The Benefits Of A Daycare Center For Your Toddler

18 August 2021
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Do you need to enroll your child in a local daycare center? While your work schedule is the primary reason for putting your toddler in care, safe supervision isn't the only benefit of the early preschool environment. Take a look at the top reasons to choose child care for your toddler.

A Regular Schedule

While you can create a routine at home, it isn't always easy to stick to a schedule. Whether you have other children who have different scheduling needs, such as carpool, dance class, or naps, or you don't always have the discipline to keep your child on track, days spent at home can turn into a free-for-all. 

If you prefer your child to have a specific daily schedule, the child care setting is an ideal environment. Instead of open play all day, an early pre-k program will typically include a series of set activities or content-focused times. 

The specific schedule varies by school or program. To learn more about your child's future preschool schedule, talk to the program's director or your child's soon-to-be new teacher. Some early childhood educators provide parents with a daily or weekly schedule of classroom activities.

An Array of Activities

Does your toddler adore art? Would they build with blocks for hours? Before you spend your savings on every toddler-friendly art supply, learning tool, and toy your child wants, consider the activity benefits of daycare. 

Child care centers are stocked with the play and learning items your toddler wants and needs right now. Beyond the basic materials, the early childhood center day is filled with an array of activities. These activities entertain, educate, and help your child to build new interests.

Like the schedule, daycare activities often vary by center. The daily activities your child could engage in may include art (such as painting, sculpting, drawing, and collaging), science, dramatic play, gross motor (large muscle physical activities), social studies, or math. 

A Social Setting

Daycare is a social setting. This means your child will have the chance to make friends and learn valuable social skills. The beginning social skills a toddler can develop through child care include appropriate emotional expression, turn-taking, sharing, and listening to others. 

Even though the social environment of an early learning center can help the young child to improve these skills, don't expect your toddler to master them yet. Toddlers are developmentally ready to build a social foundation. But this doesn't mean they have the cognitive or emotional abilities to always share, always take turns, or always express themselves in culturally acceptable ways. Right now your toddler needs time (and the right setting) to grow socially.

For more information, look for a daycare center near you, such as A Mother's Touch Child Development Center.