Parents and Teachers Can Fix Full-Day Childcare
It’s not easy being a parent! Most parents are balancing full-time work with the crucial task of raising a child. And you’re expected to be an expert at both! But by adjusting our approach, and trusting our children, we can find a healthy balance.
At Lakewood Montessori, we’re proud of how we’ve built our program over our 20+ years of operation. There’s a reason why we’re different from other preschools in Boise! Read on for our success story, plus helpful tips for families considering full-day childcare.
What Are the Downsides to Full-Day Childcare?
To start, let’s be honest. Full day childcare leaves a lot to be desired:
- Children are moved from activity to activity on a predetermined schedule.
- They’re shuffled between classrooms at different times of day.
- They get bounced from teacher to teacher.
- The hours they spend outside the home are LONG.
- Childcare centers are loud, busy, and stressful.
These conditions don’t exist because parents don’t care, or because childcare teachers are neglectful. This environment is a byproduct of trying to fit a child’s development into a schedule that meets adult needs and expectations. After all, parents NEED care for their child all day. Most families have at least one parent working full-time outside the home. They also want to know that their child is safe, happy, and learning.
Teachers want to show that their program is valuable. That means offering a full curriculum, lots of physical play, and extras like before- and after-care programs. That means that a child in full-time care has a packed and busy schedule that feels more like an adult’s workday. Unfortunately, children aren’t developmentally ready for a packed schedule. They’re still learning to regulate their behavior and feelings.
How Did Our Preschool in Boise Change This Approach?
Early in Lakewood Montessori’s existence, we had before-care and after-care programs, plus half-day and full-day schedules. We had our own extracurriculars in the mornings, and hosted outside extracurricular programs in the afternoons. Children could have up to ten big transitions in a day, and half a dozen teachers! And we wondered how our peaceful Montessori classrooms could produce tired, overstimulated children.
We were inspired by a visiting Montessorian to look into how our program was structured. To examine the pace of our day from a child’s perspective. We did research, visited other Montessori programs who were doing things differently, and took inventory of the needs of the children in our care. And we came to an important conclusion…
We needed to schedule our day at the child’s pace.
What Should Full-Time Care Look Like?
Think about your workday. What would an ideal workday look like? Is it…
- Busy or relaxed?
- Social or solitary?
- Indoors or outdoors?
- Filled with unexpected challenges, or predictable routines?
Adults have developed tastes and habits related to their work lives. Young children are still in the process of developing those tastes and habits: a process that will take many more years. They have sponge-like brains that absorb the environment around them without a filter. This means that their environment is a powerful influence. It can literally help to shape the neural pathways as they grow. That means that choosing the right environment for a child is a big responsibility for parents!
At our preschool in Boise, the vast majority of our students came from families that needed full-time care, just like Maria Montessori’s first students. Dr. Montessori discovered that children thrived in an environment that was rich with experiences, but also:
- Slow and unhurried,
- Based in a familiar, consistent environment,
- With opportunities for uninterrupted work, unstructured play, and time to rest and socialize,
- Where children could choose how they spent their time.
We studied highly successful full-day programs, which emphasized a home-like and unhurried day for their full-day students. We recognized that one of the benefits the students enjoyed was the gift of time. Children enjoyed long days and long summers to approach learning at their own pace. They engaged with less academically-focused activities like art, gardening, and baking. But they were still advancing academically! They had more time and space to engage with academics, so they approached them at their own pace. We knew we could create the same feeling at Lakewood: homey, peaceful, and rich with valuable experiences.
We started by adapting our schedule and routines: We eliminated unnecessary transitions. We moved extracurricular classes to one morning per week. Instead of dropping off children in the library, we opened the classrooms from the beginning to the end of the day. The children’s classrooms became one central “daytime home”. This was all-day Montessori!
Then we addressed the biggest transition in our school year: summer. Instead of breaking up the year with summer camps, we enrolled children year-round. We moved to full-year teacher contracts to provide a consistent teaching team for each classroom. We “pinched” our operating hours to 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM: enough time to support a full-time working parent, but not so long that we required a second opening and closing staff. Now, children have the same teachers all day, all year. We coined the term “All-Year Montessori” to describe our approach.
How Did This Work Better?
The parents at our school noticed the difference in the way their children felt. There were fewer tantrums at drop off and pick up. Evening routines became more manageable for both parents and children. Best of all, parents saw that academics weren’t sacrificed when the pace slowed down!
Our teachers started to notice how their relationships with parents were growing. We moved drop-off and pick-up directly to the classroom, and suddenly teachers had time to connect face-to-face with parents at the beginning and end of the day. Parents were getting clearer and more useful information about their children’s day, every day!
At Lakewood Montessori, our graduates are still prepared for elementary school. They can take out their math lessons first thing in the morning, or later in the afternoon. There’s no pressure to achieve on the school calendar’s timeline. Children can de-stress and self-regulate between activities. They have the gift of time.
What Does This Mean for YOUR Child?
There are things YOU can prioritize when you’re looking for your child’s “daytime home”. We’ve put together a couple of useful tools for families who are searching for full-day care:
Priorities for Your Child’s “Perfect School Day”
This is a way to brainstorm the elements you’re looking for in your child’s daytime environment. Organizing your thoughts can help you evaluate whether a preschool or daycare is truly the right fit for your child:
- What stresses your child out?
- What helps them regulate their actions and feelings?
- When they’re doing a solo activity at home, how long do they like to spend before moving on to the next thing? Does it vary based on the activity?
- How much time would your child like to spend outside on a beautiful day?
- Finally, list your child’s favorite things to do. Which of these things do they like to do with others? Which do they like to do by themselves?
If you’re searching for full-time, year-round care, ask the following questions when you’re researching childcare options:
- Will my child get uninterrupted time to work with the learning materials, or will the teacher move them between centers/activities on a schedule?
- What will my child do if they need a break? Where will they go? What if someone else is using that space? What calming/self-regulation activities are available?
- Can my child eat when they’re hungry?
- Can children socialize freely? Can they choose to work together? Can they choose who they work with?
- What is the schedule for extracurriculars? Can my child decide whether or not they want to attend, or is it the teacher’s choice?
- Does the environment feel home-like? Is it noisy and stressful when the children are playing?
- Will my child’s teacher be with them all day?
- Will my child’s teacher be with them during the summer?
- Will my child have to spend time in “holding spaces” like an after-school room?
If you’re a parent in Boise, we invite you to see the example we set at Lakewood Montessori. See what a “daytime home” looks like in action. Schedule a tour today!
