Things To Look For When Scouting A New Daycare!

Signing your child up for daycare can be a scary thing. Where do you start? What do you look for? How do you know which center would best fit your child? These are some of the questions most parents ask when looking for a childcare center.

Hopefully, these tips and tricks can help prepare you on what to look for and ask when touring a potential center. 

What is the first thing you do when trying to find a place to eat or when you want to see the accommodations of the hotel you're staying at? You look at the website! And just like restaurants or hotels, childcare centers have websites too. Viewing the website is easy to see what different centers offer without leaving your house. It is also an excellent way to look at the reviews of current and past parents. Looking at other parents' opinions can help you visualize some pros and cons or can help you create a list of questions to ask when you tour the childcare center. Parents might feel hesitant to have their child start at a facility that does not have a website or whose website is not up to date. 

A Professional Web Presence! 

After scouring the internet and choosing a center you think would be a good fit for your child, the obvious next step would be to schedule a visit to see the facility in person. This is the time to look, listen, and ask all the questions on your mind. 

Here are some suggestions if you need clarification on what to look for, listen for, or ask. When arriving at a new childcare center, you make first impressions of what you see. So, when you are looking around and taking in the space, do you see how it's organized and if it's clean? What is the classroom layout like? Do you notice anyone hygiene signs around the daycare stating the procedures of things like handwashing? You can pay attention to these things while walking around and seeing them without asking about them. 

Most likely, you will be visiting a site on an active day. This will help you learn what a typical day for your child will look like. One thing you can listen for is how you notice how teachers speak to the students. Do you hear laughter and playfulness? How is the communication amongst the staff? Most people may not be aware of how these sounds are important to how a child who is more sensitive to sound might react to these everyday sounds.