The Child Care Center Visit: What To Look For And Questions To Ask
How can an in-person visit help you to learn more about your toddler or preschooler's future child care center? You're searching for the best daycare in your area. But you're not sure which one is the right choice. Take a look at the center visit checklist that can help you to pick the best program for your toddler or preschool-aged child.
Safety-Related Questions
Child care services are early learning environments. But these programs provide much more than your child's first steps into school. Centers offer care, comfort, supervision, and support to young children while their parents are away. To maintain the best level of care, any center you choose for your child should have high safety standards.
Licensed daycare centers must follow the state's or other licensing agency's rules for health and safety practices. These may vary slightly by area, but all should include policies for sick children, injury/accident reporting, cleaning the interior and exterior of the building, adequate supervision, food/food handling, immunizations, fire safety, and emergency management.
While you won't see every element of the center's safety or health protocols on display during your visit, you can ask a staff member or the director. Even though safety measures such as health records or immunizations aren't something you would notice during a visit, you should see supervision types of safety measures.
The U.S. Administration for Children and Families Office of Child Care recommends a ratio of one adult for every four toddlers, one adult for every seven three-year-olds, and one adult for every eight preschoolers ages four and five years. If you don't see this level of supervision, talk to the center's staff about the room ages and ratios.
Classroom-Related Questions
Safety isn't the only thing to look for in the classrooms. You also want to make sure that your child's future center has a stimulating educational environment. As you tour the school, look for classrooms that include child-sized furniture, easy-to-access reading materials, plenty of print on the walls (such as posters, artwork, and signs), engaging materials/toys, and space for gross motor (physical) play times.
Curriculum-Related Questions
How will the children use the items and equipment that you see in the classrooms? You should get to see at least some of the center's curriculum in action during a school visit. This could include an art activity, science experiment, block play period, story time, or other classroom lessons. Along with what you see, ask questions about the curriculum. The educators can help you to understand what the children do daily, learning expectations, and overall content-related goals.
Contact a local child care center to learn more, like Park Lake Presbyterian Child Care Center.