How do you choose an early childhood program?

Location and cost are important to the family looking for child care outside of the home, so how do you find the best fit for your budget, yourself and your child?

In my experience, word of mouth is the first stop for most families. Start by asking your friends, acquaintances and colleagues about where their child is in early care. Keep in mind looking for the best fit for you cannot be judged by your friends alone. I would advise looking at more than one place and perhaps making more than one visit. The decision of where to place your child outside of your home should be made keeping in mind that research shows the importance of quality care in early developmental years. Convenience and price might not be in the future generation’s best interest.

Next make sure that the child care on your list is licensed. In MA you will find a listing of all licensed child care providers both home based and center based at www.eec.state.ma.us. You will be assured of health and safety standards as defined by the Commonwealth.

A higher level of quality for a center based childcare is national accreditation by the National Association of the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) www.naeyc.org for home based care go to www.nafcc.org

Since you will have needs specific to your family, gather more information by looking for a website or making a phone call to verify that the childcare centers on your list offer the days and hours of operation you require. You might ask about other policies that are important specifically to you for example, celebrations, family involvement, wellness policy, cancellation, or closures.

Next you will need to arrange to visit the child care setting. It is advisable to call ahead to find out if you can “drop in”. There are a range of safety pre-cautions that vary from site to site, home to home from very lenient to very strict policies of no admittance without an appointment.

Once at the site, assess the atmosphere. Ask yourself how you feel. Does the environment welcome you and your child? Are the children happy? Is the noise level appropriate for a group of children at play? What are the children doing, how about the adults? Are the children being supervised? You should see smiles all around, hear pleasant sounds, notice hands on play and activity. There should be enough materials for everyone.

Pay attention to interactions between children and between teachers and children. They should be mostly positive without overuse of the word “no”. Guidelines and rules should be clearly understood and explained for everyone.

Equally important to the indoor space is the outdoor space. Asses this space as you would the indoor space.

Lastly, would your child be comfortable, happy, and engaged in the environment you are visiting.  If all of the above is met, you’ve met your match.