I observed that there is a so-called play school in every colony, and almost everyone had a good number of kids on their Campus. When I started to mull over the question of why so many Play Schools at all, primarily I could come up with a few good reasons for this phenomenon:
1. Nuclear Families.
2. Working Parents.
3. Lack of trained domestic help for caring for small kids of 1.5 to 3 years of age.
4. Hardly any playing space for the child in compact Home designs.
5. Inadequate play area in the Modern Day Colonies.
6. High Tantrums of the Kids.
7. High level of competition.
Well, if the above are the reasons that prompted alternate options of daycare, i.e. Play Schools for kids mushrooming up at every half a kilometer, a fundamental question arose in my mind. Are they equipped to effectively and efficiently handle the kids' needs and deliver expected results to the parent's satisfaction?
Fine, to find an answer to the second question, I started to analyze each of the seven reasons I identified as being responsible for the very existence of these Play Schools.
So let us see the effect that identified reasons have.
1. A Nuclear Family
A Nuclear family has no senior person in the house to share their experience with the young parents and help them in the toddler's upbringing. This forces the parents to go through the entire process based on their instincts of handling situations as and when they come, often succumbing to the child's unreasonable demands.
2. Working Parents
Now, a Nuclear family where both are working parents is a deadly combination for taking care of a toddler. The quality of time the child deserves from the parents gets compromised. The result is a highly demanding child who is pacified with toys, chocolates, gifts, etc. Such kids usually exhibit a high level of tantrums. The kids miss out on various essential lessons of life that could shape their behavior and personality when they grow up.
3. Untrained Domestic Help
Firstly Trained Nannies are very rare, but if you find one, the cost involved is not everyone's cup of tea. Untrained Nannies do not have a good track record and have been found to ill-treat the kids on many occasions. The kids left to be cared for by such Nannies are seen to develop fear psychosis. They are scared and may not even cry to express themselves.
4. Hardly any playing space for the child in compact Home designs
The ever-increasing crowd in the Cities and the proportionately decreasing living area sizes have now become an accepted truth. The kids hardly have any space to run around, which is essential when venting out the surplus energy that a growing toddler has. It makes the child obese and cranky, and some often have to be forced to feed as they do not use up their energy.
5. Inadequate playing area in the Modern Day Colonies
While vertical growth of the cities is a common sight, play arenas for kids are hard to be found. Lack of playing space harms the overall health of a growing child. The lack of fresh oxygen in the locked vicinities of modern-day homes contributes to the sluggish neurological development of the child. Since they hardly meet other kids their age, a few vital social habits like sharing and caring are becoming scarce. The modern-day parents understand the situation and it is evident from the fact that the thousands of parents search the key phrase ‘ Play school near me’ on the internet.
6. High Tantrums of the Kids
Nuclear Families, Working Parents, Untrained Domestic Help, lack of playing space in homes, and colonies have all, in combination, contributed to the great tantrums that the kids happen to through these days, and it is a common sight. It almost frustrates the parents, who are forced to look for alternatives like Play Schools.
7. High level of competition
We have seen situations where the Government had to interfere in the admission of kids to schools at nursery levels. The problem is frightening. This competition also forces the parents to push their kids into schooling through these play schools.
To conclude from the above observations, an ideal Playschool should be able to contribute positively to the development of the toddler in terms of understanding, behavior, reducing tantrums, sharing and caring habits, playing, and ultimately learning.
So when you are looking for a Play School for your child, make sure that it addresses the issues discussed above, which a toddler faces due to the changing social structure and not select one because the promoters call themselves ‘the best Play school’.
An ideal play school should have the following:
1. An infrastructure with a visual effect that makes a child happy.
2. Well-ventilated classrooms.
3. Various health-friendly toys.
4. Adequate play zones with types of equipment that enable the child to use up their surplus energy and also opportune them to learn while playing and ensure safety in all respect.
5. Montessori-trained teachers who are well-equipped to handle the kids in every situation.
6. A child-teacher ratio is not beyond the recommendations of educationists.
7. A teaching methodology that is child-centric and is more dependent on the classroom teachings rather than in the class.
8. A symbiotic balance between curriculum and extracurricular activities.
9. Well-trained Nannies to care for the kids as and when needed.
10. Overall hygiene and cleanliness.
We, Mastermind School, have a tagline that reads, 'the happiest school'. This tagline is a challenge we have put on ourselves, and all endeavor to keep our students happy because we firmly believe that anything is best learned when one is de-stressed.
Mastermind Playschool was incepted after thorough research on the actual needs of the parents in terms of their toddlers. We have in every aspect taken care of to make the curriculum child-centric, teachings focused on beyond the classroom, adequate playing areas with safe toys with trained teaching staff, and Nannies. An experienced administrative head heads it, and above all, every child's safety is our prime concern.
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