What did you look for in your daycare/preschool? What covid protocols ?

Question

What did you look for when you found your daycare/preschool? What made you say this is the one for us? What kind of covid protocols does your place use? 
New to it all so I’d love some pointers on what to look for and what to avoid. 
Besides the basics of cost, hours, convenient location, I’d love your thoughts......
We are starting to look for a daycare/preschool for our March boy. He’s 21m and little brother is 3m. Now that I’m back to work from my second maternity leave, our family member who has watched our first is watching both. Overall it’s going well but he could definitely use some more stimulation and socializing with other kids his age.  No cousins and social distancing for various safety reasons from our friends who have kids his age so he has no playmates really. And baby brother is only 3m so not playing yet.

Answer

We've had a great experience at a daycare center. Some big factors for us in choosing a larger center over an in-home daycare were reliability, as well as having more kids her age to interact with. I love that they have real teachers and follow an age-appropriate curriculum too. That said, I strongly considered in-home daycares when we were first looking, as they seemed more personal and intimate. However, once I got to know the teachers at the center, and saw how they interacted with my girl, I really had no concerns. My center also has an app they use to give us frequent updates throughout the day, and they have live camera feeds. With COVID, they've done a great job establishing and following rigorous safety protocols. 
Since I don't actually have experience with in-home daycares, I can't say if it's better or worse... but what I can say is that the experience I have had at a larger center has been very positive. Hope this helps! 🙂

Answer

My mom does daycare out of her home, and did throughout my childhood, and that is where my son is. If my mom didn’t still do daycare or wasn’t an option for some reason, I’d still probably chose an in home daycare. I’m sure centers can be good, but I know how much the employees in a center make (the ones actually caring for my child), I know the general turnover and classroom changes, and I know some of the general “policies.” When my son was two months or so and wasn’t sleeping, a woman I know who works in an infant room at a daycare center was like, if the baby is fed, clean, and it’s nap time; they put them in the crib and let them cry. Hard pass from me.

Answer

I work at his school so that was big. We all have some sort of degrees in childcare, liscensing requirements, and cameras. We also have an app that logs lesson plans, what they eat, diapers, and pictures on a daily log. All staff wear masks, no parents past the front desk to control who goes in and out during covid along with health checks. We also don’t cross staff in rooms for less chance of contact with covid.

Answer

We choose a home daycare. We checked out a facility but it felt way too systematic - not enough love and carefree time. I know some people prefer the other but we felt more at home with an at home daycare where we knew she would get more attention, be able to have downtime or bad days and be comforted, etc. Could definitely have just been the facility we saw (don't want to discount the good ones out there).

What did you look for in your daycare/preschool? What covid protocols ?

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