Customer Reviews

Choosing Quality Child Care : The American Red Cross Search Guide

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Deciding on child care is a major concern for parents. The Badger Chapter of the American Red Cross has done a remarkable job of providing a resource that will help parents through this difficult process. Well researched and tested this guide utilizes checklists and questions to assist parents in making informed and intelligent decisions on the type of care they wish to have for their child/children. I would highly recommend this resource to any parent who is grappling with the need to find reliable, safe care for their child/children.

Choosing Quality Child Care, from the American Red Cross, is packed with useful information and lots of worksheets to help parents navigate this most important of searches. The 161-page soft-covered book includes many definitions, and even has a section to help parents define their child care preferences. Once this important step is accomplished, parents can set their sights on finding the type of child care that best meets the needs of the family. Because it's difficult for any one parent to remember all the details about what to look for when visiting with potential child care providers or centers, Choosing Quality Child Care includes everything from telephone questions, to what to watch for during an on-site visit. Of special help throughout the book are "Smart Tips for Parents." These notes, in the margins throughout the text, include many helpful hints and other insights to help parents in their search. There are few searches as significant as this. Choosing Quality Child Care goes a long way in helping new parents sift through lots of information and lots of choices. It is a book that has value to new parents in communities throughout the United States.

Choosing Quality Child Care is a great resource for parents to learn how to go about getting good child care. I learned what child care options are available and how to pick the best one for my needs. I learned good questions to ask providers and what to look for when I visit a site. I also learned how to find out about the local licensing procedures in my area. This is a must for a first time parent. (A great shower gift too!) Even experienced parents will find this a great resource!!

Here it is 2011 and so many parents have no idea what "quality child care" actually is. Busy, overwhelmed and stressed working mothers are still blindly believing the spiels that these savvy center directors are delivering. These child center directors may be visionary managers who strive to provide the best care possible, but there are plenty of center directors out there who don't seem to have the children's best interests at heart. These misguided directors seem to be overwhelmed adn they are pushed by the owners to keep costs way down so that they can maximize their profits. Since the youngest children in their care don't have voices of their own, it is so easy to exploit their vulnerability. If you have a child in day care who is under the age of three, you must educate yourself about how to recognize poor to mediocre quality child care. Children over the age of three will probably tell you if they are unhappy at their day care. They'll say, "Teacher mean!", or (God forbid), "Teacher hit me!" Preschool age children will probably tell you if there's something amiss in their classroom. Unfortunately, the younger children may not be able to articulate or demonstrate that they're not happy with the care they are receiving at their center. They may not be able to tell you about the overcrowding, the intimidation they feel when they are bullied by bigger and older students, and about how few opportunities they given to get a drink of water. Lots of times, the problems with poor quality child care are not easy to detect even by adults. Even savvy business people can't easily detect when a child is afraid of their day care teacher. They may think that the child is just showing respect by being very well-behaved. The parent may think that the child is sitting still and being quiet because he's learned to be very well behaved. The parent may not know that the child is actually afraid of this very "strict" and controlling day care teacher.

Here is an important clue to look for in a quality child care center: It involves the methods in place where a parent can remotely monitor her childs classroom from the directors office without being detected by the day care teacher and her students.

1. Does your center have state-of-the-art intercoms in the classrooms? These are the intercoms where the director can listen in from her office while on mute. They're usually small white plastic wall-mounted devices with several capabilities for announcements and two-way conversation. These intercoms are used for monitoring teacher-child interactions without the classroom occupants knowing they're being monitored. If your center only has the old-fashioned big brown boxes mounted high on the wall where the principal can make crackly announcements, then you should be very wary. If your child's classroom does not have a way for you to monitor your child via audio without being detected by the day care teacher, then you should be worried. In this day and age of tiny video cameras, Video Barbies, Nanny Cams, and more; shouldn't your child care center be equipt with technology where you can listen-in on what your child's day care teacher is saying to her class? Wouldn't you want to know what your child's day care teacher is saying to him when they don't think you're listening in? What if your child's day care teacher is controlling him with threats? Wouldn't you want to know about it? What if she's saying, "If you don't sit down in your chair right now, I'm going to give you a spanking." What if the day care worker is "spanking hands" when the kids touch things in the room that she doesn't want them to touch? Children under the age of three may not report this to the parent. They may be too scared to say anything to you about it. They may not know that there is anything wrong with an adult saying this to them since they believe they're supposed to "listen to the teacher". My point is this: If there isn't an intercom in the room for undetectable remote audio monitoring from the director's office, then you should be asking some questions or you should wonder why they don't want you to hear what the day care teacher is saying to these children.

Here's another clue about quality day care centers. Did you know that most day care centers have a policy that prohibits cell phone use by the day care staff? Many center directors just ignore this policy since it seems to be impossibly difficult to enforce.

2. Does your child's day care center allow the day care workers to keep their cell phones on their person? They'd better not allow cell phones to be used by the day care workers! Does the director "ignore" the cell phone useage because it's so difficult to enforce the "no cell phones" policy? Is there a clock on the wall? If the director does not provide wall clocks since the day care workers just use their phones to check the time, then you definately should be worried. Have you noticed the day care workers texting or calling on their phones when they're supposed to be watching the kids? Day care workers should not be allowed to have their cell phones on their person at all. The phones stay in the purses which should be kept in a locked closet or in their locker. These day care teachers are pretty savvy. If a parent and the director are standing out in the hall listening-in to your class, then it's really easy to know they're out there. Usually another day care teacher will see them coming down the hall and the teacher will send a text message or will call the teacher next door. The next day care teacher will pass the message along down to the next day care teacher. Everyone knows if the director and a concerned parent are on the hall since they use their personal cell phones to pass along important news. If your day care center tells you that they have made arrangements for parents to be able to observe their child's classroom without the day care teacher knowing about it, then you need to ask some additional questions. If these observation opportunities involve you standing outside the classroom door in the shadows, then the center director is either lying to you or she's absolutely wrong. The day care workers spread the news to each other like wild fire by text message. Everyone knows you're out there observing and I promise that they'll put on a really good show for you.

I won't spill the beans about all the advice and tips that the author has included in this book. I just want to say that if you really care about quality child care, then you must read this book.