Childcare

Evaluating Out-of-Home ChildcareIn both day care centers and family day care, two processes serve to ensure quality in childcare-licensing and accreditation. Licensing is the means by which childcare providers are monitored by each state. All sta...

Day Care Centers and Preschools Day care centers, as well as preschools, typically are institutional settings similar to elementary schools. Often, children are grouped in classroom-type arrangements according to age, with one or more teachers or...

Monitoring the Childcare SituationWhether or not your child seems comfortable with your childcare arrangement, it is necessary to keep tabs on the situation to ensure that it continues to be satisfactory. If your child is old enough to express hi...

Backup ChildcareWhat if your child attends a family day care and the day care provider's own children develop a contagious illness? What if the day care provider becomes sick? Suppose your child is in a day care center, but comes down with a stom...

Au PairsAu pairs may be a more cost-effective option for families with two or more children than paying for each child to attend outside childcare. An au pair is a young person from another country who comes to the United States to absorb America...

Day Care Cuisine With more mothers working full or part time, childcare is a fact of life for most families. Nearly 13 million American preschoolers are enrolled in childcare programs, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Th...

How to Get What You Want from the Nanny Love for Hire Suppose you could create the ideal nanny. Chances are it would be someone who sat down for her interview and announced, "I have really enjoyed being a nanny. I honestly don't believe there is ...

Believe in BabysittersBefore we had kids, dinner guests shared their babysitting morays with us: Except for a handful of evenings when relatives visited, the couple didn't go out by themselves for the first three years of their children's lives Â...

Most experts advise waiting as long as possible before putting your child into day care. ...

The End-of-Summer Childcare GapA Working Parent's Nightmare In the last few weeks of summer, the phone rings off the hook at Parents in a Pinch, a Massachusetts-based childcare agency that specializes in helping parents in Boston and Baltimore fi...

In-home care and commercial daycare centers are quite different in many aspects. ...

What actions should you take when your children get sick at day care? ...

Web cameras that allow parents to observe their children's daycare center can foster peace of mind. ...

Pre-employment questions are low-tech, easy tests you can perform when screening someone to take care of your kids. ...

Child Care Safety Checklist for ParentsCRIBS: Make sure cribs meet current national safety standards and are in good condition. Look for a certification safety seal. Older cribs may not meet current standards. Crib slats should be no more than 2 ...