Last month, The Huffington Post reported on a review of Head Start programs that found that "Head Start programs lead to short-term benefits across multiple areas of children's well-being and school readiness…" And of course as great as short-term benefits are, the advisory committee that examined Head Start would like to do more to ensure that these short-term benefits become long-term ones. They would like school readiness to be enhanced and "embrace innovation as a means of reaching said goals in locally individualized ways." If you didn’t know, Head Start is not a one-size-fits-all program; it can be adapted to suit the needs of the area where it is being administered.
At Horizon Education Centers, Head Start programs at our Elyria, East Lorain, Southside (Lorain) and South Elyria (LMHA Wilkes Villa) centers help prepare low-income children socially and academically for Kindergarten.
Some parents may feel that they can work with a child at home or have a babysitter help get a child ready for school. There is nothing wrong with this, but there are advantages to enrolling your child in Head Start:
- Going to a childcare center prepares your child for getting ready to do academic work away from home. Even in it seems that a childcare center looks a lot like the setting at home or at a babysitter's house, a child will note the difference.
- A childcare center provides the opportunity to interact with a variety of children and adults and to see that older and younger children also get instruction. In fact, some young children take a lot of pride in being able to say they are going to school.
At Horizon, our staff is trained to administer academic readiness programs that are age appropriate. Head Start covers both academic emotional readiness; both of these things are vital to success in Kindergarten and beyond.
