Intro and Question about Infants in Daycare (long)

JaiKriBaby

Hi ladies! I'm Kristen and I just went back to work last Monday.  I'm happy to be back, but of course I miss my little boy.  The adjustment to daycare has been difficult for both of us, but this week has been much easier.  I'm fortunate enough to be able to go nurse him at lunch.  It helps to get to know the providers and helps both of us make the transition.  Anyway, I've been lurking for a bit and you ladies are wonderful! Hopefully I can contribute to the board as well.

Here I go with my first question.  Should I expect the daycare providers to be doing any activities with my son?  When I first signed him up for this center, they claimed to have activities they do with the infants (a curriculum) throughout the day.  However, both my DH and I have popped in at several different times and they are never doing any activities and I know they don't do anything because I see it on the webcam from work.  The smaller infants are always in bouncy seats, swings, or their cribs.  The bigger infants are always playing with each other or by themselves.  I don't expect them to always carry my son or entertain him because they have 11 infants to care for (4 providers), but I'm curious if there are any centers that manage to do any sort of curriculum with small infants.  There is a new center that just opened up in our area (a franchise) and they claim to have lesson plans for the smaller infants. 

I know I'm rambling, but I'm just wondering if I can expect anything more from the daycare than meeting my son's basic needs.  I'm happy with the care they are providing him and don't necessarily need them to actively "teach" him anything.  I guess I'm just curious if they can offer more, but don't. 

I haven't raised this with the daycare because I'm still trying to determine whether my "reason gauge" is off because I'm a new mom and not thinking quite clearly all the time.

TIA for any input you have!

haleymay18

I would think they would have some activities for infants. Granted, there might not be a lot they can do with them considering how young they are but I would hope they would do some reading & a lot of interaction other than sitting in a bouncy or swing all day.

My lo is at home with my mom so our situation is a little different buy my MIL is a dcp in her home and she is always very busy playing with the infants as well as the older kids.

JaiKriBaby

haleymay18:

I would think they would have some activities for infants. Granted, there might not be a lot they can do with them considering how young they are but I would hope they would do some reading & a lot of interaction other than sitting in a bouncy or swing all day.

My lo is at home with my mom so our situation is a little different buy my MIL is a dcp in her home and she is always very busy playing with the infants as well as the older kids.

This is what I was thinking.  I'm torn because they are so loving and he seems well taken care of, but I'm fairly certain he spends most, if not all, of the day in a bouncy seat or swing. 

trinny

I'm not sure-- I think what you are describing is pretty typical.  As an infant, when I checked on DD, she was in the bouncy, swing, exersaucer, etc.  But they did work with her on sitting up, crawling, pulling to standing, eating babyfood, tablefood, etc probably once a day.  They also have "circle time" where they put them in a circle and play or sing a song.  She was ahead on all her milestones, and i think it was daycare and just watching the other kids.

Maybe ask to see the cirriculum again and try to find out if they are doing activities that maybe you just aren't seeing?  

molldoll71

I wouldn't expect them to have a curriculum per se for infants but I would expect them to be interacting with the children and rocking them and reading to them. 

JaiKriBaby

Thank you.  I will casually ask them today at lunch what kinds of things they do to interact with the infants.  Of course I don't watch the webcam all day, so I'm sure I'm missing things. 

aglenn

I know my center definitely has an infant curriculum and they do a lot of activities.  Of course, they are age appropriate things, so an "activity" may be something like playing with bubbles or going to see the fish tank.    The babies love it, though.  My center also does not have swings, bouncy seats, etc. because that's against their philosophy.  It's a Bright Horizons center, they are nationwide so check one out if you're interested.  It's crazy expensive, but DD really likes the extra interaction and stimulation so we suck it up on the cost.

xmasbabymama

My center claims to do curriculum with the kids and I thought it was a little suspect. But a few months ago, DD started coming home with "art projects" and I wondered if the teachers just made them, but I did an early pickup one day and the older kids were all at the table painting. Or really, they were supposed to be painting, but one kid spilled it all over himself, so it was sort of a crisis.

I think they probably do activities, but the activities they have planned really don't take that long and the care of 11 children under 1 is pretty labor intensive, so it's a short part of their day. Like an activity is flicking the lights on and off, which is pretty cool for kids, but they probably only do it for 5-10 minutes or so. And bouncing the ball around, but the attention span is short, so they go back to the managed chaos sort of thing.

AlisaS

It would be absolutely unacceptable to me to leave my kids in a daycare where they spent all day in any sort of contraption.

Kids need stimulation and to be held and talked to and to be on the floor moving their bodies together with the other babies and with  the caregivers on the floor with them.

Not OK.

mrsgin03

aglenn:

  My center also does not have swings, bouncy seats, etc. because that's against their philosophy.  It's a Bright Horizons center, they are nationwide so check one out if you're interested.  It's crazy expensive, but DD really likes the extra interaction and stimulation so we suck it up on the cost.

My older DD was in a BH as an infant and I LOVED it. I agree that if you have a BH in your area, you should check it out, I think they do a phenomenal job with their infants, at least from my experience.

Where we live now, there isn't a BH close, so we put them in a small, local center (not a chain). Overall, I'm happy with it, although I felt older DD got a little more "education" from BH than my younger DD is getting at this place. However, she is the youngest baby in the room (she's 5 months, most of the other ones are more like 10-12 months) and I know they try to include her as much as possible. Like when the older kids are doing a project, one of the teachers will hold DD sitting at the table so she can somewhat participate. And they always mention to me how well DD is rolling, sitting up, etc, so I know she gets a lot of floor time. Unlike BH, they do have a bouncy seat and an exersaucer, and DD is often in the exersaucer when I pick her up. However, that's a really busy time of the day so I can understand them putting her in there when they are getting other kids ready to go home. She loves it anyway, it's not like she's in there crying, then I would be upset.

 One thing I do love about our new center that BH was not good about is they take the infants outside every day as long as it's not raining or less then 32 degrees (we're in MA, so unfort. they haven't gotten out much in the past few weeks!) There were only a handful of days my older DD went outside as an infant at BH, I think because there were so many more babies, all on different schedules, it was hard to get them out. Now that we're in the smaller center with a max of 3 babies in the room, they take them out every day.

SBMBride406

Our center had a curriculum for the infants. Honestly, it may be more for the teacher's sanity than the children's, but every month they have a new color, animal, theme of the month and they do age appropriate activites in relation to the month. They also had a specific amount of time per day the kids could be in an exersaucer, swing, etc. I would drop in there at all different times and unless everyone was napping, they were either on the floor with the babies, rocking them in the chair, or had them at the table reading to them, feeding them or doing an art project. They also have 4 baby strollers, and they take them for walks (even in the winter, they walk them in the hallway, take them down to the gym, etc).

Your infant definately needs stimulation and it is completely reasonable to expect that!

worleygirl

My son started at the Goddard School when he was about 5 months old.  They do activities and always have.  I get "paintings" and a sheet every day listing out what he did that day.  They sit in a circle and sing songs, touch different textures, play with water, etc.  I would not be ok with him sitting alone in any type of device.  That said, I would ask the Director before you assume they are not.  GL! 

Pesky

My expectations aren't huge.  I know that when we first started, they worked with him on tummy time and now with tummy time, are encouraged movement/crawling by trying to make him reach for toys.  They also worked with him on strengthening his core to help sit up and are working with him on solids and sippy.  Beyond that, I honestly don't expect too much more.  It's tough enough with tending to babies' needs to try and do more beyond that.  But I would expect at least that much though.  I know from experience that more things like signing and teaching happen in the toddler rooms after 1 year and I'm fine with that.

ETA:  Oh and yes, they do do art projects with the older infants.

JaiKriBaby

Thank you all for the wonderful feedback.  I'm going to speak to the director and do some more research. 

lewis514

Our infant room does have a curriculum that is developed and they do follow it. The level of participation is based on the child's age. So when my daughter started, she did a lot more obversation of the activities. Now, she actively does the activities. They read books, do art projects (fingerpaint, macaroni art), sing songs and do tactile/physical activities. I pick her up at different times of the day and have seen them doing the activities. They are also required to change activities every 15 minutes. So they may be doing an art project then playing with a toy then eating, etc. The curriculum and weekly themes are on the daily sheets each day.

erbear

Disclaimer: my daughter wasn't in daycare until she was 8 months and fairly mobile/independent.

At 2 months, I think it's reasonable that your child will be in a bouncer or swing for most of the day...he can't do much else, and with 3 kids each to watch, they can't really carry him around all the time.  At that age, Kate loved to just sit and look at things...that's what we did at home as well!

However, if the older babies (6+ months) aren't doing anything either, I'd start to be concerned. At K's daycare, they do sing and read books, but the kids also do a fair amount of playing with each other and by themselves.

At 2 months,I'd be most concerned that his needs were being met!