Our children are our pride and joy and sometimes the thought of leaving them with strangers is a little daunting. Will others care for our babies as well as we care for them? Will they get their nose wiped as soon as it starts running? Who will cuddle them if they fall over and scrape their knee? How do you select a quality childcare centre?
As a mother myself I had all these initial fears about leaving my precious children in care, however I loved my career and felt working a few days a week would make me a better mum. So I had to take the plunge and start the search for a childcare centre to suit my whole family’s needs, and where better to start searching than the web! There is so much information on the web it was quite overwhelming. I found it depended on what your particular needs were to which sites where more helpful.
From my research I found the information I received from phoning around different centres gave me what I needed to narrow my list down to the top 3 centres I wanted to visit.
My priorities on the phone included
- Availability for my children
- Interest in my children initially by asking their names and ages and referred to them by name
- A cheery disposition in answering all my questions
- Allowing me a time to visit the centre that suited me
When I visited the centres I tried to gather as much information as I could by looking for quality. I found this website fantastic in giving me the pointers I needed of what to look for that satisfied our needs.
www.knowsley.gov.uk/families/caring-for-children/childcare-information/what-to-look-for-when-choosing.aspx
Other informative websites that gave me an insight of what to look for and ask included
www.ccrcinc.org/pdf/ChoosingProviderChecklist.pdf
www.careforkids.com.au/articlesv2/article.asp?ID=25
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