Choosing the right daycare for your infant child involves considering a lot of different things that you might not have thought of. You have to identify your priorities depending on what’s best for your child and you, and then actually go looking for daycares that meet all your needs. Remember, in situations like these, your gut feeling is important! Leaving your children at a daycare can be daunting, and rightfully so, but it’s not always a bad idea. Infant care facilities can be good for kids as well, and convenient for the parents.
Identify Priorities
Since your child is still an infant, you have to weigh the pros and cons of sending them to a daycare versus keeping them home. This will depend on the needs of your child, and how much you can afford to stay home as compared to heading out for work. If your child can attend daycare, you will also have to choose between a group daycare and homecare. While homecare can have its benefits, group daycare is often much more convenient and is state-licensed so you can be sure of the quality of their caregiving. When considering priorities, you would also need to think about the cost of the facility, as well as the distance it would be from your workplace or home.
Research
Once you’ve decided what you want in a daycare for your infant, you should start looking. Good daycares will get good recommendations from other parents, so ask around from those who you know have a similar parenting style and priorities as you. List down all the daycares you find. It’s best that you look for accredited facilities, and referral agencies can help you out with this as well. Of course, you would still need to narrow down your list further. So, once you have all the names and numbers, you should call each of these daycares and ask them about their hours or prices to see which ones are suitable for you.
Once you’ve found the daycares best suited for you in terms of convenience, here comes the most important part: the daycare environment.
While daycares provide you with a lot of conveniences, the main goal is to find a daycare that can adequately care for your child and provide them with all the things they need to have healthy growth, such as a good environment and adult caregivers.
Ask about the curriculum that addresses your child’s development, as well as making sure that your child is allowed to learn through playing and exploring. You would want to find out about the learning environment as well, and make sure that it isn’t too restrictive or not restrictive enough either. Your child’s freedom is important, but so is their independence.
You should drop in for a surprise visit to the daycare to see if they follow through on their claims. You want your child to be in safe hands, so taking a few extra steps to confirm that your daycare is the right one is important!
At Mt. Elizabeth Academy, we give the well-being of the children under our care top priority. Our teachers and staff are selected carefully to make sure your child is provided with the best learning environment.
