Sending your child to daycare is a big parenting milestone. With so many factors to consider, choosing the perfect daycare centre can be an overwhelming task for any parent.
The fact that you’ll be leaving your most precious person under the care of strangers is more than enough to make you uneasy. But there’s no need to worry. Good quality daycare centres provide an engaging, amicable, and safe environment for kids.
If you want to ensure that you go with the best possible day care centre for your child, here are four research tips to keep in mind when searching for one!
- Start your search early.
Finding the best daycare centre in your area can take a bit of legwork. Having a proactive approach and starting your search early will put you in a better position to secure a high-quality daycare centre when needed.
Also, research suggests that starting child care early can be highly beneficial for your child’s upbringing by promoting positive behaviours and leading to higher academic performance later in life.
If you live in a small town, finding the perfect daycare centre will be difficult due to limited options.
On the other hand, if you live in a large city, you’ll find that daycare search can be just as difficult because many high-quality centres have large waiting lists or are full.
That’s why we recommend you start looking for a centre at least two months before you plan to return to work.
- Always take a centre tour, meet the staff, and learn about all the programs being offered.
If you’ve narrowed down your options, consider visiting the selected daycares in person to find the one that meets most of your requirements.
Visiting in person can be a good way for parents to get in touch with the daycare’s staff and learn about the centre’s learning policies.
Make sure to ask whether the centre has set approaches to learning (for example, Australia implements a nation-wide framework that clearly indicates important principles of early childhood learning) – broad guidelines like these ensure that all children receive the same quality of education.
Don’t be afraid to ask about the qualifications and experience of teachers. You can also ask if the daycare is affiliated with leading child care authorities like the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) or the National Association of Family Child Care (NAFCC).
Daycares with such affiliations are more committed to providing high-quality childcare than those centres that aren’t accredited.
Visiting the daycare centre will also help you get a better feel of the indoor and outdoor environments on campus and how the team is supporting the development, learning, and wellbeing of children.
Simply looking at the interactions between the daycare team and children can tell you a lot about how good the staff is. Are the educators playing with the children? Or are they all isolated at one side, talking with each other?
Just remember to trust your gut. If anything about the daycare seems odd to you during the visit, it probably isn’t the best place for your child.
Also, consider dropping by unannounced at least once before finalizing your choice to get a more accurate picture of the centre. You should be careful about centres that don’t allow you to drop by unannounced.
Lastly, if a daycare centre you’re interested in offers “drop in” and “stay and play” daycare services, consider using them to experience the environment at the centre.
This can be an excellent way for you to stay at the centre with your kid and experience first-hand how they interact with other children, teachers, and the environment, which can help you easily decide if the daycare is the right fit for your child.
Here’s a comprehensive guide on the questions you must ask during your visit to a daycare centre.
- Remain flexible with your days at the start.
If you’ve finally found the perfect daycare centre but can’t get the days you’d like, try to be a bit flexible for some time. This is better than spending more time searching for another good quality centre.
Once your child is within the care of a centre, the directors often give you preference over families on the waitlist, which helps you secure your preferred days as soon as spots open up.
With that being said, you should always seek consecutive days of daycare rather than alternating days.
This is because consecutive days help build up a healthy routine for children, allow them to interact and have fun with the same group of children, and result in better learning outcomes.
- Don’t forget to check references.
Always be sure to take the time to call current and former clients of a centre to figure out how satisfied they and their children are with it.
Because as tempting as it may be to rely on testimonials that daycares flaunt, many are edited (or sometimes even fake).
You can also get reviews of a centre from close friends, relatives, or other parents at work. And these are some of the most reliable reviews you’ll ever get.
If you don’t have anyone that can give you reviews (and recommendations) in your social circle, try asking the parents you meet in the paediatrician’s office or at the kid’s playground.
You can also try using your online Yellow Pages for a list of daycare centres near you. Print a copy of all the listings and use sites like Yelp to find reviews for them.
Finally, before you start reading reviews, read this article to know what the perfect daycare centre looks like!
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