Originally Posted by nannyde:
I really like that you pick him up as soon as you can. That's awesome.
What I would do with the late drop offs is assure the Center that you are not allowing him to sleep in in the morning and that you will be on time for lunch so that they don't have a kid awake at nap and have to serve a lunch after the kids are already done. These are the two main problems with parents dropping off late.
Another thing is that the kid is missing out on things when they get there at lunchtime or later. I always schedule special projects, field trips, etc. in the AM hours, plus our circle time, small group time and center play is the morning. A kid coming that late would basically eat lunch, nap, eat snack and have free play, or alternately not eat lunch or nap because they've so recently woken up and eaten breakfast, disrupt naptime and then become irritable in the late afternoon because they now need a nap (as you said).
Finally, late arrivals throw off the ratio....the ratio for 3 and 4yo's here is 1:10. If I have 9 at 9:30 (when the counts go in) and my assistant is sent somewhere else, and then I get two late-comers, I am now out of ratio.
We try to discourage persistent late-arrivals for reasons other than dr. appts, but we still routinely have kids coming in at 11:30 and 12. Not fun. I would advise the parent to try and drop her son off at least by 9:30 and then picking him up as soon as possible. That way, he'll get a significant portion of his daycare day and she gets sufficient awake-time with him too
