Running a Home Daycare – Communicating with Parents
As a home daycare provider, you have a lot of responsibilities. Unlike working in a center, home daycare providers are responsible for all aspects of care, including, childcare, cooking, cleaning, marketing, finances, and curriculum planning. Despite all of these responsibilities, it is important to keep the lines of communication open with the parents of the children you care for. Open and honest communication creates a partnership between caregiver and parent which is what really makes the foundation of quality childcare.
Give a brief overview of the day at pickup time. This should just be a quick summary of the day. Extended pickups create tension for children and parents who are anxious to get home after a long day. Longer conversations should be saved for a later time.
Create a monthly newsletter to share important items with parents. Newsletters are a great way to share the things that the children in your care are learning with their parents. This is a great place to include information on your monthly themes, special activities that you have participated in, and birthdays that fall within the month. You can keep parents informed of upcoming holidays or days where the daycare will be closed.
Find alternative ways to communicate. Everyone has a busy schedule and it is easy to forget things that you wanted to share with the parents of the children in your care. If the parents have access to email at home or at work this can be a great way to give them quick updates about how their child is doing and what activities they have been participating during the day. Special notes can be sent home with cute things the children have said or nice things they have done during the day. Parents will love being involved with their children’s day while they are away at work.
Acknowledge any problems right away. It can be stressful confronting parents about problems with their children or problems with the parents. Open communication is ultimately the best way to solve most problems. Parents can provide insight about the children’s behavior at home that you may not be able to see.
Open communication between you and the parents of the children in your home daycare will make a huge difference in your job satisfaction and success in working with children. Childcare is a partnership between caregiver and parents. Both of you want what is best for the children you love.
