialization, conflict resolution, and how to stand up for yourself without running to mommy. A lot of the more important effects come from the home. I think the parent that invests in early childhood education is also more likely to teach their children financial skills, work on their homework, read to them at night...

[doubtingkimmy]

I echo the sentiments of those who posted above regarding the benefits of preschool attendance. My daughter is an only child, and we had her when both my husband and myself were on the older end of the parent spectrum. As a result, all of the children of our family and friends were quite a bit older than my daughter. There also weren't any children of her age in our neighborhood. Setting up opportunities for social interaction with children her own age proved to be very difficult, and those opportunities that we could find were all child/parent participation situations, which didn't really afford her the opportunity to gain as much social independence as I would have liked. The bottom line was that she ended up spending the vast majority of her time with adults and significantly older children.

My daughter missed out on 3-year-old preschool due to being not-quite potty trained (she probably could have made it through the few hours of the school session without incident, but I didn't want to risk having her have an accident and becoming so embarrassed that she didn't want to go to school).

She entered preschool in the 4-year-old program, which met for 2.5 hours five days a week. She absolutely loved school, and excelled in the academic-related activities, however she really struggled with her social interactions. She just had such a limited idea of how to talk to, play with, and relate to children her own age. Almost all of her classmates had attended the 3-year-old program, and were socially light-years ahead of her. She was extremely quiet and introverted (which is absolutely the opposite of how she acts around our family and friends), and tended to get bossed around a lot, having never had to stand up for herself before.

After completing a year of preschool, she is doing remarkably better, and has finally made some friends and is starting to come out of her shell. I feel a lot better about her attending the all day kindergarten program now (all of the public schools in the district have converted over to full day kindergarten programs, so half day really isn't an option at the public level). I often wonder how much better still her social development would have been had I taken the chance and enrolled her in the 3-year-old program. I have seen first hand the huge positive impact which preschool attendance has had on her, and I am so thankful that we didn't have to wait until kindergarten to immerse her in the classroom experience.

[keeperrox]

I think that preschool is important because it teaches socialization, conflict resolution, and how to stand up for yourself without running to mommy. A lot of the more important effects come from the home. I think the parent that invests in early childhood education is also more likely to teach their children financial skills, work on their homework, read to them at night...

But preschool isn't the only place that teaches those things. And I say that as a future parents who fully intends on sending any children I have to preschool. Shoot... we're not even trying yet, and I know what preschool I want them to go to.

Socialization, conflict resolution, and how to stand up for yourself can be taught through dance classes, athletics, group music classes, karate, and a myriad of other things all of which are available to preschool-aged children. The education component - reading, writing, basic math - can always come from home.

I think the most important part of the article to take into account in the economically-disadvantaged component. Parents from low income homes are typically not going to be able to provide opportunities for socialization, conflict resolution, or how to stand up for yourself without mommy, because they aren't going to be able to pay for them. Generally, they don't encourage reading, writing, or counting/recognizing numbers before kindergarten, either. That's why programs like Head Start and other subsidized preschool programs are so important for our society as a whole. They give poor students a fighting chance.

[emmiedahl]

I think it is important to keep in mind that these were children from impoverished background. A preschool vs. a home with no toys or even Sesame Street... it's not hard to see which would be better. In a middle class home, ymmv.

I am a big fan of preschool. Even when I homeschooled, my 3 and 4 year olds did a few half days a week.

eta: Sorry, I didn't see keeperrox's much more eloquent reply with the same basic meaning.

[super skeptic]

I'm sure you can teach your kids the same academic skills at home (numbers, letters, sounds, shapes, colors, etc), but you can't teach the same social skills at home, in isolation and in a comfortable environment. Preschool helps children develop emotional and social intelligence. From my experience, you can usually tell which children are in daycare/preschool because they are more socially and emotionally mature than their counterparts, even though they can both count and recite the alphabet. You can't really replicate the social and environmental experience of preschool at home.

[super skeptic]

And yes, by "preschool" I mean "an unfamiliar environment in which the child is exposed to novel experiences and new people", not necessarily exclusive to a preschool classroom. I used preschool for the purposes of the topic of this thread.

[acutexenophobia]

Preschool is sooooooooo important to young children. I cannot stress this enough. Children learn so many skills in preschool that they would not learn in the home. Parents are often unsure of what they should and should not introduce their children to or when they should introduce it (using scissors for example). Preschool teachers go through so much schooling and training to make sure that a child has the best possible education. A successful preschool program and experience can lead to success in kindergarten and first grade, and if implemented the correct way, even all of elementary school. Fundies need to get it out of their head that a mother is the only way a child can be nurtured. This is ridiculous. Children need preschool for social/emotional development as well as their physical and cognitive development. I know there are a lot of parents that interact with and try to encourage the development of these skills in their children, but I've never seen Michelle do it. Children need to interact with more than just siblings and family members. Children that form positive friendships become altruistic and have better relationships with the people in their lives. Preschool teachers also teach children better ways to deal with their emotions and enhance their ability of self regulation (without beating like the Pearls suggest). Not to mention that more and more preschools are trying to break gender stereotypes which we all know are enforced to a sickening degree in fundie homes.

[FloraDoraDolly]

I didn't go to preschool. I was a little kid in the early 1970s, before it was widely available. My mom worked nights, so Dad was home while she was gone. In the daytime, while Mom slept late, my sister and I pretty much fended for ourselves, not unlike the Duggar howler monkeys. I don't think we missed anything by not going to preschool. We had books, toys, and a neighborhood full of kids to play with. By the time I started kindergarten, I was functionally literate, so obviously I was not educationally deprived. At that time, kindergarten was non-academic anyhow. Kids back then weren't expected to start school already knowing their letters, numbers, colors, and shapes or how to stand in line or play well with others.

Of my two nieces, the older one went to preschool while the younger one did not. Niece #1 was an extremely bright tot, but she was a howler monkey and needed the preschool experience to teach her how to sit still, pay attention, follow directions, and keep her hands off the other kids. (She had a penchant for pinching.) The program at her school was based on the one used in the aforementioned study of deprived children in Ypsilanti. My nieces do not come from a deprived home, but at that time they were living in an area with a larger-than-average number of children living in poverty.

By the time Niece #2 was old enough for preschool, their family had moved and my sister couldn't find a program that met only a couple days a week for half a day like the one Niece #1 attended. My sister didn't feel that Niece #2 was ready to be in school full-time. She did take a dance class and she attended Sunday school every week, so it's not as if she started kindergarten without any kind of school-type experience. In fact, Niece #2's kindergarten teacher was surprised to learn that she hadn't attended a formal preschool, since she was academically and socially ahead of the pack.

Some kids need preschool while some don't. It depends on the child's home life. It also depends on what type of kindergarten they will be attending. A lot depends on the quality of the preschool, too. There's a huge difference between a high quality preschool program with a trained staff and an age-appropriate curriculum vs. certain daycares that do little more than warehouse children. In such places, there's usually a certified head teacher who spends the day in her office while a couple of minimum-wage employees with no particular background in early childhood education try to keep up with the little darlings' demands.

[keeperrox]

In my opinion, formal Preschool is sooooooooo important to young children.

Here, I fixed that for you.

[marmalade]

My brother and I would be statistical outliers. At the time, we went to church, but weren't attached to it at the hip by any means (that didn't happen until my dad remarried and they had a midlife crisis at 50). At any rate, I didn't go to any kind of preschool yet was reading at 3rd grade level in kindergarten. My brother, however, went to two years of pre-school before kindergarten and flunked 2nd grade. He likely had ADHD (they didn't test for it then...just told parents to feed their kids less sugar), and was diagnosed as dyslexic - not a common form - when he was 15.

I moved out at 18 (HS grad) with a full-time job, my own apartment and checking account (I've never driven...trust me, you don't want my clumsy ass on a road near you :mrgreen: ). I supported myself until I married at 31. I'm fortunate now in that I can go to school and not have to work because of the hard work hubby (I refuse to use that lame appellation DH) and I did for 10 years, ostensibly saving up for a house before the market blew up on us.

Brother never graduated from HS and has had recurring problems with drugs and alcohol over the years and since moving back to CA in 2005, has not held down a steady job for more than 6 months, a pattern consistent throughout his adult life.

Go figure.

[acutexenophobia]

Here, I fixed that for you.

yes, in my opinion. as someone that has majored in early childhood education. Parents can do it on their own. But preschool offers a lot of things that homeschooling doesn't.

ETA: I'm contributing to the discussion just like everyone else, with my opinion based on my experience and my knowledge. I'm not quite sure why it's so important that the words "my opinion" appear when I think based on the the topic and every other response, it's quite clear that this is an opinion based discussion.

[keeperrox]

yes, in my opinion. as someone that has majored in early childhood education. Parents can do it on their own. But preschool offers a lot of things that homeschooling doesn't.

No one here has argued that only homeschooling without any outside activities is going better prepare a child for traditional schooling and that only the mother should be interacting with her child all day. In fact, we've all pretty much argued against that, even though the fundies we discuss would like us to believe otherwise. However, as a middle school teacher, I see little difference between the students who were in preschool and those whose parents worked with them at home and just enrolled them in activities out side of the home. And yes, we talk about this specifically in my class as part of my 8th grade parenting curriculum. Some of my best students did not go to preschool. And guess what? Some of my other best students did. The students who have no diagnosed learning disability and still struggle with academics are usually the ones who had no preschool or daycare and can't remember a parent ever reading to them, teaching them their letters, or showing them how to count and organize things into groups.

As I said earlier, I have every intention on sending my children to preschool, because I also plan on working. That said, I certainly am not going to argue that formal preschool is the only way if you have the resources to provide other opportunities. If a parent doesn't have the resources, both community or financial, there are wonderful subsidized preschool programs that I would encourage them to pursue. There is a reason, however, why preschool and (in many states) kindergarten aren't compulsory and that's because the skills they are supposed to teach can be taught and learned elsewhere.

[keeperrox]

ETA: I'm contributing to the discussion just like everyone else, with my opinion based on my experience and my knowledge. I'm not quite sure why it's so important that the words "my opinion" appear when I think based on the the topic and every other response, it's quite clear that this is an opinion based discussion.

For reference, you said:

Preschool is sooooooooo important to young children. I cannot stress this enough. Children learn so many skills in preschool that they would not learn in the home. Parents are often unsure of what they should and should not introduce their children to or when they should introduce it (using scissors for example). Preschool teachers go through so much schooling and training to make sure that a child has the best possible education.

This is the exact argument that anti-homeschoolers use for older grades, yet the homeschool community is thriving. Just because you state it as fact, doesn't make it true. Your statement implied that preschool was the only way. There is no inkling of the above quote being based on personal experience and knowledge. That's why I helped you out and added the, "In my opinion" qualifier.

[FlorenceHamilton]

I do not think that children can be raised in a one-size fits all mindset. I did not go to preschool. I honestly do not remember much about those preschool years. My brother attended a preschool for part of the day.

My own children did attend preschool. I was an ebil working mom and had used a babysitter when the children were very very small. When my twins were born, it was clear that the babysitter would be very busy with infant care. I knew she was not their mom and would not make as much effort to pay attention to me son. So I sent him to preschool three days a week so that he would get age approriate attention. he had some dfficulty adjusting. I had no real choice, but my son probably needed more time to be with me. When he was 4, I had a lot of vacation saved up. (I was Active duty Air Force at the time.) I used that time one day per week for the last six months. The combination of extra mommy time and preschool was much better for him than the babysitter.

My twins are girls and they were very social and adaptable from a very young age. When I finished my Air Force commitment and took a civilian job, they were 2. They told me they wanted to go to school at that point. They started the "young three year old" class at 2 1/2. They thrived. At 24, both girls are in graduate school and still love it. All of my children are lifetime learners. My son finished college and picks at grad classes, but enjoys being in the business world.

Not every parent has the options that I got with my children. Sometimes you must do what you must. I had a range of options, but not working was not one of them. My headship insisted that I work fulltime. I think preschool is a great option. It shfts some of the skill gaining to a group setting, which I suppose is evil and socialist. I found that it gave me the ability to parent better in many ways. We all went off to work in the morning and then shared our day together in the evening. Even now, living far apart, my children call at the end of the work day and we share our adventures of the day. Recently, I have learned that they do this amonst each other as well. I was also thrilled to see my children at the end of the day. I had more patience and got more joy out of my kids than some of my counterparts who left jobs to stay at home. Happy families are the families that pay attention to one another's needs.

I think you need to know your child. I think you need to be realistic about your options. Then you stay involved and make the best decision for your own family. No matter what you do, the most important thing is to stay involved in the lives of your children. Staying home and training kids to sit on a blanket so you can ignore them is not better than preschool. Passing your infant off to an older child so that you can ignore both of them is not better than preschool. If you have the resources and passion to stay home and make your children the center of your world and you can share your enthusiasm for life, art, nature, literature, whatever with them, then it is a good choice to stay home and do that.

Our job is to raise our children to become happy, healthy stewards of the world when our turn is over. How we get there is as individual as we are.

[Feberin]

yes, in my opinion. as someone that has majored in early childhood education. Parents can do it on their own. But preschool offers a lot of things that homeschooling doesn't.

ETA: I'm contributing to the discussion just like everyone else, with my opinion based on my experience and my knowledge. I'm not quite sure why it's so important that the words "my opinion" appear when I think based on the the topic and every other response, it's quite clear that this is an opinion based discussion.

I have a degree in Early Childhood education too. If I am able to stay home the money will not be there to pay for a preschool program. My plan is to take advantage of free options in my community and do something like music classes or sports to get the social aspect. I think this will provide the same things as preschool just like homeschooling an older child can provide them with as good of an education (including social if it is done right) as school.

[Austin]

I think it is important to keep in mind that these were children from impoverished background. A preschool vs. a home with no toys or even Sesame Street... it's not hard to see which would be better. In a middle class home, ymmv.

I am a big fan of preschool. Even when I homeschooled, my 3 and 4 year olds did a few half days a week.

eta: Sorry, I didn't see keeperrox's much more eloquent reply with the same basic meaning.

Why would you make the assumption that an economically disadvantaged child, by federal definition, has no toys or Sesame Street? That's a huge leap. My husband taught in a school for 31 years who students would have fit within the definition of economically disadvantaged (high percent on free or reduced lunch is one indicator) and I can assure you, they had toys and Sesame Street.

And this isn't just for you, but several posters have made references to poor mothers being unable to enrich their children's life. I know of many poor mothers who did very good jobs using the free resources in the community, such as the libary with its many programs for young children, to enrich their child's life. It doesn't cost anything to borrow books from the library and it doesn't cost anything to read to your child. Many poor mothers do a fine job at this.

I think some of you are making too much of the fact that this study happened to look at groups of children that were economically disadvantaged homes. What's important in this or any other study is that the control and treatment groups have similar backgrounds and experiences (i.e., the same or similar demographic). If some of the kids had been disadvantaged, and some had been middle class, the study would have been less valid. The same study could have been just as well conducted on two groups of middle class children. The element of these particular children being economcially disadvantaged is not a central to the study itself.

[Kitten]

The same study could have been just as well conducted on two groups of middle class children. The element of these particular children being economcially disadvantaged is not a central to the study itself.

Perhaps not. But what we don't know is if the results would have shown the same differences between the two groups. While many "economically disadvantaged" parents do their best to provide their children with more than the necessities, it's not a huge leap of logic to assume that most of their children do not enjoy the same vast array of opportunties that children from "financially advantaged" families do.

From that POV, it makes sense that providing these children with additional opportunities that might ordinarily be out of reach for their families is going to help those children later in life.

As for someone's comment about ECE degrees being so important: No, they're not. Really. My mom was a non-degreed preschool and kindergarten teacher for years. So you might say she was just another "mommy," albeit one who loved to reach little ones new things. And she was very, very good at what she did. There are bad teachers with ECE degrees, and great teachers who never set foot in a college class. The degree is no guarantee.

My kids went to preschool just because it was another fun experience in their lives, not because they "needed" anything they learned there. They were both social children who enjoyed the company of other kids, both in preschool and in our family home daycare situation where there were children of all ages to socialize with. One little girl who started 3-year-old preschool with my son was pulled out after three weeks because she was crying and unhappy every day. Her mom felt it was stupid to make her "stick it out." Sure enough, she came back for the 4-year-old class and was fine, having had the time to develop a little more independence in the safety of her stay-at-home mom's presence. Did she "lag behind" the other kids who had completed the year? Not at all.

Again, IMO, it's not the "preschool" itself, but the skills and experiences. And I firmly believe those can be provided outside a formal classroom environment, sans "degreed" teachers. My great-grandfather was raised on a homestead farm in the middle of nowhere - his parents had been millworkers in England, scarcely a privileged class. Yet he and his brothers, with the rudimentary education they were able to obtain, spent their entire lives in pursuit of knowledge, reading "the classics," studying foreign languages, exchanging letters full of philosophical debate and discussions - many of which were preserved in diaries and letters for his descendants to see what could be done with a little education and a lot of determination. His parents, denied the opportunity to be scholars themselves, encouraged all of their children to pursue learning whenever and however possible. That was passed on to my grandfather's generation, who were the first ones afforded the luxury of high school and college. None of those people went to preschool, either. Yet they became doctors and lawyers and teachers and successful businessmen and women.

Preschool is just a delivery vehicle, like the free lunches our school system provides to anyone who shows up during the summer. Kids who have plenty of food at home don't need a free lunch, but they'll probably enjoy eating it anyway; for kids who don't, it's crucial to their well-being and proper development.