Making the decision to enrol your little one in daycare is a big step and every parent wants their child to put their best foot forward. If you’re like most parents, you’ll be eager to take the grand tour of local daycare centres as you nervously assume your pseudo-Goldilocks role.
This one feels too chaotic.
This one feels too sterile.
And this one feels just right… I think…
Essentially, when choosing childcare we go with our gut. We use our intuition to sense whether an early childhood centre is the best fit for our kiddo. But with intuition comes second-guessing and with second-guessing comes anxiety. In the end, it’s mostly a game of hit or miss and if it’s a miss, the daycare auditions continue.
However, what if there was a list of questions you could ask to eliminate this uncertainty? The following twenty-five questions will put your mind at ease, give your audition process a more strategic structure and help you find your dream childcare.
Spotlight on: General childcare policies.
1. What are your operating hours? Is there a fee for late pick-ups?
2. How much does your centre cost per day? (Remember to ask about the gap fee after your government rebates and eligible hours.)
3. Do you have an open door policy for parents who might like to pop in and participate in activities?
4. What is the teacher to child ratio?
5. What happens if we need to miss a day of daycare due to illness or vacation?
6. What happens if my child becomes unwell at daycare? Who is authorised to administer medication? (If your child has allergies, make sure to ask how they will manage them.)
7. How do you manage behavioural issues like biting, hitting and bullying?
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Top Comments
Question 1) yes you need to know the operating hours and make sure it matches your schedule. Asking about a late fee implies that you are intending on disregarding the hours that they are licensed to have children on premises. By the way, even if you are charged a late fee the educators who are staying back, and missing out on spending time with their own families, will most likely not be getting paid. Some centre are terrible with paying staff for forced overtime.
How about asking how responsive the educators are to your child's needs? If he cries, will they comfort him and support him to deal with emotions or tell him to act like a big boy? If a child is disruptive or has behavioural issues, will they be shamed and excluded from the rest of the group?
Asking about the educator to child ratios will give you a misleading answer. All services are required to have a certain amount of educators per child depending on the age group. Many will say they have a high ratio, for example the legal ratio for children aged 3-5yrs is 1:10 and they will say our class with 30 children has 4 educators. But in reality only 3 educators will actually be with children because of differing shift times, programming/off floor time and lunch breaks.
Ask the centre how they support the educators to do all the documentation/programming/planning that is required and expected. You want a website that communicates what your child did that day? Then find out if the underpaid educators are having to do that documentation during their lunch break or after their work hours have finished. Or even using their own devices and mobile data. Believe me, the educators will be burnt out and the energy/enthusiasm they bring each day will be impacted.
Yes, the vibe from a centre is very important. Smaller community based centres often provide higher quality care and education compared to corporate/chain centres. I would be wary of centres that only care about making a profit as corners will be cut and only inexperienced staff (therefore cheaper) will be employed.
Is it cheaper for someone to teach my child to be a doctor rather than enrolling them here?