Kindergarten

When children are under five years of age, many parents consider putting them into care. The main reason for this is that both parents want to return back to work or attend to various personal activities. Even though putting the children into care can be a tough decision but one that has to be made. It helps in promoting mental growth in the children and helps them in learning new skills. There are three main options that can be considered when putting your child into care.

The first option is to hire a full time nanny. This can be great, especially if both parents are at work. The nanny can be home all day to take care of the child without any distractions. There are also no other children present so she can provide complete attention to educate and raise your child. The downside of this decision is that nannies are generally very expensive. General price range for nannies is between $15 and $25. This might mean one parent’s entire salary going towards payment to the nanny!

This is where a caregiver (usually a parent themselves) takes children into their home and looks after them altogether – quite similar to a childcare centre, however there is only one caregiver, and therefore less children to care for. In home childcare is considerably less expensive than hiring a nanny. The only downside to in home childcare is that your caregiver is generally not a qualified early childhood teacher (although they will be loving parents).

Lastly, you can put your child into a childcare centre. These centres are set up for providing an educational and nurturing environment for children, and giving them an opportunity to develop new skills and interests. They can have a healthy environment where they can interact with other children. Childcare centres have trained and qualified early childhood teachers giving you an assurance that your child is being taken care of by people who know how to deal with children. Most childcare centres are open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and five days a week. So, there is no need to worry about rushing to or from work every day.

A great thing about childcare centres is that they make your children be a part of many interesting activities as well as community excursions. A few examples of these include Kapa Haka lessons, visit to the park, dance classes, art lessons, visit to the library, and more. In this way the child not only learns many new things, but also develops new hobbies and interests.

Some childcare centres work with children in age-divided-groups (i.e. a group for under two year olds and a group for over two year olds) – this means that the children will learn and develop in areas specific to their ages, so that they can work at their own pace.