https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Thu, 21 May 2026 09:28:12 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/favorite-things-about-your-daycarepreschool#post-2729644 Wed, 26 Apr 2017 21:58:48 +0000 gingerbebe 2729644@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Every single teacher knows my boys by name and my older son knows every single teacher's name, even though they aren't his class teachers. The director is very hands on and gets involved in jumping in and helping out all day long. She also knows every kid and can speak easily to me about my son's specific quirks and personality on the spot. </p> <p>There is one access point into the school through the director's office so she sees everyone coming in and out. </p> <p>The school sends notices through the Remind app and there's a Shutterfly share site so parents and teachers can upload pictures of events. </p> <p>They require nap or quiet rest time all the way through pre-K. </p> <p>The school has weekly themes that the teachers base their lessons on and we get a monthly newsletter that tells us the themes so we can reinforce at home, plus any events coming up and the birthdays for that month. Our class teacher then posts a calendar for the month that shows what they will be teaching on each day (example, it's Earth/Recycling week so lessons are built around things like the color green, leaves, cans and boxes, recycling bin, triangle (like the recycling sign), the letter R, raccoon, etc). So I can easily ask my kid "did you learn about raccoons today?" or ask him to help me sort recycling, etc.</p> <p>They auto-debit tuition from our account each month which is one less thing to remember.</p> <p>They will heat lunches if you want. </p> <p>They post a monthly snack menu. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/favorite-things-about-your-daycarepreschool#post-2729547 Wed, 26 Apr 2017 16:05:27 +0000 Mrs. Microscope 2729547@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Access to playdough, some sort of art project (paint, paper gluing, etc), and sensory table (water, dirt, sand, paper shreds, etc) everyday. Access to outside playtime everyday (unless raining hard or snow). They put sunscreen on the kids before going outside (either brought from home or theirs with signed permission slip from parents). I also like the community building events, as they are fun celebrations that are not religious. We had fall festival with games, a pancake breakfast in the winter, and an art show this spring, all on Saturdays so two whole family could attend together and parents could engage with the community. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/favorite-things-about-your-daycarepreschool#post-2729546 Wed, 26 Apr 2017 16:04:50 +0000 Mrsbells 2729546@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@KayKay: I love that we get pictures throughout the day of what they are up to and what they learn from each activity. It helps us to have a good follow up discussion about their day after school because we actually know what they are doing.</p> <p>Also have extracurricular activies onsite such as dance class or karate really makes it easier for us as parents. DD is signed up for ballet through her daycare and I love that we dont have to take her to her dance class on a separate day and time </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/favorite-things-about-your-daycarepreschool#post-2729537 Wed, 26 Apr 2017 15:41:07 +0000 merriment 2729537@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Lots of outdoor space and time spent outdoors in all weather conditions (they have a good stash of extra coats and boots!).<br /> It's very inclusive in that no holidays are celebrated. We have kids from single parent households, or with same sex parents so there are no Mother's Day or Father's Day activities that would leave kids out. There are kids from all over the world, so religious holidays are also not celebrated. They still do fun things (like pajama day on Halloween, etc. but it's inclusive).<br /> It's also totally play based. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/favorite-things-about-your-daycarepreschool#post-2729496 Wed, 26 Apr 2017 14:23:55 +0000 catlady 2729496@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>So many things. Let's see:</p> <p>- Breakfast, lunch, and snacks provided (toddler and preschool)<br /> - Diapers and crib sheets provided (infants)<br /> - Daily music class with rotating group of musicians<br /> - Weekly individual music class for preschoolers (piano, drums, or violin)<br /> - Monthly cultural theme and performances, plus CDs and songbooks to take home<br /> - Sing-a-longs every so often on weekends<br /> - Video monitors<br /> - Tadpoles reporting<br /> - Montessori<br /> - Kids go outside every day when weather cooperates</p> <p>Things that are specific to our school:<br /> - Location (on my way to work, within walking distance of several parks and playgrounds)<br /> - Really love the teachers in LO1's preschool class especially </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/favorite-things-about-your-daycarepreschool#post-2729492 Wed, 26 Apr 2017 14:10:50 +0000 Mrs. Lemon-Lime 2729492@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Video cameras! Ours do not show a view of the changing table. I can log on from my phone or computer and get a glimpse of also throughout his day.</p> <p>The art projects displayed in the room. At least once a week the room transforms with new projects and theme decor. I like that little ones is constantly visually stimulated and gets to do work with different materials on crafts.</p> <p>The jungle gym apparatus. LO spends time in two classrooms every day that has fun and expensive climbing equipment that we could not justify buying on our own. I like that even indoors he can get pretty physical climbing and crawling through the apparatus. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/favorite-things-about-your-daycarepreschool#post-2729461 Wed, 26 Apr 2017 13:20:52 +0000 Mamaof2 2729461@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@KayKay: I loved the "daily" we got thru the Tadpole system (came to your email)<br /> It told you what they did that day , nap times, what they ate and then something cute/funny or issues if needed. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/favorite-things-about-your-daycarepreschool#post-2729384 Wed, 26 Apr 2017 11:30:52 +0000 snowjewelz 2729384@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I like they they spend a ton of time outside as long as the weather is good! Very very play based but also a lot of different activities to expose them to new things. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/favorite-things-about-your-daycarepreschool#post-2729342 Wed, 26 Apr 2017 10:36:30 +0000 MrsADS 2729342@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We love the very low ratios, each child gets individual reading time, lots of outside play, and lots of fun activities - for example, they are planting a garden and even my LO's class (1 year olds) are involved and get to dig in the dirt). They have Spanish (sing songs, etc. with a teacher). </p> <p>You can see my ice cream post for my negative information. Lol. I wish there were less treats/less emphasis on treats for holidays (like decorating cookies or cupcakes for each holiday). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/favorite-things-about-your-daycarepreschool#post-2729324 Wed, 26 Apr 2017 10:22:40 +0000 krispi 2729324@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>This may not be as helpful for your board meeting, but my favorite thing is the teachers and how much they care about my daughter. We have fairly low teacher ratios, and I feel she gets a lot of one-on-one attention. Within each room, they also break the kids into sub-groups by age, and one teacher is in charge of that group. For instance, in the baby room, the 4 youngest babies had one teacher, the 4 middle babies had another teacher, and the 4 oldest babies had another. While the teachers help each other out, it made sure there was one person who was primarily in charge of overseeing her development. It was her infant teacher, not me, who figured out the secret to getting her to do her tummy time (important because she had torticollis) was to take her outside on the porch. Little personal things like that. Sometimes the teachers from the older rooms would come hold her and play with her on their lunch breaks, which was more attention for her plus getting to know the teachers before she moved up. </p> <p>I like that they provide all her food, since she started solids. They also provide her milk once she switched from formula / breastmilk. They provide organic food, although they follow that definition loosely, as I know they use Cheerios and goldfish sometimes. They post a weekly menu so you know what's being served. They're also really flexible if you don't want what they offer and want to bring your own food. </p> <p>One thing I didn't like in the infant room was that there was no schedule for naps. I had her on a nap schedule when she was at home, but that went out the window when she was at school. She would often take a long nap when we got home, but if she'd had an earlier bedtime, it probably would have resulted in a cranky baby.</p> <p>I also wish I got more information about what she does all day. We get a daily report, but in the toddler room it isn't as detailed as the infant report was. For instance, the toddler report doesn't include what they served for meals; I have to find the menu if I want to know. It would be nice to have more of an automated and/or camera system to check up on her, but our daycare is a small neighborhood business, not a big chain, so I don't see that happening anytime soon.</p> <p>Another thing I wish was different, but we knew going in, is that they have very short hours. They're only open from 7:30 - 5:30. We've juggled our work schedules to make it work, and I'm lucky to have a pretty flexible job, but it can be stressful on bad traffic days making sure I can leave work and get there in time. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/favorite-things-about-your-daycarepreschool#post-2729199 Wed, 26 Apr 2017 07:34:27 +0000 Banana330 2729199@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I love the web cams! I can check in to what they are doing at any point in my day. </p> <p>we have stroller parking but I wish it was covered/secure. We bought a cheap second hand stroller for commuting because it isn't. </p> <p>Amazing food. My toddler eats better than I do M-F! </p> <p>Really loving staff. I think staff do make a huge difference and my DD's teachers love her and are super sweet. She asks to go to daycare on the weekends sometimes! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/favorite-things-about-your-daycarepreschool#post-2729196 Wed, 26 Apr 2017 07:27:02 +0000 lioneyes 2729196@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Favorite things:<br /> -They have indoor stroller parking, so you can leave the stroller and be on your way after drop off<br /> -They are very loving and responsive to emails (both teacher and director)<br /> -They took my concerns about safety seriously and added more drills this year<br /> -Because w are in an urban area and space is at a premium, there's no outdoor space. BUT they have a playset inside, along with ride on toys.</p> <p>Least Favorite:<br /> -They are very disorganized (sending out notices last minute)<br /> -They don't really think things through to be age appropriate (holidays programs start with oldest kids so youngest have to sit through the whole thing) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/favorite-things-about-your-daycarepreschool#post-2729179 Wed, 26 Apr 2017 06:42:41 +0000 KayKay 2729179@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Thanks, everyone! These are great -- definitely some good ideas to bring up with our Board.</p> <p>@cakelady: 2 of our old daycares/preschools had amazing outdoor areas, and I really miss them. unfortunately (but also fortunately! ha) we live in a more urban place now, so I don't think there's much they can do. but i'm going to bring it up anyways!</p> <p>@mrsb2012: i LOVED not having to make any meals for my kiddos! plus i think it really helped DD1 try more things. they don't have a prep area/chef at this school :( </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/favorite-things-about-your-daycarepreschool#post-2729127 Tue, 25 Apr 2017 22:24:23 +0000 Anagram 2729127@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My oldest started in a public pre-k program this school year and it's been pretty amazing actually. We'd bounced around several daycares around this area, so I had developed a strong list of likes/dislikes (basically, it all boils down to the staff and the director), and I've been so pleased this year.</p> <p>Some of my favorite things are:</p> <p>-It's a class of 14 students with 1 head teacher and 1 assistant teacher</p> <p>-The teacher is super responsive by email. She always emails me by end of the day, but sometimes sooner like on her lunch break. Just yesterday, we exchanged 3 emails in one morning.</p> <p>-We have 2 very thorough parent/teacher conferences. One in Fall and another in Spring. I was impressed that the teacher had a long checklist of skills/milestones/emotional milestones or issues and took the time to go through each one with me and tell me where my kiddo was, what they hoped to see by the end of the year. The emotional part was the best because our previous daycare assessments didn't include emotional stuff--like her assessments really honed in on my daughter's strengths and weaknesses and it was nice to know her teacher notices those things and *cares*. Like she noticed LO is very social and verbally advanced...but also can be bossy and can have trouble sharing. And yes, that's 100% accurate. I love that her teacher is tracking her emotional skills.</p> <p>-I like the weekly newsletter the teacher sends out. It tells us what new books they will read, what new songs/fingerplays they will learn, what their new centers are for the week, what their new word wall words are. It makes it easy for me to reinforce those things at home.</p> <p>-I like the curriculum--it's play based. I like that they go walk to the local park for recess, and I like that they play games.</p> <p>-I like all the special activities they do--this week is Week of the Young Child and they've had so many special crafts. They do a good job of celebrating the little stuff, which makes school fun.</p> <p>-And I like the old-school assistant Teacher, who is a little harder on my girl. The TA reminds her to talk less and eat her lunch, etc. It's a good mix between the super sweet head teacher and the old school TA. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/favorite-things-about-your-daycarepreschool#post-2729123 Tue, 25 Apr 2017 22:09:48 +0000 MrsB2012 2729123@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I love our daycare! It's had a bit of a rough go for the last few months and most of the staff changed over which was really unfortunate, but I still am really happy with it.</p> <p>It's flexible. You give your schedule a month in advance. You pay per days that you use. You have to use the same minimum amount of days that you pay for, but other than that, it's totally flexible. That's super important for me as I work a rotation and didn't want to waste money on full time daycare when I don't need it the same each week.</p> <p>It's got better hours than most, being open from 630am-6pm. </p> <p>All meals are included</p> <p>They have special date nights for parents every few months. They stay open until 9pm and you can do a date night, where you bring your kids and leave them at no additional cost.<br /> They also do the same thing on a weekend in December so you can get Christmas shopping done.</p> <p>They have cameras in each room so you can check on your kids. </p> <p>There's a few things I don't like about it, but those are the things that ticked our boxes </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/favorite-things-about-your-daycarepreschool#post-2729102 Tue, 25 Apr 2017 20:57:51 +0000 CakeLady 2729102@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>There is an amazing outdoor area with lots of different creative activities, for example baking pans attached to the fence with various mallets to make music). It also feels like a community they organize occasional weekend play dates at local parks, moms and dads nights out, and family yard days where everyone pitches in to work on the playground. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/favorite-things-about-your-daycarepreschool#post-2729099 Tue, 25 Apr 2017 20:42:39 +0000 Mrs. Lion 2729099@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My absolute favorite thing is that during the time of the day when they do teacher directed activities only half of the class is in the classroom. The other half is on the playground. Then they switch. It keeps the level of activity/chaos way way down and I think it provides a much more peaceful and functional environment for all parties. The school has a level of calm I have never seen in a daycare before, and it is fabulous! it is also really great for my kid with sensory issues, because if he gets overwhelmed during group time they can offer him extra outside time with the other group, which helps him stay more regulated. I wish all schools did this! We were considering moving him next year to a public pre-k but I think this may be the one thing that keeps us at this school. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/favorite-things-about-your-daycarepreschool#post-2729073 Tue, 25 Apr 2017 19:17:22 +0000 Silva 2729073@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <br /><p><i>This comment has been deleted by the original poster.</i></p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/favorite-things-about-your-daycarepreschool#post-2729052 Tue, 25 Apr 2017 18:19:51 +0000 Kemma 2729052@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I love that my kids are together all day! My children were 3.5 and 14 months when they started daycare / preschool and I really like the fact they were together even if they didn't choose to play together (daycare takes kids from age 1-5 and they're all in one big space together).</p> <p>I like that our daycare has an open door policy, I can pick the kids up at any time or people on the "approved" list (in our case, my parents) can call in or do pick up.</p> <p>Our daycare does quarterly family events in the late afternoon / evening which is a really nice opportunity to socialise with the teachers and the other families, I also love having the opportunity to spend time with the kids in their "other home".</p> <p>Our daycare is predominantly play based and the kids have open access to the outdoor area (unless the weather is terrible!) and they encourage the kids to get muddy and sandy!</p> <p>Something I also liked was that our daycare used to provide all the cutlery for the kids (kids bring all their own food), it was one less thing for me to worry about in the morning! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/favorite-things-about-your-daycarepreschool#post-2729040 Tue, 25 Apr 2017 17:46:24 +0000 Mrs. Pickle 2729040@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I love how secure it is. You need a key card to access the classroom area and only two people have one. Plus there are cameras in the rooms and the directors can always see what's going on.</p> <p>I love that it's a good mix of learning and play time and the teaching stuff is age appropriate. </p> <p>One other pro is they do a lot of specialty things and take the kids outside often. In the past month there was a garden day (all the kids planted flowers), a community helper day (firefighters came with a truck), and as Easter egg hunt. Next month there will be a water day before school lets out. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/favorite-things-about-your-daycarepreschool#post-2728981 Tue, 25 Apr 2017 16:12:27 +0000 youboots 2728981@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Ours is really small. I can text the director anytime and we are friendly. They staff based on need. I just let them know the days/hours I need to bring T during the prior month. So one week I might bring her 8 hours then none the next then 12 the next. Sadly they are at a school so they are closed in the summer. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/favorite-things-about-your-daycarepreschool#post-2728976 Tue, 25 Apr 2017 16:07:57 +0000 KayKay 2728976@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I'm going to our preschool's annual board meeting tomorrow and am looking for ideas that we could try to make our school better. We've been to a number of different schools due to moves, so I have a couple ideas for "easier" things (e.g., a costume exchange) as well as some for some harder/maybe impossible things (e.g., changes to drop-off/pick-up routine). </p> <p>Crowdsourcing at its finest: what are some of your favorite things about your school? Or, vice versa, what are some things you wish were different? Could be related to facilities, events, parent/community support, etc.</p> <p>Thanks! </p>