Giving Kids a Head-start by Making the Right Preschool Choices

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Most parents of young children in Silver Spring, MD typically start planning for their child’s preschool needs before the child turns two-years of age. This is an especially critical decision to make, since many parents and guardians of young kids may also be working away from home. With many work-from-home (WFH) programs expected to taper off soon, the decision to find appropriate pre-schooling options for children of tender ages is even more urgent now.

Choosing a Silver Spring preschool center makes great sense for many reasons.

The Stakes: More Than Child Safety

Before you decide on which preschool to enroll your child in, it’s right to give that thought serious consideration. There’s a lot of evidence that shows how the right type of early childhood learning can have a positive impact on the rest of the child’s life. And that doesn’t just include their academic future, but also their mental, physical professional and social lives as well.

While any pre-schooling environment that ensures the child’s safety when parents are at work is good, there’s more than child safety to consider in making preschool choices. It’s true, that the safety of your children must top that list. However, because so much more is at stake, choosing the right preschool in Silver Spring MD is critical.

Focusing on the “whole child”

The choice of early childhood care environment depends on what each parent or guardian deems important for the child and the family. The choice typically varies between “traditional” and child-centric:

TRADITIONAL: In a traditional preschool, children spend a lot of time learning the basics – such as sounds, numbers, letters, shapes and colors. The learning tools typically used are flash cards, worksheets and a variety of ditto sheets. The key thing for parents and guardians to understand about these types of environments is that they are teacher-directed. They are a structured routine, leaving little free-play time for children. The goal is to focus on learning so children are ready for the next level of their academic lives – Kindergarten and beyond.

CHILD-CENTRIC: These preschool environments plan lessons around a child’s interests, and use play as a means to further learning. As a result, children are taught using hands-on experiences, by doing and understanding. And the key distinction here, is that teachers typically follow the lead of the child, and adapt their own teaching styles to the interests and needs of the children.

The goal, in child-centered preschool learning, is to integrate multiple aspects of learning and development, to deliver a “whole child” experience – not just on preparing children for their next schooling milestone.

Choice Matters

Silver Spring preschool centers focus on multiple aspects of a child’s early learning. This includes Social-Emotional, Physical, Language, Cognitive, Literacy, Mathematics, Science and Technology, Social Studies, the Arts and English Language Acquisition. Most importantly, these centers follow a Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) approved curriculum – Creative Curriculum®.

This is an interactive approach to early childhood learning, which combines play-based activities uniquely tailored to each child’s needs and learning style. The centers employ extended learning projects that encourage kids to explore, discover and investigate the world around them in a safe and nurturing environment.

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