When children reach the age where they need to go to child care, you as a parent might be stressing whether a daycare center or home base child care is better for your little one. While it is not to say that one is better than the other, the option is entirely dependent on what you value and consider important to you for raising your child. The best decision is an informed one, and we at Parkland Children’s Academy would like to give you all the information you need about both daycare centers and home-based child care in order to make a decision that you and your child will be happy with.
It is important to understand what the difference between a daycare center and home-based child care is before looking at the pros and cons of each and deciding which is best for you and your child.
Daycare Centers
These are centers or institutions that are licensed to provide care for early childhood or children which are not yet of school going age. These centers may be all-day or part-day with services akin to what you would expect from a teacher. The purpose of a daycare center is to provide parents with a place to leave their child without worry as they will be around people who are trained in taking care of children and providing for their needs.
- Pros
- Larger Facilities – because daycare centers are established institutions, they often have larger and more facilities which to teach in and for the children to play in.
- Structure – daycare centers have structured schedules and provide a more school-like environment and feeling without the pressure of being graded or assessed. This can be especially beneficial for children to become used to routine and structure before entering kindergarten.
- More Children – there is greater opportunity to interact with children of the same age group, helping children to learn social skills and make friends.
- Curriculum – daycare centers are more likely to provide a curriculum which is age-appropriate and educationally enriched to develop literacy, language, social and emotional development.
- Cons
- Cost – since centers have more costs involved with running the institution, the tuition cost is usually also more.
- Exposure to Disease – since there are more children in a daycare center, there is a higher probability that children can get sick. Even with good hygiene and hand washing procedure, young children are more likely to practice poor cough etiquette or touch their mouths, nose and eyes.
Home Based Child Care
Home based child care, or family child care is basically a daycare that is operated out of the house of an owner. Since it is based in the home, the number of children who attend are much smaller, and there is a mixed age-group. This promotes the feeling of a family setting rather than a classroom setting.
- Pros
- Smaller Number of Children – this means that there will be more individual attention for a child since daycare centers usually have fewer children enrolled.
- Affordability – because home base child care operated out of someone’s home and is not a “business” property, the cost will be less.
- Flexible Curriculum – because there is a mixed age-group and fewer children, there is often flexibility in the schedule and curriculum which allows more time for free play.
- Cons
- Curriculum – while the curriculum may be more flexible, there is the possibility that it is not an educationally enriched one.
- Fewer Caregivers – there is usually only one or two teachers in a home based child care. This leads to the possibility that there won’t be as much supervision, and if the teacher is sick or need to take leave, there is no one else to run the child care and an alternative arrangement has to be made.
If, after you’ve read this and decided that a daycare center is the choice for you, feel free to contact us at Parkland Children’s Academy to enroll your child or enquire more about our educationally enriched, quality child daycare center.