Insight To Help You Select The Right Preschool For Your Child
Preschool and child development are an important part of your child's learning and growth during the first few years of their life. When your child is nearing the age of kindergarten, it is helpful to enroll them into a preschool that can prepare them. The following provides you with some professional recommendations to evaluate and select the right preschool for your child.
Tour the School
One of the most important tasks you should take when you are looking for a preschool is to actually tour through the school. This will provide you with an opportunity to observe and talk to the preschool staff. See how they interact with the children attending the preschool and if they are positive, negative, or neutral. Preschool teachers who are positive to the children will create a more successful learning environment and encourage growth from the children participating in the daily lessons and interactions.
As you walk through, take a look at how many children are in attendance as compared to the number of staff and teachers actively in each classroom. A proper teacher-to-child ratio will promote better learning and attention to child care. Take a look at the cleanliness of the school and visit the restroom while you are there. Most preschools will require the children to be potty trained to attend, so the cleanliness of a bathroom is a good indicator of the school's environment.
Evaluate the Teachers
There are a number of different teaching methods that can be used in a preschool setting, and depending on your needs, you may want to look for a specific one. When you tour through the school, you can evaluate the preschool teachers and how they teach their lessons and see how well they correlate with the instruction method. So, for example, if they use the Montessori, play-based, or Waldorf, watch the lessons and the teacher's instruction to the children to see how closely the children follow the lesson.
You can also request details of the education and training of the teachers at the preschool. The more education the teachers have, the better they will be at providing good education and interaction with the children in the class. So, look for teachers that have more training, such as a four-year degree, when you select the right preschool. You can look at the types of education the teachers have, which should include education-based training, such as a teaching degree in child development or early childhood education.