Our First Daycare Experience

As a working mom, I heavily depend on my nanny in taking care of my child while my husband and I are out for work. Since we don't have relatives available to look after our child, we try to carefully select our daughter’s nanny especially after hearing several yaya horror stories from fellow moms. Luckily, our current nanny has been with us for 7 months now and I must say, still growing strong (LOL). Yes we are happy with her. However, there are unfortunate and unforeseen personal circumstances that arise once in a while, and our nanny was not spared of it. The untimely death of her loving husband needed her attention and presence in the province, which my husband and I perfectly understood. This left us yaya-less for almost three weeks. So, what to do??? We were left with the following options:

• Alternate not going to work so we can stay at home to care for our little sunshine
• Look for a reliever
• Try the daycare

As much as we wanted, we simply can't afford not going to work. Meanwhile, leaving my child alone with a reliever scared the hell out of the paranoid mommy in me. So, husband and I decided to try the daycare. We assessed the situation then:

• Can the daycare provide the proper care she needed (infant vs toddler care)? -- our li'l bub was a few weeks away from turning 18 months then
• Can she handle being left alone with strangers? 
• Is she ready for daycare?
• What can she benefit from the daycare?  

Thankfully, Kids AcademyInternational (KAI) was open to accommodate us! And, since  it is located just in Ortigas, I can easily drop her off before going to work in Greenhills, and pick her up after, too. But first, we need a bigger car seat --- now that's another story LOL.

Facilities

KAI is primarily a pre-school with daycare services, so in terms of facilities, you have it all: spacious rooms, child-proof furniture, wooden, educational toys, art-filled walls, etc. Upon entering the facility, you can hear classical music playing in their colorfully decorated lobby, which promote a sense of calm to children and adults alike. And, since our weekends are normally spent in Kidzoona, this place reminded her of it everyday. While I was there, I took a tour of their classrooms and I must say, it was a pretty and amusing sight! Classes are offered from pre-nursery, to junior and senior nursery, and kinder levels. Oh, and get this, all classes are infused with Mandarin lessons, and baby yoga sessions! Their other services include daycare services, and tutorials.

They are affiliated with DEPED, National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and Association for Childhood Education International (AECI).

For more information you may check their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/kidsacademyinternational/ or you may send an inquiry to kidsacademyortigas@gmail.com.

Activities

They advocate values before skills. Core values promoted concentrate on compassion, and cleanliness of both body and mind. What's good about it, is that compassion extends not just to humans but to all living things. Hence, they promote--- wait for it, plant-based eating! This "Tamang Kain" mommy goes happy-happy-joy-joy! So, every Friday, when the kids put on their chef's hat, they are taught how to prepare basic vegetarian food!

As a newbie mom, I had no idea what happens in the daycare. So this is what I learned so far:

• They normally start the day with songs and prayers 
• Their nannies initiate and guide them in various activities such as coloring, writing, stacking and interacting with fellow children
• They have morning snacks, lunch, and afternoon snack time
• They have sleeping time in the afternoon
• On Fridays, the pre-school children hold their weekly culminating activity with various themes. While we were there they had what they call "Young Chef's Day" where they prepare or assemble easy to prepare vegetarian food. Kids in the daycare can take part of it, too!

Nannies

Since it was my first time to put my child in daycare, I was asked to prepare the following upon my inquiry:

• Diapers
• Change of clothes
• Indoor shoes (Rubber shoes or any closed shoes that would prevent slipping will do.)
• Food (Better if you can label those for breakfast, lunch and afternoon snacks.)
• Utensils (For us it was her favorite spill-proof bowl, spoon, and sippy glass.)
• Milk
• Blanket (for their sleeping time)
• Wipes

For convenience, we placed all her things in a slightly big sealable Tupperware, which you can leave in the daycare should you be coming in for the days to come. For us, since we know we will be leaving her for at least 2 weeks, we simply left her things there and brought home just the soiled clothes, and empty food containers.

Before leaving your child, you will be asked if you have specific instructions or “bilin” while you are away. Best to write it down and leave the note with them so they’d have something to refer to. I was happy to know that their eclectic progressive approach took the best practices from Montessori and Waldorf, and nannies are knowledgeable about cloth diapering, proper breastmilk handling and preparation, and baby led-weaning. It was such a relief because it took me less time in explaining how to change nappies, thaw and prepare my breastmilk, encourage self-feeding to my little one, and abstaining her from gadgets during playtime. Taking off from these, I knew I was leaving my child in good hands.

As a working mom, institutions like these are very helpful. It gave me and husband some peace of mind for the 3 weeks that our nanny was away. Suffice to say, we got lucky to get hold of KAI when we needed it. Based from experience, most daycares especially in the Makati area are always full. And, though some would offer babysitting or private daycare services in their home, it may be uncomfortable leaving your child in a stranger's house, right? For those who find themselves in the same shoes as us, these are some tips I may be able to share when choosing the right daycare for you:

Research

Try to find out if the approach followed by the institution fits your practice. We like keeping track of their milestones, and if we intend to partner with institutions like this, they should be in the same page as us especially because our children will be left under their care majority of the time everyday. In our case, we encourage Montessori or Waldorf at home. We also practice Baby-led Weaning, Cloth Diapering and No meat policy when it comes to her food. KAI was perfect for us because of their eclectic progressivism curriculum, which is a combination of the best practices from Montessori and Waldorf. Now we realized, those art works they make every day isn't done just to keep them busy. It greatly helps improve their gross and fine motor skills such as the pencil/crayon grasp. Apart from that, she became more emphatic with fellow children, and she became better at fixing and returning her own toys. 

Teacher and Child ratio

More than anything else, this is important to ensure that your child will be attended to by the nannies. Younger children, especially infants below 1 year need more special attention. The lower the ratio the better, because aside from overseeing their activity, nannies need to connect to the emotional needs of your child, too. This means responding not only to their happy moments, but during meltdown as well. If two or more children are distressed at the same time, it would be harder for them to provide the proper time and stimulation needed by each child if their hands are already full to begin with.

Know the details

Do not be afraid to ask. Who will oversee her while you're gone? Do they provide the meals or do you bring your own? How often do they clean your child? What is their protocol should somebody claim to pick up your child on your behalf? What is their typical schedule for the day? These are just some of the things I myself asked during my inquiry. If you do not feel comfortable with the environment, then perhaps you should find a place more suitable to your child's needs. As a parent, you can never be too sure especially when it comes to your child's safety. So what if they think you're too picky or too strict. A mother's instinct never goes wrong. As they always say, Mothers know best.

:)