Think of your preschooler’s mind as a sponge, just waiting to expand as your child learns. While structured learning doesn’t start until Kindergarten, the years leading up to this are just as important for your child’s mental development. Neural pathways are still forming in the brain and the more you challenge your child intellectually right now, the more of these pathways in the brain will form – making it easier for him to learn for the rest of his life.