On today’s post we want to share some of the challenges a LagosMum – Dakore experienced while looking for a good daycare centre for her children. Finding the right school for your child is a major step.
From Dakore
I’m a big believer in early education for children, as my first born, Ayomide started going to daycare as early as 8 months! I know some of you might think it was too early but it was deliberate on my part after a lot of research.
I first noticed she had a tendency to be shy around her fellow toddlers yet she was totally at ease with adults probably because she didn’t have any consistent interaction with them. In hindsight it shows that she had become comfortable only in adult company which is not bad, but since it is her peers she will eventually have to interact with we decided daycare that it was the best thing to do for her. And guess what? It totally transformed her and now she’s the first one to say hello. She is not that shy awkward kid anymore and it’s been amazing to watch.
In order to back up my long narrative, studies have shown that the period from newborn to 5 years is a critical time in a child’s ultimate development into adulthood. They are akin to sponges soaking up everything they are exposed to and it is truly up to us Mums and Dads alike to give them proper exposure to well supervised, highly skilled and learned play. This can be done at daycare or playgroups.
Armed with this new knowledge and experience, yet another added task in the joys and challenges of motherhood, is finding the right daycare facility or playgroup or crèche or a hybrid of all for your precious little ones. Believe me it has nothing to do with being abroad or here in Nigeria. The real issue is which one out of so many? In recent times in Nigeria especially, there’s a daycare on almost every street corner – due to increased demand borne out of both parents working away from the household. Typical concerns are: Do they have the perfect balance of reasonable cost, love and care, educational value, hygiene and cleanliness, ratio of children to adults, location, proximity for easy pickup, etc?
With Dasola, our younger daughter, things were not so easy the second time around in this regard. Generally I trust my gut instincts about things and most times I’m spot on. But I found that with regards to choosing schools, it made my task of finding the right one harder, not only because of the aforementioned criteria but it just had to feel right in my spirit as well.
School Visits
I looked at 8 different schools before I settled on where she goes now. Phew! In addition I had to do this starting from when she was 6 months old so I would go and check out each one in between filming takes and breaks, which are fewer and further between these days. This put me under a lot of strain and stress because this is my precious little cargo we’re talking about and it’s not easy to find people or institutions that share that same vision.
There were two schools I went to and they were really nice and new, but in the first one, there were too few students in class, the second one I really liked but there were too many kids crammed into a small space which made me uncomfortable.
How did she end up deciding on which school was right for her child? After all the research and the visits – at the end of the day she went with which one “felt right”. Can you relate to this? How did you choose the right school for your child?
For the whole post you can visit the website Dakore Mums World
