The Importance of Children Attending Kindergarten

Children attending kindergarten has important advantages for their development. Not only do they learn to be disciplined, but they strengthen their social and cognitive skills. Do you want to know more about it? If so, keep reading!

The importance of kindergarten comes from the fact that it’s a school space whose objective is to promote educational work and activities related to the growth and development of children. On average, entry into this system occurs between 4 and 5 years of age, although it depends on the child’s psychological and social skills and the requirements of each country.

Although it’s true that education should begin in the family, it’s the teachers who complement and reinforce proper child-rearing practices and the cognitive, social, and emotional development of the child as an entity within the environment that surrounds him or her. So, why is it so important for children to attend these centers from an early age?

Children acquire social skills in kindergarten

When children begin to develop social skills, they gain not only friends, but also other types of knowledge. By interacting with other children, they learn to establish and follow rules and make decisions. Through friendship, they’re able to experience fear, anger, rejection, and aggression, among other emotions. In turn, this helps them understand what’s appropriate and what isn’t.

They begin to see what social positioning is like, how power works, and learn situations where different behaviors are required, what’s fair and what is not, and the feeling of belonging to a group. In particular, in kindergarten they learn to compare themselves with other children – who is bigger, faster, or smarter – and to foster the building of self-image and self-esteem.

Friendships are a natural need that reflect themselves through time spent sharing activities. At this stage, such relationships are based on companionship.

The importance of kindergarten: Children learn to be disciplined

Discipline plays a fundamental role in the overall development of children. It not only reinforces their social skills and security, but also allows them to adapt to many situations in their environment.

This is because the school has a set of explicit and implicit rules to regulate the activity and relationships of the members of the community they form.

According to Cubero, in his article “Discipline in the classroom: reflections on communication processes,” the rules revolve around the personal safety of children in order to create a possibility of working in a learning environment.

Transgressing these rules can create chaos. Therefore, as pedagogical specialists, teachers teach them that discipline is important to maintain harmony in human relations.

In turn, in kindergarten, they learn about discipline because the rules are few, simple, and clear and are given in a vocabulary that’s appropriate to the intellectual level of the students. In addition, they’re constantly applied through supportive, preventive, and corrective techniques.

• Prevention strategies seek to minimize or prevent problems in the classroom and school.
• Supportive strategies are strategies to regulate behavior in the face of behaviors that go against the code.
• Corrective strategies are resources to teach that there are consequences when rules or guidelines aren’t followed.

In kindergarten, children learn to create routines outside of the home

Everyone needs routines. They help organize life and prevent chaos. Children grow more disciplined and structured, although it’s also advisable to seek balance to avoid rigidity and boredom.

Being at home all the time can cause boredom, and children need to explore their environment. An excellent option to get out of the house is to go to kindergarten and integrate it into their routine in the following way:

• Waking up at the same time each morning.
• Getting out of bed at the same time each morning.
• Going to the bathroom, getting dressed, brushing teeth, and leaving the house at the same time each morning. 
• Eat breakfast or lunch in the car.
• Pick up from preschool at 4:00 p.m.
• Playtime 4:00 to 5:00 p.m.
• Preparing dinner at 5:00 and eating dinner at 5:45 p.m.
• Bath time at 6:30 p.m.
• Spend time together as a family at 7:00 p.m.
• Watching television from 7:30 to 8:00 p.m.
• Going to the bathroom and going to bed at 8:00 p.m.
• Going to sleep at 8:30 p.m.

Kindergarten lays the neurological foundations for future learning

Neuroscience has shown that there’s no separation between logical-rational thinking and intuition and emotion. All of this comes together in a kindergarten that explores the cognitive dimension of art and play.

Through music, dance, painting, theater, poetry, and drawing, children can communicate emotionally diverse contents. The child learns by playing and doing. For researchers María Muñoz and Alejandro Almonacid: “Play is primitive and profound language, it’s the story of children who, immersed in the world of adults, can escape in a kind of liberating and magical catharsis.”

The importance of kindergarten is that it offers children an approach to art in all its dimensions that they may not have at any other time in their lives when they’re at the moment of greatest brain plasticity. In particular, this is because of the atmosphere of genuine and spontaneous freedom created in kindergarten when children are exposed to art, creativity, and all sorts of activities.

What should be taken into account to choose a good kindergarten?

There are objective and subjective aspects of enormous importance that should be taken into account when choosing a good kindergarten. From the objective aspect, you can look for references of that educational center with other people you trust who have young children.

You should also evaluate the place and the facilities to avoid any kind of accident. You should answer questions such as the following:

• How safe is the space?
• How large is it?
• Does it meet child safety standards?

Another important point is money. How much is the monthly fee of the place? Analyze your family budget and make an informed decision. Of course, it’s always about trying to make a balance between quality and price. Also, look at the dining rooms and menus. How healthy and clean are they?

On the subjective side, it’s also important to ask yourself: do I feel comfortable leaving my child here? Also, visit the place with your little one to assess his or her impressions and how he or she feels walking around. Remember that your child will be the one spending most of his or her day there, and he or she should be the one who says he or she feels at ease in the new environment.