Why we are a Private Preschool and NOT a “Daycare”:
Children need nurturing development, an environment that will provide that for them. Children thrive on positive interactions, life skills, socializing with peers their age, and being given things to do or partake in that will challenge their brains and their development.
To us, the word “daycare” does not honor or show value to the work that our staff puts into the work, projects, planning, etc being done daily. Our staff make it a point to not only show up to provide “care” to your children, but to teach them, love them, challenge them, encourage them, work with them on their speech, on their fine and large motor skills, their manners, and so very much more. All while providing a safe, fun and loving environment for them.
Daycare is similar to the word of “Babysitting” - a babysitter is there to make sure your child is simply safe.. typically there are no specific requirements, or trainings for this. Daycare implies that children are passive. To us, making it seem as to mean that children are to be managed or herded through their day, ushered from one toy to another. It assumes mostly lower skill professionals where most times there are risk, incidents, (major and minor) due to the lack of the depth of attention given.
We at YDDC know exactly how important the first five years of life are for a child’s brain development. Not only have we studied this, trained for this at LEAST annually, but we also live it day in and day out. Children need and deserve a developmentally appropriate environment for their age category, or development category. Children require care and stimulation, and that is anything BUT passive. - Parents need “Child Care/Daycare” while they work, but children need Structure, Love, Development, Growth….
Private Preschools create an environment where your child can develop intellectually, emotionally and socially, while learning how to connect and socialize with children in their developmental range, while learning basic life skills, manners and receiving an education far above that of a “daycare setting”.
Many Child Care/Daycare locations have extremely high staff turn over and staff burn out. This is often as frequent as 4-6 “new classroom teachers” within a 10 month span. This sadly results in many issues within the school, with your child, with your family, with the trust between family/school and so much more. Various issues that we’ve seen here from children who have been in the aforementioned situations are: (but not limited to) - Behavior issues, not understanding how to respond to structure or peers, emotional behavior - constant whining, or crying, aggressive behaviors from not having proper supervision and having a “fight or flight” or “fend for themselves” atmosphere when maybe the supervision wasn’t prevalent in certain situations. Anxiety/Anxiousness, that is beyond the normal first or second day, this can be separation anxiety from Mom or Dad, Teacher, Atmosphere etc, could also be atmosphere anxiety, not being able to adapt to the a calmer classroom with less children, not being able to actually enjoy a project or lesson due to the chaos in larger classrooms with less adults involved in group activities, resulting in children taking from each other, hitting, scratching, biting, not being redirected or kept busy/challenged. Affection/Attention seeking, outside of the normal. The saying goes “A child who feels neglected or not heard, will ask for your attention in the most unloving ways”… this doesn’t just apply at home, but in school/care also. If a child feels their teacher doesn’t see/hear/show attention to them, they will act out in desperation for that attention. This is often why many children in larger “centers” get labeled as a “troubled child” or get “forced out” of a center or program. The child is in most instances only acting/communicating the best they can, or how they see others are getting attention, and often times in those larger centers of 80 - 200 children, with classrooms packed to a max ratio of 1 teacher and up to 22 children, that is sadly what happens.
In most of these situations of large Franchise Centers, Public Government Funded Centers and many Brick and Mortar locations (multiple locations nationwide with silent owners) sadly you and your child are just a bottom line # to them. Many times we’ve heard it referred to as a “revolving door” for both students and staff. High turn over of staff results in high turn over of families and students. But, often times, nobody looks at the root causes of this. Many times this is due to the Staff Burn Out, if you put a teacher in a classroom with 22 children who are all potty training, and expect her to do anything other than potty breaks, feed them, and wipe noses, you’re going to be SHOCKED to learn that they burn out from frustration, exhaustion, lack of creativity and motivation QUICKLY. Add this on top of the expected “Lesson and Curriculum planning” that they must do for each week or month at a time, for a lesson that they KNOW will never actually be taught do to having little to no help.
How many Child Care/Daycare centers actually have a “Local” owner, or better yet, one that you’ve met in person? This is a HUGE eye opener. Yes, having a Site Director of a location is great! But, having an owner that will actually be on site (maybe not every day - but at LEAST weekly) speaks a lot for the school itself and for the business. This shows involvement to the enrolled families, and it shows support to their staff. Always look for this when touring locations. As the staff doing your tour the following 4 questions:
Are you locally owned/operated? Privately? Franchise? Silent Owner?
How often are the owners on site?
Do the owners take part in any of the school’s events, parties, open house, parent / teacher conferences etc?
Will I be able to have a way to contact the owner directly should I ever need to?
A Private Preschool provides the following:
Attention/Challenges/Life Skills/Developmental Growth
Safe, loving, clean environment
Carefully laid out and planned curriculum and lessons based on development of child
Adults who are trained, and licensed to properly provide for them, ignite their curiosity, feed their independence, challenge them, and support them while they grow into themselves and who they will become
To us… that is SO MUCH MORE than “Daycare”