As a parent, your child is your number one priority. Perhaps you’ve spent the first few years catering to all of their needs and you feel they are finally ready to go to preschool. Maybe you have a full-time job and infant care is the best way to ensure that you can provide for your family. No matter what your reason may be for enrolling your child in daycare or preschool, finding the right one that fits their needs is vital.
At Sunshine Starts in Yorktown Heights, we offer high-quality, affordable child care services. Whether you’re looking for infant care, pre-toddler care, toddler care, or preschool, we have it all! Our curriculum is designed to encourage students to interact with their environment and learn through play, helping them build a strong foundation for life-long learning. If you are interested in learning more about our child care services or you would like to schedule a tour, contact Sunshine Starts today!
Ask for Recommendations and Conduct Research
The first step in your search for the perfect child care center is to conduct research. Most towns have more than a few child care options, from in-home child care services to professional preschool and child care centers. Make sure you research each option thoroughly. Check reviews online, read more about the teachers, and explore websites to see if any of your options stand out. If you’re torn between a few different child care centers, then don’t be afraid to ask other parents. Ask your other parent friends if they have any strong opinions — either good or bad — about any of the child care centers on your list. Asking around should help you narrow down your search and give you a good start on where you should look.
Tour Each Place
You wouldn’t buy a car without taking it for a test drive, right? Well, the same train of thought also applies to child care centers. You don’t want to send your little one to a child care center before you take the time to tour it, meet some of the staff, and see the classrooms for yourself. While some child care centers may have photos of their facilities online, it’s important to take the time and see everything for yourself. You never know if the photos are old and the child care center looks completely different, and sometimes photos don’t show how dirty a place actually looks in person. When you tour each facility, you want to make sure that it looks clean and safe enough for your child.
Ask About Communication
When your child is at home all day, it’s easy to know what they’ve been up to. However, when your child is at daycare or preschool, suddenly you have to rely on your little one to tell you all about their day. That being said, most parents know that their children aren’t always the best at relaying details, so it often falls on the teachers or the child care providers to keep the parents informed. As you tour different child care centers, ask them about their communication policy. Some centers may give you the option of choosing how often you receive reports, and others may only send reports every so often. The needs for communication may be different from parent to parent, so it’s up to you to decide which communication policy is best for you.
Trust Your Gut
No matter how many child care centers you tour, you have to remember that you are the parent and you know what is best for your child, which means you need to trust your gut. Some centers may check every box on your list, but perhaps you get a weird feeling you can’t explain. Check in with yourself after every tour and see how you feel. Can you see your child playing there and having a good time? Did you get a good feeling about the last center you toured? Do you like one center better than another? When you trust your gut, you can eliminate centers that give you red flags, and you may find that choosing the perfect child care center was easier than you originally thought!
Schedule a Tour at Sunshine Starts
If you are currently searching for a child care center in Yorktown Heights, then Sunshine Starts is here to help! We offer child care services for infants through preschoolers, and our curriculum is play-driven to help encourage a life-long love of learning. We would love to meet with you and your little one, so give us a call to schedule a tour.
We look forward to seeing you!
[gravityform id=”2″ title=”false” description=”false”]
