5 Things To Consider When Choosing A Daycare

Daycare

If you’re thinking of sending your child to a daycare there are some factors you need to take into consideration. These 5 useful tips will help you make a smart decision.

Look down

This is the first and most important step you need to take care of when you are choosing a day care for your child. Once you visit a potential day care that you are considering, make sure you pay close attention to how the staff talks and interacts with the children. You should be looking for a caregiver that is patient and knows how to talk to kids. It should be a caregiver that knows how to deal with a crying kid patiently and with kindness.

You want your baby to be taken care of by someone who is warm and responsive. Even if you are signing your baby up for a group care, your child should still be able to get that quality one-on-on time with their caregiver. In the early stages of life, babies need a lot of attention and love. That is why you need to make sure your baby is going somewhere where caregivers provide a lot of attention, care, and patience to the babies.

Ask for a commitment

Apart from needing constant attention and love, babies also need consistent ad predictable care. The babies need to form secure attachments and receive constant care from their caregivers. Switching too many caregivers will be very complicated and your child won’t be able to form that secure bond they need. That is why you need to ask for at least one-year commitment if you plan on going for an in-home caregiver.

The person you are hiring should be able to commit to at least one year of working for you. If they’re not able to do so, you need to keep looking until you find someone who is ready to make that commitment. On the other hand, if you’re thinking of sending your kid to a nursery care centre, ask around and try to find out how long the current caregivers have been working and how often the centre experiences turnovers. This information alone will tell you all you need to know.

Do a policy check

After you’ve covered these past two steps, it’s time for you to do a policy check on the potential day care centres. First of all, you need to find out if the staff shares the same parenting values and philosophies with you. For instance, how do they handle disciplines? What methods do they use for disciplines? Do they use time-outs, any forms of scolding, or something else? How do they treat TV time? Is the TV always on or do they take breaks?

How do they approach feeding? Do they offer snacks and drinks in between big meals throughout the day? How do their sleeping schedules work? Are naps offered and if yes, when? How do they deal with fussy babies that refuse to go to sleep? These are all of the questions you need to ask before deciding on a child care centre you are going to send your child to.

In addition to that, you also need to ask about their back-up plan in case the caregiver, whether in a centre or at home, gets sick and isn’t able to come to work. It’s important to ask these questions early on. You need to know where you are sending your child and if they’re going to be taken care of accordingly to their needs.

Drop by and spy

Getting second-hand opinions from other parents and numerous trusted sources may be helpful. However, it’s not enough. In order to fully grasp and understand the environment you are sending your child into, you need to take a look at a place yourself and determine if it’s what your child needs. First of all, a child care centre needs to have good hygiene. The place needs to be kept clean, child proofed and well stocked with toys and books the kids will use during their play time.

The smaller toys that can easily be chewed and accidentally swallowed should be kept away from the younger babies. This is why smaller babies need to have their own separate space, away from older kids who can play with these toys. The room needs to be spacious so that kids can move around freely and there should be no sharp objects that can potentially harm the kids. The ground needs to be semi-soft so that even when the kids stumble, they don’t take a hard fall to the ground.

If you get a chance, try to visit the same child care centres multiple times in the day. This will allow you to see how the staff interacts with the kids and what their usual routine is. You can also visit unannounced a few times after you have already enrolled your kid to make sure that everything is going fine. Sometimes, your unannounced visits will just be a reassurance, but sometimes they may open your eyes and make you change your mind.

Keep talking

Before your kid learns how to talk, you will have to rely on what the caregiver tells you about your child’s day. That is why you need to develop a healthy communication with the caregiver. The conversation goes the both ways. You need to seek information but also provide it. When you’re dropping your kid off at the centre, tell the caregiver about how your kid slept last night and if the kid needs any extra care that day. When you’re picking your kid up from the centre make sure to ask how their day went, if they napped, and so on.

Conclusion

In conclusion, when picking a day care for your child you need to consider the environment and the people who are working there. These are some of the useful tips that will help you make that decision