Putting your child in a day care center could be your best decision yet, but you have to ensure that your child is in good hands. While you can’t determine that at the onset, there are things that you could consider to help you decide whether you should leave your child in a certain day care center.

Childcare safety shouldn’t be ignored nor underestimated. Kids tend to move a lot and even go unnoticed, so find a day care center where your children will be supervised at all times. They should be monitored and taken care of by friendly and dedicated staff or caregivers. Take note that these caregivers are licensed professionals and  have received a certification in child development or early childhood education.

Child Teacher Ratio

The ratio of child to staff should be at least 7:1 for three-year-old kids, 4:1 for two-year-olds, and 3:1 for infants. There should also be a policy for sick children, and how TV viewing is addressed, if there is a television in the day care center (usually, there is none).

Consider the sleeping and playing environments of the children. Do they have cribs for infants, soft rubber mats and pillows to keep children from hitting the floor and getting hurt during play? The toys that children play with should be sanitized regularly to prevent the spread of diseases.

Childcare Food Safety

Childcare is also extended to the food that is available in the day care center. Are these refrigerated? It would be better, too, if the center keeps a list of children who have allergic reactions to certain food and drinks. Cleaning materials and sharp objects must be kept in cabinets that are beyond the children’s  reach. These cabinets and drawers should be locked. On the other hand, the day care center should keep a first-aid  kit for the children, which should always be available for emergencies.

Check if the bathrooms have toilet seats that can be reached by children. There should be child-friendly toiletries as well. More important, the towels and hand soaps should be at toddlers’ reach.

It is likewise important for day care centers to have an evacuation or emergency plan. You can’t prevent emergencies and calamities, and certainly you cannot be with your child at all times. You just have to trust the day care center and make sure that they have smoke alarms, fire extinguishers, and fire exits.

Child care shouldn’t be undermined; choose a day care center that places a premium on the safety of your children.

Wee Care Preschool in Chula Vista and San Diego is dedicated to creating a fun and safe learning environment for preschool age children. Come check out our preschool programs and contact us today!

Being a parent is a tough job. The day to day anxieties and the constant worry about whether you are doing the right things for you children can get overwhelming. And though it may provide you with some time to yourself, when you have to leave your child in the care of someone else, it can be just as stressful. Day care centers constantly advertise about why their day care facility is the best. But are they being truthful? What are some of the ways you can ensure that you are getting the best day care for your child?

Below we help answer some of these questions. Keep reading to get some tips on how to choose the best day care for your child.

Identify Your Priorities

A cookie cutter philosophy on day care is the first step to making a mistake. Not all day care centers provide what you need, and some of them may provide more than you need. Tailor your search to the specific goals and priorities of your family. If education is a priority, search out a child care center that incorporates learning and focused activities into their daycare. If you just need someone to keep an eye on your little one for a few hours a week, a curriculum might be a little overboard.

Do Your Research

When searching for a good daycare provider, a bit of research goes a long way to filtering out the inferior and inadequate centers. Ask friends and family members with children where they take their child to day care and why. Parents of children in daycare are usually not shy when asked their opinion about their child’s care. Often, they will be able to give a better review and may even share your same concerns and priorities.

From there, use the web and other local resources to get a list of day care together for your consideration.

Interview and Visit

Now that you have a good idea of which child care centers are best suited for you and your family, g=o and visit each. Ask the child care provider about what their day care can offer. Ask about things like safety, child to caregiver ratio and accreditations. Ask them about their philosophies on teaching and discipline. Make sure that these philosophies align with yours.

Check References

Ask the day care facility to give you a list of their references. Cal them all and see what other parents are saying. While there may be some bias, hearing from other parents is a great way to get a good idea of what the child care center is like.

Best Day Care in San Diego with Wee Care Preschools

Wee Care Preschool and Day Care is dedicated to providing the best day care in the San Diego and Chula Vista area. Come check out all our child care programs and contact us today! We look forward to hearing from you!

Before classrooms, desks, notebooks, before writing even, there was play, games and sport. Parents have always intuitively understood that play and games are good ways for their children to learn about the world. Indeed, that was the way they learned a great number of things. And now science and modern theories of education are finally starting to catch up.  Learning games for kids are, more and more, seen as a legitimate way to teach a young child. Even biologist and animal behaviorists have noted that nearly every mammal on the planet learns to sharpen their instincts for survival through play and games. Why should humans be any different?

We aren’t that different. We humans obviously have different priorities, though. Learning games for kids, toddlers and infants are divided into two main categories: intellectual and cognitive skill games and socialization games. Of course, there is some overlap, but it doesn’t erode the differences.

Learning Games for Kids: Cognitive and Intellectual

Learning games for kids, including preschool age kids, which flex their cognitive and intellectual abilities are usually of the board game type or are the interactive computer game type. Games like puzzles, shape and image mapping games work out their spatial and memorization skills. Computerized math games can add a layer of fun and excitement to an otherwise bland subject. Most of these games are single player and teach the child to not only get the correct answer, but to see it through to a reward or goal. There are a number of great online games of this type that you can use at home to hone your child’s reading, math and spatial and memorization abilities. Check out some of these great learning games for kids that can keep them occupied on a rainy day.

Learning Games for Kids: Socialization

Children learn a number of social skills in a supervised free play environment. Allowing them to use their creativity and imagination with other children teaches them to respect others and coordinate activities.
Structured games are also a great way to improve their social skills. Games such as the name game, in which one child is given a ball in a group of children and then asked to say the name of the other person before rolling the ball to them, teach children the importance of identifying others by name, a critical social skill. Games like Simon says and red light green light teach children impulse control and how to follow directions and rules during play.

Learning Games for Kids at Wee Care Preschool in San Diego

Wee Care Preschool in San Diego and Chula Vista believes that games and play is an essential part of effective early childhood education. Come check out our childcare programs and contact us today!

When it comes to your child’s education, only the best will do. Providing a quality education for your child is one of your most important parental responsibilities. The public school system in the United States is great, and there are many hardworking teachers and educators in these schools that will do the best for your child. But what if you want to give your child a head start on education to fill the gaps between infancy and kindergarten? Early childhood education programs are the best way to do that. Let’s take a look at the benefits of early childhood education.

What is Early Childhood Education?

Let’s get acquainted with what early childhood education actually is. Simply put, Early childhood education is a set of programs that focus on developing the child’s intellectual and social skills. From an academic perspective, early childhood education is a set of theories about how and when children should learn. More practically, early childhood education includes programs like preschool and kindergarten.

Benefits of Early Childhood Education

The benefits of early childhood education programs have been shown in study after study for many years. These benefits are perhaps one of the most solidly proven findings in educational research. In fact, if this article were to detail the entirety of the benefits of early childhood education, it would run on for so long that you would probably stop reading it. So we will keep it to a few key findings, starting with the discoveries from developmental neuroscience.

According to an article in Psycology today, brain research has revealed that the brain undergoes a crucial cognitive development period at an early age. If cognitive stimulation is lacking at this critical time, the child may experience deficits in cognitive ability that would otherwise not appear.

The article goes on to point out that studies on the effects of quality preschool education indicate that preschool education provides children with skills vital to later success. A survey of 28 year olds who had received a preschool education revealed that they had better paying jobs and life security than those 28 year olds who did not attend preschool.

More in depth studies have recorded additional long term benefits. A famous long term of study of the impacts of preschool and early education programs, called the High/Scope Perry Preschool study, found that preschool attendees have fewer behavior and metal health problems, are less likely to get into trouble with the law, earn more income and have high school and college higher graduation rates.

Early Childhood Education Programs at Wee Care Preschools

Wee Care Preschools is dedicated to providing the children of San Diego and Chula Vista with quality Early Childhood Education Programs. Come check our our childcare programs and contact us today!