Originally Posted by youretooloud:
I've always thought the reports were stupid. LOL. Especially in a large group. What happens, is at the end of nap time, one teacher just throws in a bunch of info that may or may not have happened that day, then tosses it in the pile and moves on to the next one. The teachers are extremely busy, and don't have time to write a daily report, so they just stick whatever they have time on the sheet.
(other than incident reports, or medication I think those daily reports are a waste of a teacher's time)
I think what you should look at is, are the other kids happy? Do the other kids have fun? Are they friends? If you don't see a happy group, then it might not be the right place. If you have any gut feelings that it's not the right fit, keep looking. Ask your friends where their kids go. Ask complete strangers where their kids go. The exact, perfect place is out there. You just have to trust your instincts.
As I type this, I have five little girls playing hot chocolate store. They are having fun... I am not intervening. If they need something from me, they ask... but, otherwise, I'm staying out of it.
At nap time, we watch a movie every day.
My daughter is in college now, and she has some of the same friends she met when she was five months old. They've been friends for over 18 years. She's going to try a new church this week with a girl she's known since they were two years old.
If I teach nothing else in my daycare, as long as they know how to make friends, and take care of their own needs, I've done my job.
*however..I do a loosely based curriculum here, so I can't pretend we just play all day and the kids just flutter happily through the day. We do opened ended art projects, and the kids all learn to recognize letters and numbers, and other basics before school starts*
As a parent with a 1.5 year old in an in-home daycare I have to disagree about the daily reports. I get a daily report with the type of each diaper (wet/BM), what he ate that day at each meal and snack, and how long his nap was. This is also how she lets me know when she's running low on his supplies. All the other kids are older and don't get the daily report since they're potty trained and eating fine so I know she has the time to really keep track and gives me truthful information. And it is extremely helpful to me. It allows me to know if he'll need to go to bed earlier because he had a short nap, allows me to plan his dinner so I'm not duplicating (I'm big on nutrition and variety), and allows me to adjust his diet if he's constipated (which he's prone to). I also speak with his provider every time I pick him up but there's usually a couple of parents picking up at the same time and so its hard to get all the details. It also helps when DH picks him up because he often forgets what she told him
I definitely don't think its a waste of time for a provider if they really put the effort into it. I would be concerned that a provider was overloaded or just getting burned out if they couldn't do something as simple as scribble a few notes on a piece of paper throughout the day.