Visit Your Child's Daycare Unannounced To Assess These Details

Posted on: 5 February 2018

Before you enroll your child at a particular daycare center, you'll likely visit for an open house or another similar event to get a sense of the center's amenities, meet some staff, and get an overall feel as to whether the center will be right for your child's needs. Once your child begins attending the daycare, it's never a bad idea to continue to assess things to validate that you've made the right decision. There are a few ways to go about doing so, but an effective one is to drop in at the daycare unannounced. Doing so will allow you to check out these details.

Overall Environment

When you visit a daycare center unannounced, it gives you a clear idea of how the center is running. There are several things that you want to see as soon as you walk into the building. It should be obvious that the children are having a good time. Depending on the time of your visit, you might see the children playing together, working on projects in small groups, or even having a snack. Similarly, you should see the daycare staff who appear to be enjoying working with the children — smiles, happy voices, and an overall positive energy are things that you'll be happy to notice.

Cleanliness

Although the daycare center might not look as neat and tidy as it did when you visited for the open house — and that's perfectly normal, given that it's full of children — you should be satisfied with the degree of cleanliness when you make an unannounced visit. Even if the children are in the middle of making crafts, for example, you should see signs that the children and staff have cleaned up past activities before moving onto the next ones. You'll appreciate seeing this, in part, because it's likely emphasizing the rules that already teach at home.

Safety

You also want to see that the daycare attendees are all behaving in a safe manner. Daycare staff won't ever initiate activities that aren't safe, but children may occasionally get rowdy during certain activities. If such an issue occurs, which is natural, you want to see that the staff deal with the children who are involved in a firm and fair manner. Knowing that your child is in a safe environment will go a long way toward making you feel confident in choosing the daycare center in which you enrolled your child.

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