Touring a childcare center before enrolling is important to ensuring that it is not only a good fit for your child, but for your entire family. Here, the early childhood development professionals at Celebree Learning Centers provide information about how to prepare for your tour.
Celebree strives to provide children within our programs with a strong foundation that can help shape them into well-rounded students and adults. While we know that Celebree provides a top quality, enriching, nurturing, and safe early learning experience, that doesn’t mean you should take our word for it. Touring your local Celebree Learning Center is important to ensuring that it is the best fit for your family, and understanding what to look for during your tour will help you to make the best decision regarding your child’s education.
Scheduling Your Tour
When first speaking with the enrollment professionals at any potential childcare center, make sure that you provide your contact information, times that you are available for a tour and, most importantly, information about your child and your unique situation. This will allow the center to understand your decision to pursue childcare better and to prepare so that your tour highlights the aspects of your child’s experience that you are most concerned with. Consider scheduling your tour earlier in the day so that you can see how families are greeted at morning drop-off, and watch how the teachers interact with children during morning activities.
Preparing Your Child
At Celebree, we encourage you to invite your child to tour with you. After all, they are the one who will be attending! Before your tour, prepare your child for what they will be experiencing. Let them know what a place like Celebree can offer them, and what activities they will get to do. Be enthusiastic: if you sound excited, your child will be, too. While touring, keep an eye on how your child is reacting; their feelings should be critical to your decision.
Assessing Your Center
As fun and engaging as a Celebree Learning Center location can be, it is important to maintain a critical eye. Consider some of the following questions as you walk through your tour:
- Did you have to sign in to visit?
- What kind of security and safety measures are in place?
- Is the classroom and outdoor play area set up in a safe, clean and age appropriate manner?
- Do the children seem well occupied, supervised, and engaged?
- Are children of various abilities working on different activities?
- During activities like circle time, are all students encouraged to participate?
- Is there a hands-on approach to learning and playing?
- Do activities have a nice balance of fun and education?
Be sure to observe a meal if possible, especially if your child has dietary or medical concerns. Specifically, assess whether children with allergies are accommodated appropriately and snacks are prepared in a sanitary environment.
Observing the Staff
The educators and staff are the foundation of a great program, so make sure to carefully observe how they speak and behave. Consider the following:
- Do they get down to the children’s level?
- What tone of voice do they use?
- How do they redirect hurtful behavior – and how do they praise helpful behavior?
- Are they able to keep the class smoothly transitioning from one task to another?
- Do they ask high level, open ended questions?
Asking your Celebree enrollment advisor about the experience, longevity and training of the educators at your local Center can be a good indication of their performance—but watching a teacher interact with their students first-hand is one of the best ways to gauge if a Center is a good fit for your child.
In addition to the considerations listed above, we encourage you to bring this checklist to your tour so that you can make sure that our Center meets all your criteria. But, do not hesitate to ask questions or relay any concerns that stem from your observations.
Ready to Schedule Your Tour?
If you would like to schedule a tour, have preliminary questions, or would like to obtain more information about our programs prior to your tour, contact us today!