Making The Best Choice For Nursery Care

Raising kids is one of the toughest yet most fulfilling jobs in the world but it’s one of which most parents feel the least prepared. Whether you are working full-time, a few hours a week or having other commitments, choosing a nursery care is an important decision. We want to ensure our child is in a safe, caring, and stimulating environment, with plenty of opportunities to learn and grow every day. 

In fact, we believe that parents are more involved than they’ve ever been with their children’s development. Except for when it comes to childcare such as nursery, preschool and so on. Many parents drop their kids off in the morning while the teachers take over, and then pick them up at the end of the day without giving their learning much more thought.

Why Is Nursery Care Important?

A quality nursery care has a direct impact on a child’s ability to learn, to build healthy relationships, and to become the best they can be. More often than not, our child’s earliest experiences affect their brain development and lay the foundation for their future success. The most important of these experiences are provided by parents and the environment that we create, but other kinds of experiences, such as nursery care, can also influence their development. Nursery care is often essential for families with both working parents.

In fact, an early learning center such as a nursery is their first experience in a purposefully structured setting with teachers and other groups of children. It’s an opportunity for them to learn to share, follow instructions, interact with other children, and soak up the tools they’ll need to succeed in the future. Furthermore, nurseries provide a structure of learning and care for children from birth to five years old. This means the staff are trained to create a safe and stimulating environment for your child to enjoy and develop in.

What Are Nursery Care Benefits?

•  Structure and Fun Environment

At nursery, children always have a schedule although they might not be aware of the time, but they are provided with a full slate of activities. For toddlers, these fun tasks are essential to their intellectual growth and development. The scheduled activities are also satisfying for parents, who have less worry that their toddler’s behavior will be erratic at the end of the day due to a lack of structured times for eating, playing and napping. On the other hand, a toddler can be introduced to a structured environment that helps them make friends and play well with others. Providing structure doesn’t mean teachers are constantly correcting children. Teachers patiently and consistently coach the children, encouraging appropriate behaviors and outcomes. Having thoughtful structure at an early learning center is largely invisible to the children. 

•  Encourage a Child’s Curiosity

Children are naturally curious because they are learning through every experience and social interaction they have. An early learning centre such as a nursery often uses the child’s own interests and ideas to create activities that foster curiosity.  Curiosity helps children be more observant and to think about things and try to figure them out. When children explore their curiosity, they expand their vocabulary as they use language to describe what they’re thinking, seeing, hearing, or experiencing. In this case, toddler have highly active imaginations and use make-believe to learn and play. Caregivers often use the line between reality and make-believe to fuel engagement and curiosity. Other examples of using a child’s imagination for learning is the use of props for pretending. For example, they use role-play settings to promote creative play.

• Promotes Emotional and Social Development

Most of the programs in nursery often nurture trusting relationships with their caregivers and parents.. In order to learn these skills, the child needs to feel secure with their caregiver or teacher. A caregiver in an early learning center is much more than just someone that looks after the children, they are trained to develop emotional skills, encourage engagement, and promote curiosity. Together with the goals of the parents, caregivers at nursery strive to give the children the emotional connections they need to succeed later in life.

How Do I Choose The Suitable Nursery Care?

• Visit the nursery.

When you’re visiting a potential nursery, pay attention to how the staff interacts with the children. For instance, a caregiver should be on the floor playing with the kids or holding one on her lap. In their early years, babies need close, loving, interactive relationships with adults in order to thrive. That’s why it’s especially important that babies’ first caregivers be warm and responsive.

• Look for qualified caregivers in the nursery.

Basic certification is a must-have for most caregivers or daycare centres. Most of the caregivers should have degrees related to early childhood development or be in the process of obtaining one, with at least two years of university. And most importantly, they have trained in CPR and any other emergency procedures. Getting a nursery is like getting someone to be a partner with you in caring for and educating your children. However, beyond interacting with the children, you must feel comfortable with the caregivers. 

• Make sure the environment is clean

Ever since your baby was born, your house hasn’t been the tidiest, that’s fine. But the nursery care that you are choosing should always feel clean and tidy. However,  a little clutter is bound to happen when kids are playing with toys all day. While you’re on a visit to the nursery, look for evidence that teachers clean up after each activity and keep their classrooms tidy. When classrooms are spick and span, it’s a great sign that a daycare knows what they’re doing.

• Outline your priority and ask the right questions.

Many parents choose a nursery without asking many questions, only to discover later that it is not a good match. Changing caregivers can cause emotional stress for a child, as well as a strain for the whole family. A better approach is to first determine your needs, both physical  such as hours and days and emotional which is important for your child’s development. When considering childcare centres, you should ask questions that focus on these priorities. 

• Make sure your toddler’s development needs are being met.

Just as there are many nurseries around you, children are obviously different from one to the next, and what works for one child might not work for another. Parents should focus on the developmental stage and understand what their child needs from a nursery care during that stage. For example, the developmental needs of an infant are much different from a toddler who may need someone who can run around all day or a nursery that knows how to keep children safe, while also nurturing their creativity and independence.