Childcare Enrichment Programs

July 27, 2016

A woman reading a book to children in a classroom.

Like many things in life, childcare programs are not all made equal. Childcare comes in a variety of types. From simple in home babysitting, to educational childcare programs like preschool, to school age programs, childcare is as diverse as the children who benefit from it. But just because they are different doesn’t mean that one is better than the other. A babysitter is fine if you just need to get away for an evening. But if you want childcare with purpose, childcare that is more than supervision, childcare that exercises your little one’s mind and ignites their creativity, educational childcare with childcare enrichment programs is what you are looking for. Let’s take a look.

What are Childcare Enrichment Programs?

Childcare enrichment programs are programs that focus on the mental and creative development of your child. From art to music, STEM programs to dance, childcare enrichment programs both supplement and enrich a child’s educational development.

Music Childcare Enrichment Programs

The importance of music education cannot be overstated. Music education has been shown to give children a number of cognitive benefits as well. Early music education is linked to higher test scores and contributes to ease of language acquisition and reasoning skills in young children.

The memorization techniques that are required to keep time, beat and melody all coming together into one boosts the parts of the brain associated with recall and memory. Keeping time and beat also contribute to the development of fluid intelligence and control.

Art Enrichment Programs

Before written language, there was art. Cave paintings scribbled by our Neolithic ancestors make clear the natural tendency for human beings to represent their lives in picture and story. Unfortunately, art education programs have suffered years of cutbacks and limited budgets. But that is starting to change. More and more education experts are acknowledging that art is an important element of a child’s education. And it’s never too early to start. In fact, many early childhood education centers are incorporating art programs for young children into their curriculum.

Foreign Languages

With foreign language programs, the younger the student the better. A young child’s mind is primed for language acquisition. It is important to realize that to a young child the language of their parents is just as foreign as Swahili is to an adult English speaker. The difference is the fact that the child does not have the limiting brain structures that develop as we age. They can absorb new words as concepts, while us adults absorb them as equivalencies between words, requiring the dreaded memorization techniques that made foreign language a bore in high school. If you get them started early with a childcare enrichment programs that focuses on foreign languages, they will learn it with the same ease as they learn their native language.