The benefits of enrolling kids in preschool

Should you enroll your children in preschool if you can provide a good early education for them at home? Parents struggling with this choice can find useful tips in a new study by Bruce Fuller, professor of education at the University of California, Berkeley. “We have known over the last half century that quality preschools can boost the early learning of children from poor families, but much less is known about the long-term effects of preschool on children from middle class families.” For four years, Fuller tracked the academic performance of over six thousand children up to 5 years of age and found that kids from middle-class families did benefit from preschool. “Those benefits tended to come from exposure to more academically intense preschool programs." Especially, in classes focused on developing verbal communication and early math skills. So maybe parents who prefer home education before their children hit elementary school age, should give pre-K a second thought?