Preschool

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aycare and preschool are great learning environments for children, not only to learn hard skills like math, reading and writing, but also soft skills like patience, communication, and teamwork. While socializing and interacting with others is critical for young children, being surrounded by other kids also means that your little one may pick up a bad habit or two. Nose picking, biting, and loud ear-splitting shrieking is not something you hope they’d learn, but it could happen. So be prepared and learn how to help your child break these bad habits.

1. Nose Picking. EWWW!
Nose picking is embarrassing but resist the urge to say anything negative. Most children pick their nose because they are bored, curious, or trying to relieve stress. Often times it is an unconscious habit. Children may also pick their nose because they have an excess of mucus and it “feels like something is stuck up there.”

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he first time I dropped my son off at day care, I was split between two distinct emotions. 1) the guilt/sadness that surrounds handing your beautiful baby over to another for the first time and 2) the unabashed giddiness that came on like a rush of free-time to the brain.  What was I going to do with all these baby-free hours?  I had work and errands naturally but all of those had previously been juggled with a baby on the hip, in the car, in the shopping cart.  I smelt freedom!

Fast-forward two weeks and somebody had clearly been up to something sneaky with the time-space continuum.  What had previously seemed like a huge block of free time had become mere minutes.  Nine to five had compressed itself into the space of one read through the email, a load of laundry and a conference call.  Maybe I ate a granola bar for lunch in there somewhere.  How could it be so!

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We’ve had a pretty warm fall, but as the temperature drops, it’s time to prepare for the start of the cold and flu season. For parents with children enrolled in a child care facility, the big question is: are my kids safe with all the germs in daycare?

Here’s the truth:

Any parent who has looked for a daycare in Washington DC can relate to the frustration of year-long waitlists. Child care costs are astounding here (DC wins the trophy of the most expensive place for child care). Yet, finding daycare in Washington DC is darn hard. Why!? We’ve been asked this question a number of times while building CareLuLu, a website to help parents find a great daycare or preschool. So, we decided to discuss it in this post.

1. There is no actual shortage of child care slots in Washington DC.

This may come as a surprise, but there are in fact just as many openings in daycare centers and in-home daycares as there are children needing care. According to Child Care Aware of America, there are 24,770 spaces in DC for 24,552 children under the age of 6 potentially needing child care (2012 numbers.) Almost a perfect match! However…

2. Child care centers are not always located in areas where there’s demand.

In highly concentrated urban areas, especially where rent is high, there are fewer child care providers because of greater operation costs. Well, DC definitely falls into the high rent category! However, certain neighborhoods have more demand than others. If you’re willing to drive a few miles (or dare I say it, cross the bridge into Virginia!), you may get lucky.

3. Not all daycares have waitlists, just the ones you’ve heard of.

Parents hear about the same daycares and preschools over and over again. This can be because they really are fantastic. Or, because they do a great job with PR and marketing. Since everyone knows them, they tend to have waitlists. There are, however, other fantastic options with openings. They just don’t have the means or know-how to market themselves as effectively.

4. As parents, we contribute to the illusion that there are waitlists everywhere.

In highly urban areas like DC, parents tend to “play it safe” by putting their kids on several child care centers’ waitlists. You know, just so we can have a choice. Or at least make sure that we’ll get a spot somewhere. This is understandable (especially if you have no backup plan), but it creates the illusion that there are no openings anywhere.

5. Alright, finding daycare in Washington DC is actually a bit harder than in other places!

While it’s true there are as many openings as there are children needing care in DC, it’s also true that in other States (like VA or MD), there are more spots available than there is demand. So why is there a more balanced supply/demand in DC? Higher rent is one reason as described earlier but there are other potential reasons. For instance, DC is one of the few places in the country that offers free universal preschool. I’m not saying that people move to DC for that reason, but it can play a role. It did for this mom.

So while it can be harder to find a daycare or preschool in DC than in other places, there are actually enough openings to accommodate all the parents looking for care. You may need to drive a few miles or look for a home-based daycare if centers are full, but you should find a spot.

Oh, and of course, CareLuLu is a free resource that can help you find that perfect daycare!

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s a home-based day care provider, I am often asked for my best advice to help ease the “goodbye drama” that sometimes happens when a parent leaves his or her child at day care. For new parents, this is a big concern. Will my child cry? Will my child suffer? Will my child understand?

My answer is always the same, “It depends on your child’s age and it may actually be harder on you than on them.” Of course, this doesn’t mean your child won’t cry or cling onto you or sometimes even melt down for a moment, but it does mean that this transition from parent to child care provider or teacher is usually fleeting and absolutely dramatized.

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CareLuLu now has one hundred child care providers from the DC area listed on our site! All of these daycares and preschools are licensed and meet State or County standards. Many of them exceed those requirements!

For those child care providers that agree to let CareLuLu staff visit their facilities, we created the Verified seal of approval. These Verified providers undergo a much longer and more thorough review process answering over 100 of our questions. For these Verified providers, CareLuLu visits in person to take high-quality, real-world photos. Their profiles feature more detailed information to give parents the most up to date and complete overview. They include verified and in-depth reviews, which are written based on the feedback we receive from child care providers, parents whose children attend (or have attended) that specific center, and our staff that visits the facilities.

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uick question: What’s most important to you in a daycare? Please click here and take a minute to answer this 1 question. Please share with other parents! THANK YOU! 🙂

When I needed to find a daycare and a preschool for my girls, I spent days on Google, on the phone, and then visiting child care providers. I visited 16 centers before settling for the one that felt right for us. In this post I will share 10 tips that I hope will help you in your search for finding great and affordable child care.

1. Start your child care search early, as far as a year in advance, especially if you live in a concentrated urban area like Washington D.C. or San Francisco. This is even more important if you will be looking for an infant. It’s usually more difficult to find space for an infant than for a 3 or 4 year old because of the teacher-to-child ratio: for infants, you must have 1 teacher for 3-4 infants (depending on the State) but for a 4 year olds, it’s around 10.

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e are very excited to announce that Jen and Patrick, founders of CareLuLu, were on Let’s Talk Live on NewsChannel 8 today, Tuesday, August 6th at 11:30am. They were invited to the show to present CareLuLu, a free online resource they created to help parents find safe, affordable, and high-quality child care. The video will be coming soon! In the meantime, check out our facebook page for more photos from today’s segment. We’d also love to hear your feedback on our site and see how we can improve our service to you!

I’m proud to announce that CareLuLu is now live! We’ve been working hard for the past seven months and are extremely excited to finally show you what we’ve been up to!

CareLuLu is the most convenient way for parents to find a daycare center or preschool that fits their family’s specific needs. The idea emerged after Patrick and I, like many other parents, struggled to find the right daycare for our girls. After realizing that finding a daycare was no easy task, we decided to build a resource that would allow parents to quickly find and compare child care options.

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