We have been completely delighted with the level of care and attention to personal needs that our daughter has received across the three years she has been attending. When she started, and was struggling with drop off, and felt safest indoors. She was happy for me to drop her off inside the room, and for an educator to then join her once I had left. All of the educators were very accommodating in this regard. They then expanded on this by having an open-door indoor/outdoor play setup for several weeks while she was starting out. She may not have realised how much this helped at the time, but we certainly did.
Even when she was struggling a bit in the beginning, dealing with everything being different and learning a new language and such, I never had ANY worries about leaving her there. She ALWAYS told me about the wonderful things she learned and did that day, and her face lit up when talking about the people (educators and children alike). Our son is the same. For both of them, daycare is a clearly a place of joy, and we are very grateful for that.
The day-to-day care and facilities are already head and shoulders above what I expected, and what I hear from other parents (around the world), but the “special occasion” activities are just the cherry on top. Between silkworms, baking activities, community garden, Geckoes Wildlife, the Ditto Show, Lucas Proudfoot, fire brigade visits, and of course the Kindy excursions to GOMA and QPAC this year, we are continually amazed by the things the kids get to experience.
I only really have one “gripe”, and even that has a lot of caveats. I am well aware that these slight misunderstandings come from a combination of cultural factors, languages spoken, as well as the fact that we generally try to phrase things in a positive light. The educators are presumably frequently faced with parents not wanting to hear criticism of their child. I completely understand, and accept that this is a reasonable way to handle a difficult topic.
That said, I don’t always know how to interpret what educators tell me about my children. For example, if I am told “there was an incident with another child, nobody was hurt, but there were some social casualties”, I don’t know if I should read that as “Your child was being a brat and others justifiably didn’t like that” OR “someone else was unkind to your child and her reaction was understandable but a bit strong”. I don’t have a solution for this, just something to be aware of.
