Daycare Choices

What Is Good Daycare (Or Child Care)?
Good child care requires three important things: a caregiver who provides your child with care and guidance and who works with you and your family to make sure that your child grows and learns in the best way possible; a setting that keeps your child safe and healthy; activities that are suited to your child's stage of growth and that help the child develop mentally, physically, socially, and emotionally.

What Type Of Caregiver Would Be Best?
A good caregiver should be well-trained, and warm and loving toward children. Whether your child is an infant, toddler, preschooler, or school-aged, the caregiver should encourage the child's interests and stimulate the child to explore and discover new things.

When you interview caregivers, you'll want to find out about their training and experience and their attitude toward child rearing, guidance, and discipline.

Is The Setting Suitable?
Whether you use in-home care, family child care, or center care, the facilities should be safe and healthy. The equipment - games, toys, and furniture - should be in good repair and appropriate for your child. The number of children in your child's group should be small enough to allow your child to receive individual attention.

What Will The Cost Of Care Be?
Child care costs can vary widely, depending on the type of care you use, the days and hours you need care, the part of the country you live in, and other factors. You should investigate the costs of different kinds of childcare available, including the costs of transportation for your child to and from the child care setting. You'll also want to find out if your family qualifies for local, state, or federal financial assistance that will help pay for care of your child.

This checklist for parents will help you decide what kind of child care arrangement will provide your child with good quality care in a suitable setting - at a cost that you can afford.

Any kind of child care can be good for your child if the care provides the warmth, supervision, and individual attention your child needs. In fact, you may want to use more than one kind of care for your children - for example, in-home care for your infant and center-based care for your preschooler.

In-Home Care
An in-home caregiver is someone who comes to, or lives in, your home. The caregiver can be a relative or a friend or can also be someone you pay to come to your home. If you have three or more children needing care, in-home care may be less expensive than other kinds of care. It can also save you from the worry of getting several children, all with different schedules, to and from a child care arrangement outside your home.

You may also want to use in-home care if your child needs special care because of a physical, mental, or emotional problem; if you need care for an infant or toddler, or care for a child at night; if you need only after-school care.

You should know, however, that in-home care can be costly, especially if you have only one or two children and are paying someone for full-time care.

Family Child Care
This kind of child care is provided in the home of the caregiver, who is often a mother with children of her own. You may find a relative, friend, or neighbor who is willing to care for your child in this way. Or you may find a family child care home run by someone you do not already know. Usually, just a few children are cared for at any one time.

Family child care can be a good arrangement if you are a single parent raising a child alone; if you live in a rural area where family child care is likely to be the easiest to find; if you have only one or two children needing care; if you have a school-age child or an infant.

Keep in mind that a family child care provider may go out of business or stop caring for children at any time. And because many of these homes are not inspected or licensed by local or state agencies, it will be up to you to make sure that adequate health and safety standards are met.

Center-Based Care
Child care centers are established settings where children are cared for in a group away from their homes for all or part of the day. There are many different kinds of center-based care, including nursery schools, preschools, and parent cooperatives. Some of these centers are set up primarily to keep children safe and secure. Others are designed to prepare children for their school years. Center-based care is most frequently available in a town or city.

Many child care centers have an organized program of activities to help children learn. Some centers follow more formal plans. Others use a more informal program based on their day-to-day experience working with children.

You may be interested in center-based care if you want to keep your child in the same child care setting for an extended period; if your child needs special care because of a physical or mental handicap or an emotional problem; if you want certain educational or religious activities for your child; if, in addition to care, your child will need medical or dental checkups or psychological or social services. 

Use the following checklist to help you evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a particular daycare setting:

Checklist

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