Due to moving to a different state when our daughter was 1 year old, we have somehow had the opportunity to attend three different preschool/daycares! One for our infant year, then we moved and attended another school for the toddler year, and then we just started a pre-k 2 year old program this month!
I’ve learned a lot about different management styles, school supply lists, teacher communication, and sick policies after attending three different daycares in just 2 years! I’ve provided some of my insights below, that might help you navigate the challenging task of selecting the best quality care for your child.
Questions to ask during a daycare tour
- Do not skip a tour! The schools tend to really enjoy showing off their facilities and introducing you to the different staff members. It also helps you get a feel for the environment. I also recommend touring at least 2 different schools. One daycare that came highly recommended by all of my friends, actually had some safety issues that my husband and I noticed, that another school was more prepared to handle.
- Points of contact. Write down the staff names and know who to contact for different issues (billing, sickness, when you’re going to be out of town/missing school, etc.). Also add all school numbers to your phone, so if they do call with an emergency – you’ll know who it is!
- Teacher communication. How will the teacher communicate with you about your baby’s day? Do they have an app? Do they have a paper report card at the end of the day? Will they send you photos? Can you have the teacher’s cell phone number to text them when you’ll be out or if you will be late that day, etc.
- Sick policy. This became VITAL during COVID. For one school we attended, if our daughter got sick, we had to take her to the pediatrician to get a school excuse for her to come back to school. She also had to sit out for 48 hours before returning. This complicated our lives, and we had to find backup care options for when she was sick. For another school, if someone had COVID, the entire classroom closed for the week. And a common COVID policy, is that if the school is closed for COVID, you don’t get your money back for days that school is not held. Get clarity on the policy up front, and prepare for backup care days.
- Safety. We will not take our child to a daycare that does not have a secure drop-off procedure in place. Two schools we have attended have a keypad at the front door, and each person on the pickup list has a unique code they type in to unlock the door. I have also attended a daycare where they had a security guard in addition to the keypad for extra security. The keypad records when each child enters and exits the building. The other school we attended had a door attendant with a clipboard, and she enforced the check-in and check-out policy. The daycare should ask you to fill out a form indicating who can pick up your child, and they should take enforcing this policy seriously. (Also, don’t hold the door open for anyone! This is a pet peeve of mine.)
- Ratios. Daycare ratios have been a top concern of mine when touring a new facility. Check the teacher-to-child ratios for your state and ensure that the daycare follows this. I’ve noticed that some schools have flex ratios in the morning during drop-off, where multiple teachers will watch two or three classes together until everyone gets there. This really bothered me, because the ratios were unpredictable and I felt like the daycare wasn’t prepared for an unexpected flux of student arrivals. The ratios are different for every state and for every age group. Infants are usually 1:4 or 1:5. Don’t be afraid to ask about ratios- things like, who watches the classroom while the teacher is on break? What’s the teacher-to-kid ratio for the infant room? How about the toddler room?
- Curriculum. Most all daycares and preschools have some kind of curriculum. They should be learning some colors and numbers in the toddler rooms and doing crafts and other activities that use their fine motor skills. Don’t think too hard about this one, the most important thing to note is if they are just a true “daycare” where the kids are just playing all day or are they going to read to them daily, introduce organized activities and crafts, and have more of a plan for their day.
- School supplies. Most daycares/preschools will ask you to bring diapers, wipes, formula or breast milk prepared in bottles ahead of time, and a couple spare changes of clothes. Some schools will have you label each individual diaper (write their name on it with a sharpie) or you can just label the entire box of diapers with their name on the outside. I also liked to leave a jacket and a hat at school with her name on it, in case they went on a buggy ride outside. (I am a crazy mom, so I sent both a warm weather knit hat and a sun hat.) Most schools have a cubby with their name on it. You might also need to send in bibs.
- Nap time. There will also be some kind of napping supply requirement. For our infant, we just had to bring a sleep sack and a paci with her name on them, but I’ve heard that some schools ask you to bring crib sheets too. For our toddler, one school provided the nap cot, but another asked us to bring the blue and red kindergarten mat and a soft roll-up nap mat with a pillow attached. During your tour, ask what you need to bring for nap time. Ask to see an example of what other students have brought.
- Meals. Most daycares provide breakfast, lunch, and a snack. All you have to provide are bottles with formula or breastmilk in them. We send a bag in each day (a little lunchbox) with formula bottles in it and a little ice pack, and her teachers move them to a fridge once we drop her off.
- Labels. I have found that ironing labels into their spare clothes and outwear has been the easiest. I also have sticker labels from minted with my kids’ names on them that I put on all bottles. As for formula and/or breast milk bottles, most daycares want you to put today’s date on there. We ended up ordering some white circle stickers (about a half inch in diameter) from Amazon that we just stuck a new one each day on top of the old stickers and we wrote today’s date with a sharpie on them.
Favorite gear for daycare
We would write “7/1” on these white circle stickers. Once the bottles came out of the wash, we would just put another sticker on top of that one and put “7/3″ on it (or whatever today’s date was). Eventually, once you have about 4 stickers on top of each other, they’ll fall off easily and you can start again. This way, we were able to have the minted sticker with her name on it stay on the bottles all the time, and then we just replaced these little white stickers. We ordered the 0.75” size.
Tine Murray 