When your kids are toddlers and not yet in nursery school, you must rely on activities available in your community to provide an opportunity for stimulation, play and learning. You will find many neighborhoods host businesses such as Safe-T-Swim, Gymboree, and dance classes. Finding places that provide an educational experience can be more challenging. One good source offers Spanish immersion classes for toddlers, such as Spanish Immersion Workshop, available in person or online. Not every neighborhood offers nursery school so when you find an opportunity for education, your child has the chance to get started learning sooner.
The first challenge most parents experience is overcoming separation. When trying to acclimate a child to a classroom setting, it’s natural for the child to cry for the first few days. Some classes will allow parent participation, which allows the child a gradual transition to interacting with other children. Acclimating your child to interacting with other children at this age will help her or him to develop social skills at an early age.
The choice to choose language education over playtime may translate to more money, but there are many reasons you may want to consider a learning experience:
- At this young age, your child is likely to retain the education and develop skills that will last a lifetime
- A second language can be learned quickly, especially in an immersive classroom, as this is the stage of development where the neural connections in the brain are being formed
- Foreign language exposes your child to another culture and children with different backgrounds, helping them to embrace differences and be accepting of others.
- If your child continues foreign language learning, he or she will be ahead when it is taught in school.
- Foreign language skills improve cognitive skills
Although an educational experience may cost more money, the benefits will last for years to come. And if the facility offers a series of classes to build on learned skills, your child could be well on his or her way to speaking conversational Spanish (or another language) by the time foreign language classes are offered in elementary school.
You will also meet other parents of toddlers, creating opportunities for your child to socialize with children his or her age outside of the activity.
There are some things to beware of before you make a commitment. It’s important that the center maintains enough people on staff to ensure the safety of the children. Take a tour of the facility. Is it clean? Is there security? Is the staff friendly? How is the program organized? You can ask for referrals. You should also check the facility’s online ratings on Yelp or Google Business.
In other countries, learning a second language is mandatory and many young kids can speak English by the time they reach high school. We should take advantage of any opportunity we have to give our kids and educational edge. Our public school system has a lot of catching up to do to match the levels of other countries. Until then, we must be stewards for better education for our own children.