My Concern as a Parent Using Informal Day Care
I have been using informal day care (such as in-home care) since my daughter was 8-months-old. For a few months, it was just my daughter and her child care provider at home. On the one hand, I’m aware of the many benefits using informal care (both for my daughter and my marriage). My daughter enjoys the undivided attention she gets. She acquires amazing skills every day. All in all, we have strong reasons choosing to spend 35% of our monthly expenses on child care (I wrote about this in an older article).
On the other hand, being a professional working in the early care and early education field (I also did research in this area while in graduate school), I am always being fed with information about the long list of advantages sending my child to a formal day care setting (such as licensed day care and child care centers). One of the areas these settings generally do well in is providing enrolled children opportunities to build social skills throughout the day.
When it’s just my daughter and her child care provider, my daughter is missing out on those opportunities. As such, I think a lot about how to prepare my daughter for formal school (and the social world). How can I facilitate or structure my daughter’s day so that there are opportunities for her to interact in a group setting with her peers, meanwhile developing her social skills and reinforcing those skills.
Until my husband and I are ready to send our daughter to a formal day care where she’d be interacting with other children around her age, I am constantly looking for opportunities for her to be in a group setting.