As the time approaches to enroll your child in preschool, you'll have to choose between a traditional school schedule or a year-round program. It can be a difficult decision, especially when you're worried about overwhelming your child with a year-round program. The truth is that year-round preschool does have its advantages. Here are a few things you should know about that year-round program for your little one.

Year-Round Preschool Basics

Many parents wonder how a year-round program might work. Since it's a fairly new concept, it's important that you understand the basics. A year-round schedule operates in six to nine-week blocks with a two to three-week break in between. This schedule continues throughout the summer instead of running only from September through June as most traditional schools do.

Year-Round Preschool Advantages

There are many reasons why year-round preschool programs are better for children. Young learners need a lot of repetition and reinforcement, and the long summer breaks are known for academic loss. Kids often lose some percentage of what they've learned when they get several months off from school, leading to a need to re-teach those basics at the beginning of the next school year. This reduces the instructional time for new concepts that help children grow.

When kids have a consistent schedule that doesn't include several months between their school years, they are less likely to become resistant to the back-to-school routine as they often do at the end of a traditional summer break. This makes school time easier for both children and parents.

Year-Round Preschool Drawbacks

Despite the benefits, you need to be sure that year-round preschool is right for your family. There are a few challenges that some families face. Most notably, it can be difficult to secure childcare for two to three weeks at a time every few months when you don't need full-time childcare otherwise.

Losing the summer vacation can also make it more difficult for families to plan vacations. You'll need to focus on using one of the breaks to plan your vacation, which is viable since the breaks are usually a couple of weeks long.

The more you understand about year-round preschool programs, the easier it is to determine if this type of preschool is right for your child. Take some time to talk with your local preschools about the year-round education options that are available and to see if your child is a good fit for one of those programs.

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