Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Qualities To Look For In A Good Day Care

Child care centres can be a great help to parents who have young children and have to work. These centres help take good care of kids who have working parents. Such institutions offer many programs for children throughout the day to ensure that they don't get bored.

Some programs are meant for infants aged between 0 and 1 year, while others are meant for older children. Special care and attention is usually given to infants because they are just learning to walk, speak and reach other milestones during this age. However, this does not mean that older children aren't well taken care of either.

Here are the most important qualities you should consider when looking for a good child care centre for your child:

1. Convenient Location

It's important to choose a centre near your home or workplace. This will save you time as you will not have to drive to a far off place, and go out of your way to pick and drop your child at the centre. A good day care should be at a convenient location.

2. A Strong Curriculum

A good child care centre should have a solid, well-planned and well-balanced curriculum for your child. Go for an institution that will satisfy you in terms of sports and recreation, group activities and most importantly, learning. A child grows as per the foundation he/ she is given while still young. Ensure that the institution teaches children important practical skills that they can learn well in relation to their ages.

3. A Spacious Furnished Facility

The centre you choose should be well furnished with child-appropriate furniture. Each room in the facility should be furnished and well decorated with colours that create a calm and pleasant environment for children to play, interact and learn. The facility should also be spacious enough to accommodate a large number of children. Thoroughly inspect the bathrooms, kitchen, classrooms and play area where your child will spend most of the time.

4. Qualified Staff

This is a must have for any centre. Check to see if the centre you are about to choose has enough staff who are qualified in both technical and non-technical skills. The teacher should have a strong child education background and enough experience to top it up. Experienced staffs are very good at dealing with children of varying personalities and backgrounds.

Ensure that there is a qualified staff in the administrative, janitorial and catering departments who can handle operations throughout the day.

5. Dedication And Devotion

When you visit a facility, be keen to check whether it is committed to its goals. A good centre should be focused in taking good care of the children and providing them with quality educational services. An institution with all the four qualities listed above is highly likley to be dedicated and devoted to both parents and students.

These qualities should guide you in choosing the best child care centre for your child. Start the search with centres in your neighbourhood and place of work. Do your research and visit the facilities you have in mind. If any of them has all the mentioned qualities, then most likely it is the best for your child.


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Wednesday, February 17, 2016

What You Can Do To Ensure Your Kid's Safety In A Child Care Center

If you plan to put your child in a day care facility, you might feel as if you've lost all control on the child's welfare. This sense of powerlessness might make you reluctant to actually go ahead with your plan.

Fortunately, there are many things that you can do to ensure that your kid is safe and secure in a child care center.

1. Assess the Level of Supervision

Being a parent, the random - and, at times, reckless - behaviour of young kids isn't something new to you. You understand fully well that these little bundles of joy need much more protection from themselves than they need protection from the environment. Regardless of how well-organized and child-proofed the environment may be, the young kids are still likely to do something that would put themselves and their play-mates in danger.

For this reason, you should evaluate the level of supervision in the facility you choose. One consideration that will tell a lot about the supervision is the caregiver-to-child ratio. The facility should strictly abide by the recommended ratio for each particular age group, as detailed by the Australian Children's Education & Care Quality Authority (ACECQA).

Don't just accept things by face value. You should drop in and volunteer randomly just to get a more in-depth proof of how things are run in the institution. It's easy for someone to put up a good impression initially, but that false impression cannot be sustained in the long run.

2. Can They Handle Safety Issues and Emergencies?

It's definitely a good thing if the staff is well-trained in proper child care. However, that is simply not enough. They also need to have appropriate training in health and safety.

As a parent, you should find out whether the centre has a regular training plan to equip staff with appropriate health and safety skills. Are they skilled in paediatric CPR and first-aid?

Moreover, there should always be someone on duty who possesses first-aid certification and CPR skills. This is necessary in dealing with emergencies that are likely to occur.

Furthermore, check to see if there exist well-detailed health and safety rules. Find out how comprehensive or effective such rules would be in practical situations. Are they practical or just a publicity stunt to give parents a false sense of security? You can get further proof of the practicality of such rules when you drop in to volunteer, at which time you can see how the staff applies the safety rules.

3. Always be Proactive With Your Child's Medication

If your child is under medication, you should try as much as possible to remain in control or influence his/ her medication. Although the day care staff may be well-trained, you really don't expect them to be as meticulous as you are. After all, they aren't really specialist medical personnel.

To avoid cases of improper dosage or carelessness with your child's medication, you can be giving your kid the proper medication at home, if possible. If this isn't possible, make sure that you give all necessary dosage instructions to the caregiver. Also remember to keep reminding him/ her of the proper medication.


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Every child is given personal care and attention at Child Care Centre, Beacon Hill. Your child will also benefit from our flexible curriculum, which takes into consideration every child's individual interests, activities directed by the teacher and input from family. We encourage parents to visit http://www.madchildcare.com.au/centres/beacon-hill/centre-page/ about our dedicated service.

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Safety Is The Number One Priority In Day Care

Did you know that approximately 88 percent of all injury-related children deaths are due to unintentional injuries (based on a 2009 report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare)? In fact, a 2006 report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveals that injuries account for the highest proportion of children's deaths in Australia (36 percent), which is almost twice as much as children's deaths from cancer (19 percent).

Considering these sobering statistics, you can clearly see why safety should be the number one priority in a day care facility, or any other place. Therefore, regardless of the qualification of the caregivers in a facility or the play and learning equipment available, you simply cannot risk having your child in a facility that has critical safety issues.

How Child Care Centres Make Safety A Priority

Any well-organised centre would always weave in safety aspects into every activity within the facility. This is something that would always remain a constant consideration by all staff.

Here are a number of safety strategies that the facility may implement.

1. Active Supervision

Whatever activity the children are involved in - even napping - there must always be adult supervisor at all times.

Actually, there's much more to supervision than simply waiting for something to happen in order to take action. The caregiver must be able to pre-empt certain harmful situations, by understanding how children are likely to behave in specific situations. This will greatly help in directing young children away from potentially harmful situations, even before harm is done.

2. Safety Rules

Various pre-emptive measures must be applied to safeguard against risky behaviour. Certain rules that children would easily understand can be laid out, giving directions on what to do or not to do during play.

Something as simple as giving a rule that when climbing, all toys must be left on the ground, would help reduce chances of injuries. Just make sure to give simple to understand rules that can be easily grasped by the relevant age group.

3. Know The Abilities Of Every Child

Although children may be grouped with their fellow age-mates, each child may have drastically different capabilities from others. Such capabilities aren't even restricted to particular genders, since you can find that some young girls actually are more energetic than some boys.

Therefore, it's important that the caregiver takes note of the specific abilities of each child and doesn't just assume that they have similar capacities. Such knowledge would help in directing them during play, so that you can keep the less capable ones from harming themselves as they try to measure up with the more capable kids.

4. Take Note Of New Hazards

Even if you set certain rules early on, you're bound to require certain changes to the laid down guidelines, as time goes on. This is because something that was previously harmless may become a potential danger later on.

For instance, a log in the open play ground would be a splendid play thing, but it would turn slippery and potentially harmful when it rains.


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