5 Important Things that a Daycare Curriculum Should Cover

 
Early years of your child’s life are extremely critical. Children, at this age, are impressionable and absorb every piece of information like a sponge. They carefully explore their surroundings, sights, sounds, and the environment.  Moreover, it is this time when your children establish their identities as a learner. The childcare franchise that you decide to send your child to can have a profound impact on his/her learning. In today’s demanding and fast-paced society, your children are expected to be adaptable, innovative, and logical thinkers. The daycare curriculum and its input method can determine how your child copes with these demands of the society.

Following are some of the things that your child should learn just before they go to school. We will discuss the importance of these aspects of their development, and how a daycare can contribute to the same. This information will help you make a proper choice of daycare for your child:

1.       Physical Skills: Childhood is about jumping, running, exploring, climbing, and performing many different physical activities. Children should be encouraged to play and jump and run and climb as these would help them learn their body’s amazing capabilities. Let them roll around, throw things, splash, and dig as that will eventually catalyze their learning through exploration. When evaluating a childcare franchise, you want to ensure that the facility has a decent sized outdoor space. You want your children to be exposed to the beauty of mother nature by being out in the open. Moreover, there should also be an indoor Gross Motor space for the children to continue playing when the weather doesn’t permit outdoor activities. Most importantly, children should be provided enough time and opportunity for such physical work.

2.       Social & Emotional Development: A good infant curriculum can facilitate effective development of social and emotional skills. Kids don’t learn these skills on their own. They learn it from the family and their daycare. The childcare franchise should explain appropriate social behaviors.  Don’t forget; the parents and teachers should lead by example, because that’s what children would learn and emulate the fastest. Good childcare centres let their students learn from experience by making their teachers be social facilitators. Students are guided through role-plays, and other experiential means, to understand various social situations and how to successfully resolve them. The eventual goal is to let our future generation make sound choices and take complete responsibility for the same.  Additionally, respect for colleagues and other human beings is equally as important in today’s time.

3.       Cognitive Development: A childcare centre’s responsibility is to prepare children for school. The Early Childhood Education Department at Concordia University has created a guide that overviews the essential elements of a preschool curriculum. The guide covers various aspects of learning that include social skills, math, literacy, science, creative arts, and more. A good daycare curriculum should certain cover these. We believe that your childcare centre should also be acquainted with emerging trends. Some of the pertinent trends today are theme-based learning (weekly themes like seasons, colors, animals, etc.), experiential learning, and play-based learning among others.

4.       Explore Passions: A well-structured daycare / infant curriculum will introduce children to various activities and hobbies. That goes a long way in helping your child explore their passions and preferences at an early age. If you select the right daycare, your child will be exposed to music (singing, musical instruments, music listening, etc.), arts and crafts, drama, sports, science & exploration, and more. The early they know what they like, the more focused would they be in their future.

5.       Understanding Everything: This is similar to the point we covered under social and emotional development. Many good childcare centres are now helping children get acquainted to various day-to-day life situations. This makes your child aware of their surroundings. This can simply include walking in the neighbourhood or talking about different things (origin, how they are made, who uses them, etc.), exploring various sounds and sights, and chatting about nature.

A childcare franchise, thus, is not just a place where your child spends his/her day while you are at work. It is a place where they develop essential early-life tricks and hacks. This is where your child develops his/her social, physical, and cognitive skills. Hence, it is imperative that you put some thought into picking just the right daycare for your child. Share your thoughts and questions in the comments section below.

This is the syndicated copy of an original article posted at http://www.allaboutkidslc.com/blog/2018/05/16/5-important-things-that-a-daycare-curriculum-should-cover/