Selecting A Good Preschool/Daycare

Appropriate Practices for Young Children

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Parents often wonder how to select a good early childhood program. You can use following guidelines to help yourself determine appropriate practices for your child. In addition, you can use these guidelines to help ensure that quality is part of the program.

What are the physical accommodations like? Is the facility, pleasant, light, clean and airy? Is it physical setting you would want to spend time in?

Do the children seem happy and involved?Or passive? Is television used as a substitute for a good curriculum and quality professionals?

What kind of materials are available for play? is there a variety and a clean abundance of materials?

Is there a balance of activity and quiet play and of individual, small group, and group activities? Child-directed and professional-directed activities? Indoor and outdoor play?

Is the physical settings safe and healthy?

Does the program philosophy agree with parent’s personal philosophy of how children should be reared and educated?

Are the philosophy and goals appropriate for the children being served? Is there an emphasis on early literacy development?

Do teachers read to children through the day? A general rule of thumb is the teachers should read to children at least twenty minutes a day. Are there books and other materials that support literacy development? Another rule of thumb is that preschool children should be familiar with seventy five to one hundred books by the time they enter kindergarten.

Is there a written curriculum designed to help children learn skills for literacy, math and science?

Does the curriculum provide for skills in self-help; readiness for learning; and cognitive, language, physical, and social-emotional development?

Active learning is so important for preschool children as they are in the pre-operational stage of intelligence. Optimal instruction includes a well aligned curriculum model that successfully integrates subject areas or domains to develop language, reading, and mathematical skills.

Practicing is an essential part of the craft of teaching. Therefore, at Mon Petit we support literacy and promote diversity in the classroom. We facilitate authentic situations to provide a meaningful learning experience and understanding. As an early childhood professional, it’s essential to have knowledge in early childhood development and how appropriate teaching practices in the classroom can have a profound effect on children”.

-Dulce Martinez