Miss DayCare
Charlotte, NC
Female, 30
I work in a highly respected, franchised Day Care Provider. I have taught in Toddler classrooms as well as Pre-Kindegarten classrooms. It's a wonderful and rewarding profession and I love every minute of it. I have become friends with many of my parents and they all ask questions which is why I want to open a dialogue here so I can be as honest and open as possible about your most prized posession's early childhood education and what really goes on in the classrooms and hallways!
I'm not a fan of that kind of education because I believe that kids need structure and the earlier they learn it the better. Built into the cirriculum I use is free time where the class can go to various stations and do what they want with their friends, but when time is up, they clean everything up, and return as a group for our next scheduled activity. There are pros and cons to montessori schools, but it's just a preference to the parent. I've worked in that environment as well and some kids do very well independently and can work like that, but most of them needed a schedule to follow.
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There's really not much you can do. There are centers that have a policy that for each minute they are late after closing time, they owe one dollar. Unfortunately, that doesn't deter parents from being late, they just hand you cash when they walk in to pick up their child. If you have a chronically late parent, and you have to stay past close, you just have to grin and bear it and wait for that child to graduate to the next classroom so that parent can become another teacher's problem!
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Look at the cleanliness of the facility and the rooms, also when walking around the school peek into other classrooms and not just the ones that your child(ren) will be in. See what the teachers are doing, are they interacting with the kids or just sitting there? Ask to see when the kids play outside and how interactive the instructors are with them. We shouldn't be just sitting on the ground yelling at the kids when someone does something wrong. We should be running around, playing tag, pushing them on a swing, etc....Another big one is if there is "outside" food in the rooms (we aren't supposed to have any outside food or drinks in the room), and you would be surprised at what some teacher leave out....I was coming back from lunch and one of my co workers had a bag of peanuts out during the kids' nap! Also, see if the center has a reference list of parents you can call to see how they like the school. Parents put themselves on it and it's a mix of positive and negative reviews so you can get answers to questions you may not be comfortable asking the director
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No there's no "hazing." Whoever gets hired knows going in what position they are getting (infant teacher, toddler, pre-school, etc.). If someone is hired for the infant room, they know they're gonna be changing diapers and all that stuff so they know what they're getting into. The turnaround in this industry is pretty high and every teacher in the center I am at has pretty much worked with every age group at the other facilities they have worked in so people who get hired are pretty well rounded.
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Daycare can run anywhere from 250 to 135 a week, it just depends on where you go. Typically infant care is the most expensive and it tapers down from there. It depends on the facility how competitive it is to get in. In Charlotte where I am, the daycare industry is becoming to saturated so "competitiveness" isn't a problem. There are of course centers that I wouldn't recommend and they're even on the higher end of the pricing spectrum so you just have to tour a few centers and see what you feel best. I've found with my friends that have kids on daycare that whatever center they feel comfortable in immediately was the one they chose. When my daughter was born, and I was working in a different place than I am now, I wasn't fond of the infant program there (and it was one of the more expensive ones!), in face I wasn't fond of the facility and was trying to find another place to work. I placed her in the facility I am in now and waited for a position there to open up! I have found that the centers that are 250-300 a week really are all show and no substance.
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I do not think less of parents who stay home and their kids are in daycare. Some want them to have the social experience and that's fine. I do have a problem with parents who just want their child out of their hair so they can go about their business. And I can spot those parents from a mile away. Why even have a child (and have the ability to stay home with them) just so you can put them in a daycare facility for eleven hours a day five days a week? One parent was a stay at home mom and I never met her, the housekeeper would drop her kid off and pick her up. That child was in my class from 7 AM until 6 PM Monday through friday. The housekeeper would feel awful for the child and pick her up early and take her on daytrips because she wasn't allowed to bring her home before 6. Ridiculous.
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in the infant and toddler rooms you are obviously changing a million diapers a day but around 2 1/2 years old we start putting them on the potty even if they are still in diapers. By three years old, in order to move up to the pre school classrooms, you must have your child be fully potty trained....of course there are still occasional accident but for the most part, they must be self sufficient in the potty area. sometimes parents get offended when their child hasn't moved up because of this reason and then we find out they aren't potty training at home at nights and on weekends. They're just leaving the work up to the daycare teachers and that just won't suffice when it comes to potty training!
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