What are the Pros and Cons of Doing Preschool at Home?

As I sat in kindergarten, I often heard the kids talk about preschool. I didn't understand what that was or why they went. After asking my mom, she shrugged and said I didn't need to go, so I started with kindergarten.

Now that I am a mom, I have often wondered if I should put our kids in preschool or not. Because of life's circumstances, we have been unable to enroll our daughter in preschool yet. But this has not stopped me from doing an at-home preschool for her and my little boy. What are the pros and cons of preschool at home instead of sending your child to preschool?

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Pros of Doing Preschool at Home

1. You only have five years of your child's time at home as a parent. The rest is absorbed by the school, homework, and other activities. You get an extra year with your child before turning them over to public school.
2. You choose how your child learns. Do you want to focus on the alphabet and numbers or the world around them? You are their teacher. You create the world!
3. You get to see their faces light up as different concepts are introduced. My little girl had difficulty tracing and staying in lines by the first of the school year. She would often cry because she couldn't do it. We worked on it over and over again finally; she got it. She was so excited that she couldn't help but show her grandparents all she had accomplished.
4. Doing preschool at home saves you a ton of money! If you are lucky, you pay $90 monthly for preschool. Because I chose to do preschool at home, I spent a maximum of $12 for the year. $810 versus $12 is a $798 savings! What could you do with that money? 
5. Suppose you have children of similar ages—you can build strong relationships that last a lifetime. Not only is your child learning, but they are doing something challenging and fun with their siblings. They get to work together on little school projects and bounce ideas off each other as they work through their preschool books and other activities.
6. Preschool brings a lot of sickness into your home. I am all about having our kids build healthy immune systems, but there is a point where I don't want every single cold or flu brought home. Just think about the hygiene development from a 3 to 4-year-old versus a 5 to 6-year-old. You may think this is minor, but it is a huge deal! My five-year-old knows it is essential to wash her hands and not stick things in her mouth for the most part. My three-year-old hates washing his hands and still sticks toys in his mouth.
7. Your kids come to you for questions. I love answering questions that my kids have. For most questions, I don't care if other adults answer. But there are some that I prefer to respond to. For example, I believe in a god. What if my child asked about Heavenly Father, and the teacher said there was no such thing. Of course, this can happen in elementary school, but in preschool, they are too young to determine their thoughts on the matter, and they believe anyone.

Cons of Doing Preschool at Home

1. Social life is minimal. It is hard to truly let your child get the social exposure they need in a safe home environment. Whenever my kids Have a problem, they run to me for help. Eventually, I will not be around. They need to know what to do and who to go to when their parents are unavailable. As a part, they need to understand how to be around kids from other backgrounds.
2. Your kids are home! Parenting is tough. By sending your child to preschool, you give yourself more time. If you choose to do preschool at home, you are giving yourself one more thing to do. It is a chore some days!
3. You have to stick to a strict schedule, or you'll never get anything done. I ensured my little girl did at least an hour of preschool every day on the first of the preschool year. Around Christmas, we fell out of the habit and never quite got back into it. Crossing my fingers for this next year!
4. Less focus time on your kids. By sending them to preschool, you were able to accomplish more which means by the time they get home; you can focus on playtime and building memories with them. This may not make sense, but if you can only give your child 100% of your time for an hour a day, do you want to spend it on school? It is really up to you and how you want to spend time with your child.

"Our goal is to help the world make decisions with a list of Pros and Cons. We invite all to add to our lists to help others make the most educated decision possible. We are all in this world together to help each other and learn from what others have learned from their lives journey."

 - Pros and Cons Team