Anonymous wrote:This is a weird one, but it may help. Walk into a classroom especially for older kids and look to see where the allergy lists are posted. A school that is organized will have it in a prominent place, listing which kid has an allergy, to what, and where the treatment (epipen) is kept.

Our children don't have allergies, but to me it's a sign they are organized and take safety seriously.

Interesting. There was a kid with a variety of allergies in my daughter's cohort, and the allergy information was always posted on his cubby and near the door, and the menu was marked with the items he could have from the school lunch. Every classroom door also had a reminder that the facility was nut-free. I didn't think about it consciously, but now that I do, it was a sign that they took food allergies seriously.

What mattered most to me was

(1) Do the teachers seem generally happy? Are they affectionate towards the kids? I saw a lot of babies and toddlers on laps, and teachers and kids laughing.
(2) Do the kids seem generally happy? Are they well-behaved in general, while still being playful?
(3) Do all the classrooms have natural light?
(4) What are the options for outdoor play? Our center had a private playground, plus several nearby parks. The teachers went out whenever the weather fit the guidelines. They also had a big playroom for rainy days.
(5) Do things seem organized? Is the administration on top of things? An organized center just has a different vibe. Also, communication with parents tends to be better in an organized center.
(6) Kind of random, but do the art projects on the walls look like kids made them without a lot of teacher micromanagement? I was in one center where the art all looked too perfect, like the teachers were more worried about making a pretty product to show parents than about letting children develop their skills and be creative. At our center, it's pretty clear the kids are making their own stuff, and you can watch the results get better over the course of the year as the kids develop coordination and the ability to follow instructions.

This is a weird one, but it may help. Walk into a classroom especially for older kids and look to see where the allergy lists are posted. A school that is organized will have it in a prominent place, listing which kid has an allergy, to what, and where the treatment (epipen) is kept.

Our children don't have allergies, but to me it's a sign they are organized and take safety seriously.

I've been a preschool director. Here's what I'd look for.

1) Sustained outside time, that has interesting things to do, and teachers actively involved with the kids.

2) How teachers talk to the kids. Do they talk in the way I talk to my kid, about rich topics, with varied vocabulary, on in a respectful manner.

3) Find a kid who reminds you of your kid, in the way he moves or interacts (e.g. a high energy kid if that's your kid,or a shy kid if that's your kid). Are they engrossed in what they're doing, are they enthusiastic? Don't ask "is this a good activity, do I think my kid would like it?" Ask "Does this kid think it's a good activity. Is he excited about it?" Kids are the best judge of what's age appropriate.

Center A.
I'm a director. Center A.

And, yes, PP is accurate, the fewer transitions the better, and having children a wider range of ages in a room is a good thing. Children develop at different rates, two 24 month olds can be very different developmentally. So it's great when your 2 yr old is with some almost 3 yr olds because your 2 yr old talks so much better than other 2s, so talks with the nearly 3s. Or your just 3 yr old can write words so hangs with the older kids for that but is socially young so plays with the other 3s in blocks doing parallel play.

I even think babies should be all in one room until 15 or 18 months then move on to toddlers.
So, center A is what I'd choose for all your reasons. Having a playground for just infants tells me they probably use it! As in, they thought about an infant playground, so they get the importance of infants outside and doing it safely. Cool!

12:15 PP here again. I gather this is your first baby - we also only have one and did this whole process for infant care.

I think that a lot of the stuff you mention is good to notice and pops up on any daycare interview checklist, but I also think a lot of it doesn't really matter. We picked a smaller, less fancy center with no dedicated play area (they take the kids to the park twice a day, they take the kids to the library, etc.). They don't provide anything in the way of food etc. It's very simple. And it's way way more money than the other ones we considered. But none of that mattered because 1) we could tell they loved the children and the children loved being there, and 2) parents also sought us out to give their positive feedback. It sounds like your DH had that exact second experience. I'd really peel away all of the other details and focus on the feeling you get when there.

Anonymous wrote:OP here, thanks to all for sharing, very helpful. I think we're leaning toward one center, but I'm just not sure. We're looking for infant care, so we did spend more time in the infant rooms but also asked to see the entire center. One is quite a bit smaller (I'll call it Daycare A) than the other but it's very bright, which gives it a more cheerful and welcoming feeling. The larger one (I'll call it Daycare B) is in an older building and it did feel like there were a lot of kids there, especially in the older classrooms, but they also have way more classrooms. Younger 2s, older 2s, younger 3s, older 3s, etc. Daycare A just had a room for small infants, a room for infants that were moving, 2s, 3s, 4s. Both have 12 infants max. The outdoor space at Daycare B was HUGE which I loved, but they also had the gate to the play area (which leads to the parking lot) open from the time I walked into the facility to the time we got out to the play area and I asked about the gate (about 15 minutes). I could be overreacting about that. Daycare A has a separate playground area for infants and then another playground for the older kids. It's not huge, but it's adequate.

At both schools the directors have been there for almost 10 years. Teachers seem to have anywhere from 2-10 years there as well. Very low turnover as far as I can tell. I think Daycare A felt a little cleaner to me, but that really may be just because it was so much brighter. At Daycare A, someone stopped my husband on the way out as he was getting into his car and said "are you thinking about bringing your child here?" and when he replied yes she said "for what it's worth, I absolutely love this place and trust them completely with my child." I think that really stuck with him because he didn't even ask, they just felt compelled to share. Another thing the director at Daycare A emphasized was how the toys are swapped out and cleaned throughout the day, not just at the end of the day. Daycare B could do the same, they just didn't mention it.

Daycare A is the one I think we're leaning toward, but I don't think we'd be unhappy with either and we're not certain about our decision yet. I guess we'll see once we do another visit at each. Daycare B is slightly more expensive but the difference is marginal and I'm not going to make a decision based on that. Daycare B also provides lunch when they're older, but the lunch menu didn't look the healthiest. Also, Daycare A won't use cloth diapers which I prefer to use, while Daycare B will. Not a decision making or breaking factor, though.

Anyway, thanks for letting me ramble. I'll keep building my list of pros and cons and hope the answer is more clear by our next visit!

This practice, which seems nice in theory, can be a disaster in real life: so many transitions for very young kids. My two cents is to stick with a center that has infant rooms, toddlers, twos, threes, fours, etc. Beyond two, ours has a threes/fours room and a fours/fives room, and we are SO happy we're there. Other reasons we love it:

-Low teacher turnover
-Kick-ass administrators
-Covered outdoor spaces so the kids can still go outside in inclement weather
-Lots of warmth, nurturance, etc., combined with appropriate structure and exploration
-Sibling discount (small, but IMO it's the principle of the thing)
-Tendency to follow OPM as far as closings go (since DH and I are both feds, that helps a lot)

Go with your gut, and don't be afraid to switch if it's not working. I feel so lucky our kids are where they are, and that's a really, really good feeling.

OP here, thanks to all for sharing, very helpful. I think we're leaning toward one center, but I'm just not sure. We're looking for infant care, so we did spend more time in the infant rooms but also asked to see the entire center. One is quite a bit smaller (I'll call it Daycare A) than the other but it's very bright, which gives it a more cheerful and welcoming feeling. The larger one (I'll call it Daycare B) is in an older building and it did feel like there were a lot of kids there, especially in the older classrooms, but they also have way more classrooms. Younger 2s, older 2s, younger 3s, older 3s, etc. Daycare A just had a room for small infants, a room for infants that were moving, 2s, 3s, 4s. Both have 12 infants max. The outdoor space at Daycare B was HUGE which I loved, but they also had the gate to the play area (which leads to the parking lot) open from the time I walked into the facility to the time we got out to the play area and I asked about the gate (about 15 minutes). I could be overreacting about that. Daycare A has a separate playground area for infants and then another playground for the older kids. It's not huge, but it's adequate.

At both schools the directors have been there for almost 10 years. Teachers seem to have anywhere from 2-10 years there as well. Very low turnover as far as I can tell. I think Daycare A felt a little cleaner to me, but that really may be just because it was so much brighter. At Daycare A, someone stopped my husband on the way out as he was getting into his car and said "are you thinking about bringing your child here?" and when he replied yes she said "for what it's worth, I absolutely love this place and trust them completely with my child." I think that really stuck with him because he didn't even ask, they just felt compelled to share. Another thing the director at Daycare A emphasized was how the toys are swapped out and cleaned throughout the day, not just at the end of the day. Daycare B could do the same, they just didn't mention it.

Daycare A is the one I think we're leaning toward, but I don't think we'd be unhappy with either and we're not certain about our decision yet. I guess we'll see once we do another visit at each. Daycare B is slightly more expensive but the difference is marginal and I'm not going to make a decision based on that. Daycare B also provides lunch when they're older, but the lunch menu didn't look the healthiest. Also, Daycare A won't use cloth diapers which I prefer to use, while Daycare B will. Not a decision making or breaking factor, though.

Anyway, thanks for letting me ramble. I'll keep building my list of pros and cons and hope the answer is more clear by our next visit!

Interaction. If you visit the school and watch how the teachers interact with the children, and how the children feel in their presence, you'll be able to tell. I did a ton of research on DCUM and other forums to pick a short list and we visited about 8 centers. There was one that really stood out in terms of the teachers' clear care for the children and the children's genuine and visible enjoyment of their environment, and comfort in going to their teachers and talking with them. (I think teacher turnover is very connected to this. You can tell if people are happy or not, teacher OR child.)

Something I didn't think about when I was first looking was class sizes. I only considered that factor in the infant rooms (as well teacher/child ratio). When we got to the toddler rooms, the class sizes were huge (bigger than most elementary class sizes), so we moved.

Teacher turnover
Fire drills
Time outside
How often toys are cleaned
The extras - field trips, picture days, Santa, fire department days, bookmobile days, parties, parent/teacher night, etc

"Do you have a space when I need one?" If you're close-in, you don't really get many options where you get the luxury of "choosing". If you don't like a center, don't apply to it, but for the rest the choice will likely be made for you.

It depends how old your child is. If she's under 2, then my priority would be the caregivers. Do they seem happy? Do they look like they love their jobs? Are they actively engaged with the children? We've turned down several centers that some would consider "desireable" because the caregivers seemed pissed off, not engaged or cold. The most important thing for us at that age was that our LO got a lot of love and attention (in addition to caring for his basic needs). If your child is older, teacher happiness is also a factor, but so is some semblance of a curriculum. Not calculus, but rather this week we're learning about the seasons, next week we're learning about shapes... stuff like that.

I'd not just go for a tour, I'd spend 30-45 minutes in the classroom where your child would be. You will get a sense of the teachers, you can observe what's happening, how the teachers interact with the children, etc. You may ask a few questions, but really you need to let the teachers do their thing, and you are a fly on the wall, observing. I always offered this to parents who were deciding whether to enroll.

Then you will probably know which center you prefer.

Also meet with the director - do you respect her/him? She s/he seem to know what she/he is doing? How long has that director been there? How many directors have been there in the last 5 years? Ideally you don't want a center with 5 directors in 5 years..... although I did take over as the 3rd director in 3 years so at that moment it didn't look good... but then I was the director for 7 years at that center, so I was there a long time....

Ask about turnover in that classroom and in the center as a whole. Which are your newest teachers, when did they get here? Which staff have been here the longest, how long have they been here? Etc. if the longer teacher has only been there 2 years.... you have a problem. If there are 10 new teacher who have been there only 6 months, you have a problem....

Teacher turn over. Ask how long the teachers have been at the center. If there is constant turn over that is a sign of bad management.

Number of kids in the room. The more kids in the room, the more sickness/germs there is. We saw one center that had like 15 babies in one room. There was an appropriate number of teachers to satisfy state ratio requirements. But that is just way too many kids! The only way to reduce sickness is to limit the number of kids in the room.

Proximity to home/work. What will make you life easier?

Can your child stay there through pre-school? In other words, do the rooms for the older kids become pre-school rooms that have appropriate certifications?

Do the kids seem happy? Is there opportunity for outdoor play time?

We've narrowed it down to two daycare centers we like and are having a hard time deciding between them. Going back to each next week to do another tour, but I'm wondering what are the major things you look for in a daycare? Any things that were the tipping point for you to choose one over another? I know a lot of this comes down to personal preference, but I'm wondering if there's something I'm not considering that could make or break the deal.