We’re willing to be that there is nothing in your life more valuable to you than your baby. When you become a parent, all of the things that you used to hold dear seem less important, and your greatest priority becomes your baby. With that in mind, one of the most important choice that you have to make is which child care center you’ll entrust the care of your precious baby with. Afterall, your child will spend much of their waking hours at the child care center you choose; it is not a decision you want to make through trial and error. This is particularly important if you are looking for infant care, since infants aren’t able to tell you if they aren’t being taken good care of.

To help ensure that you find the very best child care center for your child, we’ve put together a list of tips:

1. Pay attention to what like-minded parents say.
   Obviously, you want to ensure your baby isn’t in a situation where their neglected or abused. However, much of finding the right child care center for them is far less obvious than that. Do they correct the children in a way that meshes well with your own parenting style (because when a child spends all day every day with a care provider, there are going to be learning opportunities from time to time)? Do they engage in play and teach the children skills that prepare them for school? Do they promote character building, such as kindness and consideration among the children? How do they guide the children through conflict resolution (another inevitable situation that could be utilized to help a child learn how to handle problems… or could have a negative impact on the child’s development if handled poorly)? These are all answers that are difficult to gauge from a brochure.
   
   One of the most effective ways to get an idea if a child care center jives with your parenting approach is to ask other parents who have similar ideology. If you get a good review from a parent who raises their kids in a way that you raise your own kids, it’s a good sign that you’ve found a child care center that will also support your parenting.


2. Put two feet on the ground.
   In doing your research for child care centers, you can get a lot of information from the facility website and from talking to other parents, but you can’t get a full picture until you see it for yourself. When you tour a facility in person, you can get a feel for the environment. You can make sure that the juju of the four walls that will surround your baby is positive for them. You can see and feel and smell the surroundings and get a better picture of the surroundings than you’d ever gain otherwise.
   
   We’ll throw this in for free. While you do on-site tours, it is incredibly important to make sure you meet with the people who will actually be caring for your child. All of the great philosophies in the world mean nothing if the person who actually cares for your child doesn’t have a vibe that jives with your child and your family. That’s an aspect that you can only pick up on in person.


3. Read them up online.
   When you’ve narrowed down your daycare search to a few centers, it’s a good idea to read reviews of experiences that other families have had with the care center. You might get a perspective that you didn’t have just through personal referrals. If a family had a negative experience with a care center, you might be able to save yourself and your child from having the same ordeal.
   
   Keep in mind that some families are impossible to please. A single negative review about a daycare facility might not actually mean the center isn’t a good fit for your family. If you read a review that sounds really out of character for a daycare facility, it wouldn’t hurt reach out to the parent who posted it and get more information, or to just cautiously proceed with your plans. However, if you see a recurring complaint with a childcare facility, you might save yourself a nightmare.

Questions? Share below!

Parents, please remind your children that mopeds and dirt bikes are illegal in parks. It is also a safety hazard, as many people and children take advantage of the local parks in the neighborhoods.
The post is the likely the first of many as the school year ends and the long days of summer begin.
And while you have one neighbor already posting on the neighborhood website and worried about how kids are spending their time, you are relieved that your daughter is planning to stay busy part of the summer taking a summer school course.
The Lifetime Fitness class that your daughter is taking will not necessarily be academically challenging, but it will get one physical education credit out of the way and allow her to take another Advanced Placement class during her junior or senior year. For four hours every morning June 5 through July 7 your daughter will be exercising with some of her friends while at the same time earning a PE credit. In addition, she has two summer reading assignments that she needs to complete for her AP U.S. History and AP Language classes that she will take next year.
These school related pursuits do not guarantee that your daughter will completely stay clear of any unauthorized moped riding in the parks or other even less favorable activities, but you feel that she is off to a good start.
Is Your High School Student Registered in a Summer Program?
The fact that the summer school classes fill up so quickly is evidence enough that the pursuit of academic achievement should not take a break during the summer. Even if the classes in a schedule are PE, these can free up the next semester for more rigorous class work. Summer school registration is on a first come first served basis so the competition to even get in the class is competitive.
Whether you are looking for summer school options for your high schooler or you are finding a private preschool for your youngest, the pursuit of academic excellence is always important. Summer programs, in fact, are some of the best ways to give children of all ages a head start. Summer Algebra classes and preschool ready programs can help your students be better prepared for their regular school year classes.
Full day preschool options are the start on a path to academic success. In fact, students who attend private schools typically have higher rates of graduation and acceptance into college. Although some people select day care centers as an option for their young children, the decision to find an academically oriented preschool is a must. Summer programs can provide the academic boost that even the youngest children need.
Consider some of these statistics about the importance of academic summer programs and academic pursuits for your children:

• 66% of U.S. four-year-olds now attend preschool or child-care centers.
• In their adult lives, participants who attended preschool as children were more likely to complete a higher degree of education and go to college than the people who had not gone to preschool.
• A major advantage of private preschools is that both schools and classes tend to be much smaller. This not only only nurtures a sense of community and belonging, but also allows children to receive more individualized attention than students who are in a public school.
• Good preschool programs offer a wide variety of activities, including dance, voice lessons, art classes, storytelling instruction, as well as indoor and outdoor free play, games, and projects. Each of these activities are designed to teach children a variety of valuable lifelong skills.
• Parents of private school students tend to be committed to having input in their child’s education so many private schools encourage, and some require, parental participation.
• Some preschools use a system of key developmental indicators to track a child’s emotional and social development.

If you are looking for a way for your child to be academically competitive, summer school classes or preschool programs are essential. Outside of the typical classroom, parents can search out extra opportunities for their children. It may only be a couple of days into summer, but it is never too early to look for academics opportunities.