Sooner or later, your little one will have to leave the nest for school. If they’ve already been going to daycare for a while by the time preschool or kindergarten rolls around, the transition of leaving home for the day will be easier. Not only that, but children who attended daycare perform better when they get to school. A 2016 study found that by age 5, kids who attended formal childcare programs had stronger reading and math skills compared to kids who attended informal, home-based care programs.

Daycare offers a great opportunity for your kids to socialize at a young age, and in turn, it can help them learn communication skills as well. A study in 2013 found that kids in daycare have an improved ability to “adjust their non-verbal communication to take into account the age of the person they are playing with,” according to Science Daily, likely because they’ve been more exposed to kids of different ages.

While it may seem like kids constantly pick up bugs while in daycare, those kids will get a reprieve later in life. A study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine showed that kids who attend large-group childcare centers before age 3.5 get more respiratory and ear infections than those cared for at home, but they are less likely to get them once they enter elementary school.

While there’s never a good time for your child to feel unwell, the argument can be made that it’s less convenient once being sick means missing school, and thus crucial learning.

Children in daycare were more willing to try nutritious foods when daycare staff members sat with them and ate the same food, according to a study in the Journal of Nutrition and Dietetics. It also helped when those daycare staff talked with the kids about the healthy foods they were eating. A willingness to try more foods while they’re younger can pay off over time when parents try to introduce those foods in meals later on.