After welcoming a child into the home, some families wonder if both parents should go back to work and if they should put that child in a day care centre, or if one parent should stay home with the child. In some cases, both parents may not need to work, but may consider enrolling the child in a preschool facility for a few days each week. While only you can determine the best choice for yourself and your child, you might note some advantages of a day care facility, and this can help you to make this decision.

Imagination

While you may love playing with your child all day, a child does need to be around other children their own age to learn how to interact with those other children. One advantage to this interaction is that a child's imagination can be stimulated by other children in ways that an adult might miss. Your child's friends might create stories or games, sparking your own child's imagination as they play along. Unstructured play with other children also stimulates a child's imagination, more so than simply colouring pictures in a book. If your child is not around other children his or her age throughout the day, it can be good to consider day care so that your child's imagination and self-expression are both encouraged.

Monitoring development

Serious issues with a child's development may be noticed by a parent, but you may not realize when your child is simply lagging behind his or her age group when it comes to speech, motor skills, cognitive development, and so on. Day care workers and preschool teachers may be more attuned to these developmental issues and may be able to more readily compare your child's development to other children his or her age. You can then enlist the aid of a tutor, speech coach, or other such professional for your child, as needed.

Learning tools

It's good for a child to learn basics about reading, numbers, colours, and so on, before they actually enter school so that they don't fall behind their peers in their schooling. While you might invest in some flash cards, workbooks, and other such tools to help your child learn at home, a day care or preschool will usually have far more learning tools at their disposal. Puzzles, games, music, and other hands-on tools can help stimulate a child's development and make learning easier and more fun for them, and this can ensure they'll be able to keep up with their peers when they're ready to enter school.

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