The first few years of a child’s life are the most crucial in terms of retaining and understanding new information. For instance, toddlers develop roughly 1,000 trillion brain cell connections by the time they reach age 3. This is two times as many as average adults have in their own brains. Children need to be placed in stimulating, social environments where both their intellectual and social skills can grow and flourish. While many parents begin formal schooling for their children in preschool, day cares provide an exciting, earlier start to the development and nurturing of abilities that your child will carry for the rest of his/her life.
When wondering how to find a good day care, it is important to keep these ideas in mind:
1. Education starts at home. Parents who help their children to learn how to master simple tasks such as brushing hair or putting on clothes will better prepare their child for their entrance into the world of daycare. Encouraging your child to be self-sufficient early on will foster their personal growth and happiness in many beneficial ways.
2. When choosing a daycare, many parents get caught up in the debate between private child care vs. public. While public schools can indeed offer quality daycare programs, many believe that private schools offer a higher level of education to their children. Due to this, many parents don’t mind paying additional expenses to ensure their piece of mind in feeling confident that they’re giving their child the best possible form of education. It has been shown that private school children tend to have both higher acceptance rates in college and a higher graduation rate.
3. Size matters when choosing a day care. Smaller classroom sizes allow daycare teachers to pay greater attention to each individual child, helping to cultivate their own unique talents and giving them the support and nurturing that is crucial in early education.
4. The more fun and engagement that a child has while learning, the more likely they are to enjoy learning. When choosing a daycare, look for ones that offer diverse day care activities, from arts and crafts to outdoor games as well as traditional educational tools like reading.
5. Get to know the staff. You want to be sure that the people in charge of taking care of your child are qualified to do so. Don’t be afraid to ask staff members questions about their background including how long they have worked with children or why they like working at a daycare. If they seem hesitant or “phony” about their love of helping children to reach their full potential, skip that day care.
All this information may seem overwhelming, but choosing a daycare does require time and research. The most important thing to remember is that finding a daycare for your child that you feel comfortable with is a great step toward helping them to get a great education. Finding a childcare facility that you feel suits your child may take a few tries, but getting to see your child’s development with educational, social and personal skills is worth it.
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