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Working Moms
aubergebride
member
How did you pick your daycare?
aubergebride
member
in Working Moms
I am anxious about going back to work. I have a space at a daycare that many of co workers attend. Everyone at my work is very happy and there children are well adjusted. I just dont feel great about any place. Obvious no one will love him like I do. What makes you feel at ease about leaving your LO in their daycare?
This discussion has been closed.
Re: How did you pick your daycare?
Time. After a few weeks at the center, I knew they were doing as good a job caring for her as I would do.
If you have referals to this place, I'd say try it. You can always change centers if you decide it's not the right fit for you. And by then you will know what you like and don't like in a center. Sounds like he'll be close to your office, which is convenient.
I bet you will be surprised how much your child is loved at day care. People don't go into that field if they don't love children. I never worry about DD not being loved there. I admit no one loves her like I do, but they sure love her as if she was their own.
Good luck!
met DH 1995 ~ married DH 2006 ~ completed our family 2008
Life is good!
met DH 1995 ~ married DH 2006 ~ completed our family 2008
Life is good!
1. I looked at the county website to find out which daycares in my area were Gold Seal accredited.
2. I asked my friends who are teachers which daycares all the teachers send their kids to. My parents are both elementary teacherswith specialist (higher than master's) degrees in early childhood education (my dad is a counselor), my mom has been a K teacher for 30+ years, and says that there is a huge difference between the kids who go to the better preschools and the ones who don't.
3. I asked my parents to come with me to check out the preschools. I went to a gifted preschool so their standards are really high. They could check for a lot of things that I didn't even know were important for teaching young children.
4. For the infant room, I evaluated how much attention each baby got and how much the teachers interacted with them, in some they were just going through the motions.
I was researching daycares for a year before I started to TTC, so I feel comfortable with my decision! I wanted a school that was going to teach her the most and be the most "school" like, rather than just be a place for LO to play all day.
DD -- 5YO
DS -- 3YO
Ours had excellent reviews on our local homeowners board, plus my gut just told me it was a great place! On our first visit, I told DH, this is it!! We checked out a few others, and I just couldn't see leaving DD there.
Our situation is a bit different, too - we ended up not being able to get into our first choice so had to go w/ our 2nd choice. The entire year that DD was there, I found myself second guessing things and having issues. Now that we're in the "first choice" place, I never have any doubts. She is SO happy there and has friends. Plus, they seem to get all the kids engaged in activities, regardless of age.
I think the fact that your co-workers' kids are happy and well adjusted is a very positive sign!
If you can, I really recommend spending some time at the daycare center with your LO before they are actually enrolled. I did this and it was huge for my peace of mind just to really get to know the staff and kind of the rhythm of the day. I have a pretty good idea of what's going on when I'm not there, and that makes a big difference for me.
We picked our current center for DS b/c DD was already attending there. We are crazy about this place, and feel like we found a goldmine. However, I had the advantage of having 2 years of experience with a child attending this school, and I knew a lot of the teachers and the philosophy.
When DD was an infant, she attended a different center. We were basically down to 2 options (from about 6 that we toured) and made the final choice based mostly on their policies (at the time, we both had long holiday breaks--I needed a place that had a generous vacation policy), and general overall feel. The place that we did not choose was slightly older, and I felt like it was not as bright and open. The center that we went with was bright, had one main hallway, and huge windows into every classroom. Oh, and there was art all over the walls, and that was important to me. One of the art projects was a Paddington Bear project, and that sort of sealed the deal--I LOVE PB. It is a dumb way to make the final choice, but sometimes it really is the little details that make the difference. That was 5 years ago, and I still remember those Paddington Bears on the wall. I can easily say that while she was an infant it completely lived up to our expectations. We ended up having some issues when she moved up to the toddler room, which resulted in us moving her to another center.
HTH.