When you look around and see the never ending contest between some moms over the idea that their child is better than yours, you stop and think about the situation. Many moms may be tempted to hire a tutor for their preschooler. This may seem like a good idea and even be embraced as a game by your little one at first; it's really not the best thing to do.



Most people don't have tutors teach their kids the ABCs or their numbers. Children learn these lessons by playing, also by talking to mommy and daddy. They learn to walk by watching other people walk and by trial and error. One child may know his ABCs by the age of two, and another may be able to name his ABCs, colors and shapes, at two and a half.

The point is that children don't learn at the same rate. Given the same environment and the same intelligence, one child may learn slower than the other one for reasons of personality and individual interests. They may learn things you didn't expect them to learn because you didn't expect them to be interested in that.

Preschoolers need an environment where they can not only learn but also play. In fact they learn many things by playing. They need to play with other children in order to learn to share and play fairly. If you don't have other children or children next door for them to socialize with they don't have the chance to learn these social skills. As a parent you can teach these skills, but children need a chance to use their social skills.

If you don't have other children or neighbor children around, the best way for your child to learn social skills is to enroll them in a pre-K class. When they were little they learned and played with you. They watched their environment and that's what got them started, but now they need to figure out how to interact with kids there own age.

Hiring a tutor for your preschooler instead of putting him in a class full of kids his own age is only going to hold him back when he starts school. He may know the entire kindergarten curriculum, but he won't know how to ask the kids if he can play with them. This can in turn make him not want to play with the other kids either out of choice to be alone like always, or out of being too shy to approach the kids at the dress up corner. This in turn could unravel everything he learned because he may be too scared to function.

The best thing for him is playing and leaning through play. That is how children have been learning for hundreds of years, and it works.