Having children just puts the whole world in perspective. Everything else just disappears.

Kate Winslet

There are two times each year where families look for childcare at a higher rate than usual. It’s either the first time they are looking, or they are looking for a change, and those two times are September and January. I have no scientific data to back this up, but I do have sixteen years of childcare experience, with the last many years being a center director before I left my career to be a homemaker. If you find yourself searching soon for a new childcare option for your family, I have compiled some tips and tricks to help you find the best fit.

Reviews

If you will be basing part of your decision on reviews of the childcare center, please get those reviews from a trusted source. Your own friends and family members, currently enrolled families, etc. Do NOT base your decision on Google reviews. For the majority of this article, I will be on a soap box speaking with my megaphone, so please bare with me. Google is not fair. (Also, I get really flustered when my children say something isn’t fair, because, well… life isn’t fair.) Honestly though, it’s not. How often do people go out of their way to leave a good review? Not all that often. How often do people leave mean and biased reviews of how awful a place is? Daily. I was the recipient of some hurtful reviews, and most of them were left by disgruntled former employees, parents who were upset about a policy being upheld, or a payment issue, or because they heard from someone who knows someone who used to work there and she said… you get where I’m going with that. If you do read Google reviews, please read them with an open mind and take them with a grain of salt.

If you do seek out currently enrolled families or your own friends and family members who have experience with the center you are looking into, ask why. Ask them why they feel the way they feel and ask for specific details that lead them to their decision. What one family finds to be a big deal, may not be a deal breaker for you and vice versa.

Visit

Any center worth enrolling your child into will encourage you to come in for a visit or a tour. This is a time for you to walk through the center, see the classroom your child will be in as well as some other classrooms, meet with teachers, and just soak it all in. These visits are usually scheduled ahead of time to accommodate for nap time and meal times at the center, as well as making sure the time is dedicated to you and your family. Bring your child with you to this visit! This gives the center staff time to meet your child before they are dropped off on their first day, and will let you see your child interact with the other children and the teacher.

When you are preparing for your visit, really put some thought into things that are important to you and your family. Ask questions! Here is a list of questions I would ask if I were looking into a center for my girls-

• What is your center philosophy? When you ask this question, you want to make sure that the philosophy matches your owns beliefs and thoughts. For example, I believe children learn by doing in a safe and relaxed environment and at their own speed. I would like the center to respond to this question with something like “child led” and “play based”.
• How do you handle discipline and challenging behaviors? This is an important question even if your own child doesn’t have challenging behaviors. I would look for a center to respond with something such as “redirection”, and then moving forward with meeting with parents to put together a strategy for helping the child move past the behavior. You will be a team with the center staff, and it’s important that all the team members be informed and on the same page.
• What type of curriculum do you use? This goes along with my first question, but will highlight a bit more on the learning aspect of things. I don’t want my kids sitting down for hours on end doing worksheets. I would prefer they be playing and learning together. If worksheets are your thing, then you will be looking for an answer that goes along with that.

Read the Atmosphere

This is probably my number one most important bit of advice. Read the room! How does it feel? Are the kids happy, smiling, and playing? Are they engaged in activities instead of just running around? How is the noise level?

Childcare centers should be noisy. The noise should be happy, however. Screaming and crying is a sign of a slight red flag. Don’t get me wrong- kids cry. There are disputes between friends, and there are teachable moments throughout the day that don’t always make the children happy. With that said, if the majority of the children are crying and upset, there could be a problem.

Another thing I really like to look at is the teacher interactions. If the teacher sits on the floor or in a chair, the children will tell you with their actions what the relationship is with that teacher. If the teacher has good relationships with the children, they will be all over her. Sitting on her lap, next to her, playing with her hair, bringing her toys, etc. If the children don’t flock to the teacher- red flag.

Do Your Research

Most, if not all states have a state licensing agency that oversees the licensed centers and regularly inspects them, as well as follows up with any parent complaints lodged against the center. The center is also obligated (in my state at least) to self report any violations that they are aware of. In my state (Washington) you can look up each centers official complaints and violations and also see if it was “self-reported” or found on a complaint or licensing visit.

Now, hear me out. They can sound very alarming when you read the technical way they are written by the state licensors. When you read them, there will be a section that states how the center handled the issue and any follow up with the licensors that was necessary. These violations can be anything from a missing form in an employee’s or child’s file, to something much more serious such as a child being left unsupervised or a physical violation against a child from an employee. What I want you to focus on most, aside from anything the center itself did to put a child in danger, is how the center handled the infraction. They hire employees that they train, do background checks on, and monitor constantly. They are still humans under their own design. They do things that are against protocol, and have consequences. If I read a violation against a center, and read that the employee responsible was promptly let go, retrained (depending on how serious the issue was), or written up and placed on probation, I know that the center owners and directors take things seriously. As long as I feel the incident was handled properly by the admin team, I wouldn’t likely hold that against them.

Lastly, once you decide on a center, pay attention to your children. Drops offs can be rough for a long time after starting, but depending on your child, after a couple weeks things should level out and they should be for the most part enjoying themselves. You know your child best, and you will know if there is something amiss. Also, the center I worked at for the majority of my career had the most amazing cameras that parents had access to and could watch throughout the day. I loved them as an employee and as a parent!

~Tara