Preschool/Daycare Questions

kayohh

How many days a week is he/she in daycare/preschool?

How many hours?

Questions to ask-

Why did you pick your child's Preschool/Daycare?

Super nervous about visiting preschool in 2 weeks-

TIA

hmp1

M-F about 9-5:30.

At this age, I would ask to see a couple months worth of menus if they provide food, how they go about potty training, when do they move kids up (do they follow birthday, milestones, school year), what days is the school closed for holidays/in-service/vacation, do they do field trips that would require the child to be put in a car/van, do they offer automatic spots for siblings. If a center type: ask about teacher and student retention. If in-home, ask about how they handle the teacher/owner being sick/family emergency.

They should show you their daily communication sheet sent home with the kids every day, show you all the rooms not just the one he will be in now, tell you about the curriculum and special activities they do with the kids.

We have been in the daycare world for 3.5 years now and have attended 4 different schools. I have my likes and dislikes but the most important thing to me is the feeling I get about the school. The school we go to now had simple infant room things that were important to me: changing table facing the room and not the wall, fun toys like jumperoo, climbing mats, covered playground with foam type flooring, sign language and early curriculum. The preschool room starts at age 2 and they enter into the weekly learning activities - M: spanish class, Tu: computer class, Wed: science experiment, Th: KidFit class, F: community special guest. They do tons of other regular stuff like art, music, writing, reading every day too. My favorite thing about our school (outside of the teachers, whom I love love love) is that they do a family style breakfast every morning in the cafegymatorium. I have met many of the parents this way and my kids and I get a good hot breakfast every morning without me having to cook. I also really like that they have a big open room in the middle of the school so the kids can get out of the classroom even on rainy days.

elizabethwig

- 4 days a week
- about 8-8.5 hrs a day

- I picked it because it was a university run daycare that was less than 3 minutes from my lab. We put her on the wait list when I was 3 months pregnant and she started there (after being in another daycare) in July of this year. It's a large center with lots of kids. I was worried that she wouldn't be old enough to appreciate having so many people around (she was previously only with 1 or 2 other kids), but she loves it. She talks about her friends at daycare all the time and lights up when she sees them. The teachers are wonderful and there's very little turnover in staff - they mostly just leave for mat leave and then come back. I asked about basics: security, schedules, activities they do, teaching philosophy and discipline strategies, meals, etc

Holly_1007

The boys are in a program MWF mornings from 9-11:30. We toured almost every preschool in our area. I SAH with them, so it was really important that they have a structured environment, music and swimming lessons was a plus. When touring I asked about the teachers a lot, how long they had been there, what (if any) their degrees were in and their certifications. I asked about security measures, how they handled discipline and curriculum, and how they handled sick children. We ended up choosing our center based on the extras, curriculum and teachers, but really I just got a "feeling" when I was there, that this was the right choice.

hmp1

I would also ask about parent/teacher conferences. If they don't already have them set up, how easy is it to schedule one. I find it really hard to have an actual conversation with the teacher during pick-up/drop off. Since I do a late pick-up, I never see his teacher in the evenings.

smb+jab

How many days a week is he/she in daycare/preschool?

He goes Tues.-Fri. about 730/800 am (DH does drop so the time varies) to about 400 or 430pm

How many hours?

 about 8 hours a day - I usually never get him later than 430 unless i have an after work appt. that runs over.  They have snack time at 315 so if i get him at 330 its too early!

We have him at a Goddard School and they bill by days per month not by hours so that is nice, our school also doesn't have a policy in which they charge x$ per min if you are late.  I know we did visit some schools that did.  That is a question I would ask, as it was one I asked when we toured.

Questions to ask-

Most of the places we visited provided us with a package of information on their programs and what they taught, but if they don't i would request to see a sample of what they are teaching, do they have a monthly or weekly theme?  Ask for a copy of the daily schedule (it should be the same - stating story time, art, lunch, nap time, snack time etc). I was interested in if they incorporated sign language for the little ones and foreign languages for when he was older in addition to core curriculum.  We also wanted him to have a mix of learning and play so a place that offered him both.  Ask to see all the rooms while you are there - i thought it helped to see where he would move too.

When do they move rooms (age, when they show signs of being ready? at certain time point; fall, summer)? And how are they grouped (at my sons school they have some transition rooms that they are in for six months so the age ranges are tighter ie. 12mn -18mn)?  how many kids are in a room?  Ratio of students to teachers?

Regarding food:  Do they provide lunches, snacks?  What do they provide (they could have menu or way of determining it)  For ours they have very strict nutritional standards that they have to meet; so they can have veggies straws as they meet the nutritional criteria but cheese-its do not.

Other things i asked about was the flexibility of drop off and pick ups because as i mentioned some we visited did charge if you were late (something that coworker advised me to ask and i was glad i did - some places charged as much as five dollars for five minutes).  

Why did you pick your child's Preschool/Daycare?

We toured just about every school in the area when I was pregnant as we really had no clue as to where we wanted to go.  And found that even one Goddard was not like the next, despite having the same core curriculum.  One of the reasons we picked ours was location but the others would have worked too, but ours had those extras that just made it a special place we wanted to send our child. They seemed to go the extra mile with bringing in special teachers (art, music, yoga) and activities (tumbling, puppet shows) for the older kids, the program itself incorporated sign language and Spanish, they potty trained  at school (verses us having to have him potty trained to move to the next room, meaning he wouldn't get left behind if he wasn't picking it up right away).  there was also just a feel we got for this place.  We met a lot people at various places and this one just felt right.  And so far i could not be happier with our choice and my son seems to be loving it there.  he seems have gotten himself four girlfriends so i guess he's good.  

 I hope that helps