4 Reasons Why I Enrolled My Child in Bilingual Preschool

I already knew that I wanted to enrol my children in a bilingual preschool as early as the day they were born. After all, being bilingual offers plenty of benefits for a child’s development and future. For those unaware, a bilingual preschool follows a curriculum that focuses on enhancing and sharpening children’s proficiency in their mother tongue and second language. In Singapore, you’d likely find bilingual curriculums focusing on English and Mandarin, one of the most spoken languages in the nation and the world. Here are four reasons why I chose a bilingual preschool for my child.

1. Improve Your Child’s Brain Agility

A bilingual child who is fully fluent in both languages has an ability called code-switching. Code-switching is when a speaker alternates between two or more languages during one conversation. Switching from one language, which has a set of rules, to another, which most likely doesn’t share the same rules as the first one, requires brain agility. Bilingual children can quickly sift through and use information because they practise code-switching daily. They can practise this skill during a bilingual programme.

2. Builds a Foundation for Learning More Languages

If you want your child to learn a third language in the future, they’ll have a much more stable foundation if you enrol them in a bilingual kindergarten. By nurturing their second language early, they’ll be able to pick up new sentence construction rules easier and quicker. For example, my oldest daughter is already studying another language, and I always get pleasantly surprised when I see her high scores.

3. Helps Your Child Appreciate Other Cultures

Noone is too young to appreciate another place’s culture. A child enrolled in a bilingual programme might become curious about the origins of the second language. Some bilingual curriculums also teach children about the country that the language originates from, such as China for Mandarin. My children have become curious about China and its traditions, and we aspire to visit it one day so they can learn further about its culture.

4. Further Professional Opportunities

One of the best advantages of enrolling your child in a bilingual preschool is setting them up for many great opportunities in the future. Once they enter the workforce, they may be surprised to see how many companies wish to have bilingual job applicants. The high demand for bilingual applicants is because of the opportunities a company may get when they have a bilingual employee to speak to foreign business people. For example, while my eldest son got his first job on his own merits, his fluency in Mandarin gave him a step up above his competitors.

Are you looking for a kindergarten in Singapore that offers a bilingual programme? Little Skool House offers a literary-based curriculum that helps children develop their academic foundation and other skills. 93{0633069f2d0def24228071e522c0175ad5a4141378bb4080ad10840e04a36c30} of their kindergarten graduates also have a high proficiency in both English and Mandarin, making it the perfect place for your child to learn being bilingual. For more information on their curriculums or where their learning centres are, contact Little Skool House today.