The events and experiences your child has when they are young shape who they are and who they will grow up to be. Sending your child to daycare benefits them far beyond the short term; it is an important step in the process of learning and development. Choosing to send your child to a toddler care center creates an opportunity for them to grow into their best self.
Ten Life-Changing Daycare Benefits
Daycare benefits start from the very first day you enroll your child. A quality toddler care center will lovingly embrace and encourage your child to become the best and brightest version of themselves.
- Routine
- Socialization
- Academics
- Communication
- Independence
- Confidence
- Behavior
- Immune System
- Eating Habits
- Transition to Grade School
- Schedule and Routine: Just as adults thrive on the predictability and comfort of structure, so do children. Toddler care that involves a schedule and routine provides a much-needed set of boundaries for kids.
Their routines revolve around fun learning opportunities like story-time, centers, and singalongs. Routines set the groundwork for understanding the concept of time as they get older. Learning when to nap, eat lunch, play, and clean up are routines that help at home also, which benefits the whole family.
- Friendships: Learning to share, take turns, problem solve, and form friendships are fun daycare benefits that impact how children interact with others as they get older. Learning to play and work with kids and adults outside the home is instrumental in developing future life skills. Socialization is a crucial part of interacting with other people in play and professional settings. Daycare benefits children by teaching them how to read nonverbal cues and communicate their needs.
- Academic Advancements: The Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill did a thirty-year research study into long-term daycare benefits. They found that adults enrolled as infants in high-quality childcare programs were four times more likely to have earned a college degree and remain consistently employed as adults. In addition, the impact of infant and toddler care programs long outlast the physical time spent in the center.
- Communication Skills: Interacting with other children improves communication skills. While in toddler care, they are given opportunities to practice their speaking abilities with other little ones at their age and skill level. Observing other kids interacting and playing is learning in real-time. They are then able to take these newly learned abilities and use them at home.
The majority of communicating at home and other social settings will be between adults and kids, which has the adult in a position of power. A genuinely wonderful daycare benefit is kids being able to interact with others on their level and be treated like an equal.
- Fostering Independence: Children are typically given one-on-one attention from their parents or siblings at home. One of the daycare benefits is not experiencing that same individually focused attention all day.
When children are in a toddler care center interacting with their peers, they are assigned and encouraged to do age-appropriate tasks independently. Skills such as putting on their jacket, cleaning up their toys, or using a glue stick properly are modeled and demonstrated by other children around them. As a result, they learn to rely on themselves for daily tasks and are excited to show these newly learned behaviors to their parents.
- Confidence Booster: Greater independence leads to an increase in confidence. Daycare benefits children by encouraging them to feel comfortable in new situations and with people different from them. Comfort in new situations leads to confidence in new situations.
As your children grow, they will continue to be placed in new environments at school and extracurricular activities. Choosing a quality toddler care center will help your kid is feeling more confident as they grow up and try new things.
- Better Behavior: Playing and learning with other kids their own age teaches them to share and take turns. These two skills alone lead to learning how to be a good team player. Sharing and turn-taking are the cornerstone skills for practicing patience and empathy.
Learning how to read other people and factor in their needs is not only a daycare benefit for parents and siblings; it has a positive impact on how children will interact with teammates, teachers, classmates, and coworkers as they get older.
- Immune System: Unexpectedly, daycare benefits your child by boosting their immune system. Whenever your child is first introduced to large group activities, there will be an increase in sniffles, coughs, and runny noses. Starting large group exposure at a toddler care center builds their immunity levels while they are little, decreasing their susceptibility to getting sick once they start grade school.
- Eating Habits: While you cannot guarantee that your child will be an adventurous eater or a picky eater, exposure is key in increasing their willingness to try new foods. Quality toddler care centers follow state dietary requirements, meaning your toddler receives balanced meals daily, likely exposing them to new foods.
Watching other children willingly experiment with food encourages them to try it as well. In addition, the younger your child starts daycare, the longer their exposure and the more normalized trying new foods will become.
- Transition to Grade School: Children who attend high-quality toddler care centers are more likely to have higher reading and math comprehension skills compared to their classmates who did not attend a formal childcare center.
They also typically have higher cognitive and language skills—daycare benefits that remain apparent through the teen years. All the toddler care-based benefits listed above translate into a more successful grade school experience.
Daycare Benefits In and Out of the Classroom
The sooner your child begins attending an infant or toddler care center, the sooner they can reap the daycare benefits these centers provide. Your child will be so proud to show off their new skills, whether it’s zipping their jacket, singing a new song, or showing off a craft they made all by themself. You will be amazed at the skills they are learning and bringing into your home, like taking turns, sharing, and learning to be patient with their siblings.