When it comes to early childhood daycare, many parents think that it needs to be made essential rather than just an alternative. Children develop new skills and improve existing abilities. By themselves, these new and improved skills justify the participation by children in a high quality early childhood education program. In this article, I will discuss some of the ways both you and your child can benefit from attending preschool.

Whilst many parents believe that the best place for a preschooler to learn is in the home, there is a growing awareness and understanding that parents often do not have the necessary skills to teach their children to a level that they are ready for school.

Here are some of the issues that can be taken into account when you are deciding on your child’s education.

Learning. Probably the most important skill or ability a child develops in an early childhood education program is the ability to learn. This is often the first small step towards long-term learning, which in turn can lead to a successful career. All children are curious. They will react to what they see, hear and touch. This early learning experience which begins in the home, can be vastly enhanced through the use of a carefully planned, and properly carried out early childhood daycare program.

Communication. Children will learn effective communication with their peers and teachers in groups and in one-on-one settings whilst at preschool. This ability goes hand in hand with teamwork, to ensure that your child will be able to fully participate in his or her formal schooling when the time comes.

Teamwork. This is a vital component in early childhood education. We all know that children prefer to associate with others around their own age. They see other children of the same age as equals, and will be more likely to communicate with those other children. The use of teamwork enhances the learning experience by performing tasks together, so that all of the individual team members gain a feeling of satisfaction by contributing according to their abilities.

Health and Well-being. Children demand attention and time. Parents often find it hard to make enough time for their children due to work commitments, and other family matters. A high quality early childhood education program will give children plenty of opportunities to develop both mentally and physically, socially and emotionally. Preschool education puts great emphasis on the significance of sports and recreational activities. A sound body promotes a healthy mind, and early education programs contribute to children’s health with proven systems that are age appropriate. Hopefully this article shows you the benefits of early childhood education, and will encourage you to enroll your preschooler in a high quality early childhood daycare program.

Every classroom should have a least one globe. They are an excellent way to teach geography in a hands on and interactive manner. Here are several classroom activities and games you can use with a globe.

Round the world. You can make this as simple or as complicated as you’d like. Spin the globe while chanting “round and round and round she goes. Where she stops, nobody knows.” Hold your finger on the globe and see where it stops. Read out the name of the country and point out what’s nearby to your students. If you want to take this a couple steps further, imagine that you are going to take a trip there. Have your students research what they would do there, what they should pack, what they should wear, and what the customs are. If you have an inflatable globe, you can throw it in the air and select the country under the catcher’s left thumb.

Find that place. This is a fun game to play in teams as a race. Divide your class up into teams and give each team a globe. Then give them a list of places and post-it markers. Have them mark each location on the globe. Whichever team finishes first wins the contest. To make this more interesting, you could hand out some newspaper articles. Students must find places mentioned in the article.

Find the coordinates. You name a place and then your students have to find its latitude and longitude on the globe. This can be played as a variation of “find that place:” instead of marking it’s location on the globe, students write down its latitude and longitude. You can also give a point and have students find the city, lake, etc. which corresponds to those coordinates.

Alphabet game. This game works best for young children. Starting with A, have your students suggest a place for each letter (such as Alaska) and then find it on the globe. With older students, pick a place yourself and then have your students ask questions to identify it. Once they’ve guessed correctly, find it on the globe. Of course, you can also go around the class in turns with each student picking a place. This is a good centering activity.

What do you know? Have your students select a place at random (either with eyes closed or by spinning the globe) and then list everything about that place they can think of. This activity is a good way to either open the lesson or bring a close to your day.

Talking Globes. Several companies make talking globes with an interactive quiz game. Several students or several teams can play with these.