A question for parents when you're choosing a home daycare.....

[Daisy123]

I will often take my kids out to the park (while I admire the skill of many caregivers, I often find myself cringing at the lack of supervision of others). I also try to take the children on 2 other "field trips during the year". We often plan a farm trip in the fall and a zoo trip in the spring. I always tell the parents way ahead of time what I am planning in order to get the general feel of their reaction. I never plan a trip when their is a brand new family- they have to trust me first. I also run these trips s a school would- parents sign permission forms and are free to volunteer their time to come with us! I have never had a problem with this and parents know right from the interview that we do this.

[Momof4]

As I said before we travel 3-4 times a week to parks, the library, a splashpad all through the hot months and I LOVE meeting with friends who have their daycare children with them. We are the kind of caregivers who are constantly watching our children, helping them, blowing bubbles, handing out sidewalk chalk and sand toys, monitoring them when they are up high and counting to make sure we have all our children even though we know we would see them if they ran off. These are the types of caregivers I love and associate with because I'm that type of caregiver. I'm definitely NOT the one on the bench!

However, I understand! I have stopped associating with one caregiver who projects herself as perfection on forums but completely neglects her daycare kids because she's so busy on her phone and computer. It's true. It happens. I've seen it with my own eyes and it makes me sad and very angry.

[cfred]

I am soooo impressed by you Momof4! Well, I'm impressed by all caregivers who go out that much with their charges. I tried the library thing for about 6 months and stopped as it was exhausting! I cater to mainly infants and toddlers and found the library trips too trying. We do the odd car excursion, but they're infrequent. I find the whole ordeal of installing the carseats and putting the kids in them very trying....then keeping everyone corralled at the library....dear doG! Too much for my taste! You're awesome! I have taken them to the beach, a reptile expo and of course, our painful trip to the mall every December to donate toys and visit Santa. They leave me weeping in the corner This year will be our last trip to visit Santa at the mall. I'm buying a Santa suit at the end of the season and getting my Dad to come up and do the job here....or the Awesome New Guy should he still be on the scene My preference for off site excursions is to a restaurant. I recently took 4 of my 5 infants and toddlers to a great Mexican restaurant in the area for a spontaneous lunch outing. It was fabulous! I can always count on staff to ooooh and aaaahhh over the kids and the funky, unusual foods are a blessing!

Kudos to all providers who do regular outings! May the force be with you!

[Momof4]

It takes a lot of training to get them to walk beside the stroller while their backpacks are attached to my wrists so the smallest 2 can ride in the double stroller. That's why we are able to go so many places because me little guys are experts at riding the buses by the time they are 2. I would NOT want to be stranded alone in my home. We love to get out and around in the community. My little 3yo dcb tells everyone we have 10 parks. That's a bit exaggerated, but we have lots of variety. It can be done if you put your mind to it, practice and be patient, just like anything else.

[Artsand crafts]

My dck walk a lot every day too. My trick for getting them to behave in the library is having our long walk first so they just wanted to seat and read quietly in the library. No more energy for jumping there hehe...