Choosing the Right Childcare Centre for Your Child in Westgate: A Guide
Choosing a daycare is one of the first really big choices you’ll make for your child outside of the home. Especially if it is your first child, these choices can seem huge and daunting, and like they will have massive implications for your child’s health, happiness, and future.
We won’t lie to you, it is very important to choose a good daycare for your child. Between the ages of 0-5, their brain goes through about 90% of its development. So you definitely want a good daycare that will support and shepherd your child through this time.
However, choosing a good daycare doesn’t need to be a hugely stressful affair. Instead, we have come up with this list of the most important factors to look into so you can make sure that your little one will be set up in the best possible way.
Curriculum
The first thing we think is absolutely essential to look into for a daycare is the curriculum. Unlike when they get a bit older, this curriculum is likely undefined, and up to the children on a day to day basis. However, it should be able to offer a wide enough range of activities to cover the five most essential developmental skills.
These are:
Wellbeing
Belonging
Contribution
Communication
Exploration
In essence, these five curriculum aspects make sure your child is looked after, heard and cared for, while also being allowed to explore their natural environment and relationships with each other in a safe way.
These five core strands of learning and development have been put in place by the Ministry of Education to cover the foundation to life-long learning, so any daycare you are considering should be able to talk to you about these concepts, and how they incorporate them on a day to day basis.
Kiddywinkles in Westgate has plenty of trained staff on hand to ensure the safety of all the children in their care, as well as great indoor and outdoor facilities and activities to promote both natural exploration and social development.
Location
The location of your daycare is something that shouldn’t be overlooked. In Westgate, there are lots of options for daycares, so you have the ability to choose one that has a good location with lots of room and safe facilities.
If you were considering a daycare outside of Westgate, it is also important to consider what you are going to daycare for. If you want to drop your child off for only a few hours, the commute will be more of a consideration than if you are choosing to drop them off for a full day. Looking into the hours of your daycare will also help you to make a decision on which location works best for you.
Kiddywinkles is open from 7am-6pm, Monday to Friday. This means that if you have to drop the kids off for more than a few hours, you can do so without having to consider how long it will take you to get from Westgate to your destination and back in traffic.
Kiddywinkles also has an all-weather play area that is completely private, meaning there is no way for anyone to see it from the outside. This is a great option, as some locations may have higher foot traffic than you or your child are comfortable with.
Facilities and Staff
This is the most obvious of all the factors on our list, and thus the one we will spend the least time on. If your child is going to be spending a lot of time in a new environment, you want to make sure it is safe, fun, and has safety protocols in place for their protection.
Facilities like spaces outdoors and indoors for play in rainy weather, well-maintained equipment, and clean working spaces like kitchens can all be easily checked in order to keep your child safe. Any high-quality daycare should be able to provide a tour of these facilities, with all the safety considerations highlighted.
We believe that the staff at the daycare will make or break your daycare experience. It is essential to have highly trained staff, who can let you know when your child has had a rough day, or when they are starting to pick up on new skills to practise at home. This is a bit harder to judge, but you can ask to see a list of qualifications when looking at daycares. Any team of staff should be happy to provide these details for you.
Kiddywinkles has highly trained and competent staff who undergo regular training and check-ins. They also have a range of state-of-the-art facilities you are able to tour at your leisure.