Why enroll in a Pre-School, As soon a possible!

Pre-school comprises of Pre-nursery (for kids aged 1.5-2.5 yrs), Nursery (2.5-3.5), KG-1 (3.5-4.5), KG-2 (4.5-5.5). So that's a whole 4 years before a child begins 'serious' education, ie STD 1!

The pre-nursery that he enrolled in has half hour of indoor play (playdoh, blocks, jumping around), half hour of outdoor play (cars, tricycles, running around), half hour of circle time (sitting on  mat in a circle singing rhymes with hand actions), some time for animated rhymes shown on the computer (usually at the end, while parents start picking up kids), some time for tiffin, arts & crafts, books, and so on. They also have sports day, annual day, and field trips.

I am fully aware that it's not very necessary, that we can directly put him in nursery after a year, and my own whole attitude towards academics had been quite flippant when I was a part of it. But my reasons for enrolling him right away (he's 1.5 now, 20 months to be precise) are far from hopes of “nurturing an academic genius":

Making friends. In Jakarta there were way too many children in our building itself who would meet and play everyday in the recreational area and would drop into each others homes frequently. Here I see only older kids playing ball etc on the street (toddlers safely tucked at home?)

The messy stuff. I was thrilled when he was made to tear crepe paper and stick it to a paper plate, roll playdoh, eat with a fork on his own, try his hands on crayons, blow bubbles! I am hesitant to allow such things at home (5 mins of fun = 20 mins of cleaning up!) But being in school he isn't missing out on the fun!

Learning new things. For eg I've been singing rhymes since the day he was born, but all the "actions" associated with the wordings were introduced at school!

The structure, the discipline. Right now the world’s his oyster, he's allowed to do whatever, whenever. I need some amount of discipline instilled in him, the discipline to sit on a chair for circle time with his teacher and classmates for a whole twenty minutes, or sit and eat his tiffin without running around. I believe a little here and there will go a long way.

Me time for mommy. Yes pls take him away! Even if it's for just two hours! I need to have some me time! Even if those two hours are spent on mundane chores, let there be that little amount of time when he's not glued to me!! (I plan to take membership of nearby library, make hay till I stay jobless!)

(YES enrol in a ‘brick & mortar’ library and borrow 'physical' books like I did when I was  child. I'm just feddup of my child hogging the iPad every time I take it out! I've kissed kindle good bye for a while)