Day Care Observation

While observing the La Petite Academy where my nephew goes to class, I found the environment very encouraging for children. One thing I noticed upon arrival to the daycare is that there is keypad that only parents and staff have the codes to, which allows the facility to be safe. There are numerous animals, letters, and numbers on the walls, along with the children artwork. Upon arrival, I saw that they had each student wash their hands before starting their work. Each room of the daycare was separated by age group allowing them to learn at their level.

My observation of the two year olds, started early in the morning where they began singing songs and doing exercises to get the children motivated. They then sat in a circle and started to sing the alphabet. Besides working on the alphabet in the time I spent at the daycare, the children also wrote the letters the best they could. Another big observation I made, is that even during the times the children were to be singing, sitting in a circle, or doing what they were supposed to do the environment was not structured very well, and seemed flexible. They did have routines like greeting one another, napping, as well as snack times, which seemed to be easy.

The children at La Petite Academy had a lot of room to run and play. There was a large fenced in area connected to the daycare where the children went out and played for a while during the day. However, it seemed that depending on how the children were behaving, and if they were to the point of not listening, then the children went outside to play and run off some of their energy.

The toys at the daycare that were for the two year olds seemed to have a lot that were the same. I am not sure if this is because they would argue a lot amongst each other over which toy they wanted or if some other child had a toy that another kid wanted, so I think that the duplicate toys made it easier and not so many fights. Although, while I was there, I saw that some of the children were biting when they did not get their way, as well as some pulling each other's hair. The discipline that the daycare gave for the behavior was to make the child have time out. The time out they use is based on the child's age. For example, the two-year-olds would stay in time out for two minutes. However, they sometimes give the child an extra minute so they can calm down.

From my observation, the daycare is focused on using a lot of consistency. They have their times in the circle playing together, snakes, free time, lunch, and naptime. The routine is everyday the same way that way the children know what is expected of them everyday. The naptime is for one hour each day, and gives the children time to rest up before the afternoon hours.

I enjoyed visiting the daycare to get a good sense on what goes on in the child's world while they are away from home. They set out to make each child as well as parent feel very safe while they are in the childcare providers care. The organization and routines offer the children a good learning environment as well as fun. They allow socialization between the children giving them a bright start for their future.