Parents are endlessly worrying about the child care options available to them, and for good reason. There have been many reports in the media about substandard child care centres so it goes without saying that the most responsible thing a parent can do with regard to this issue is to choose a child care provider carefully.

Why this is so important is because all the experiences your child has during these early formative years will have a major impact on the person they eventually turn out to be. We all want the best for our children, so the mission is to choose child care that helps the child to positively thrive while avoiding negative experiences as much as possible.

In this short guide, we’ll tell you some of the things that can indicate the quality of child care you can expect from a provider based on what you can see. With places for child care so fiercely competitive, getting it right the first time is definitely a goal worth striving for.

Find Child Care Before You Need It

If there’s just one tip you take away from this article, this is the one it should be. Child care places fill quickly (the good ones at least) and you need to make sure you’re at the number one position on the waiting list. That means it’s best to start your search before your child is even born, as that way you get to check more thoroughly and you’ll also be ahead of those who leave it until later to get onto the waiting list.

Choose a Provider With a Structured Curriculum

Some child care providers just let the kids run around as free spirits, and while that can be a fun experience, it doesn’t help your child to gain the best from his or her formative years. This is the most important time in your child’s life, and a daycare provider that can provide a fun educational environment is much better than one that doesn’t care much about providing opportunities for learning.

If you’re not sure why that’s so important, it’s because of the way the brain develops. A newborn baby has more than 20 billion brain cells. That’s an amazing fact right there. The problem, however, is that the actual number of brain cells is far less important than the number of connections that exist between those cells.

Experience of any kind will trigger neurons to fire, and when a group of neurons fire together, a neural pathway is formed between these neurons. The more frequently and intensely groups of neurons fire together, the more neural pathways get formed, and the better that brain is able to function.

Conversely, and somewhat frighteningly, neurons that don’t fire will wither and die. By the time that newborn baby is a year old, many billions of brain cells will be already gone, but more importantly, far more neural pathways will have been forged. The pathways are the key to a highly developed mind, far more important than the number of cells.

By giving your child the optimal chance to gain positive experience in a supportive learning and social environment, brain development will be more advanced than would otherwise be the case.

Child care providers such as the aptly named Thrive Early Learning Centres are a perfect example of the type of child care services that give children the best chance to thrive and grow.

Find out about the meals provided

Good Child Care Centres will provide meals that support healthy growth and will encourage good eating habits. If the child care provider regularly serves up unhealthy or unappetising meals, they’re either cost-cutting or clueless, and neither is best for your child.

Go with the provider that demonstrates a good understanding of nutrition, and that can answer your questions positively.

So There You Have It

It’s pretty simple really. Get off to an early start by locating a provider in advance of your need, check they have the proper credentials, look for a structured curriculum, make sure there is adequate supervision, check out what food is offered, and look for smiles. That’s really how easy it is to locate a good child care provider.