Various types of Day Care Centers offer different activities and facilities for kids. Finding the right Day Care Center for your child only requires you to check on the qualifications of both the facility, its teachers and staff.

Day Care Centers serve as a nursery for pre school children. They provide paid care for infants, toddlers, pre-school children or older children. They supervise these kids while their parents work. Although there are companies that have day care centers as an incentive for their employees, most companies do not allow their employees to be disturbed by parental obligation while at work.

There are companies that do not have this type of work incentive, so an institution that can take care of their child while they are away and busy working is essential for parents. This is where a Day Care Center comes in handy.

In the United States, this is one of the fastest growing industries.

The demand for child care program will grow significantly because the number of children under the age of 5 is expected to grow. It will continue to grow because more parents decide to both work, and the number of single working parents is increasing.

Mother's of pre-school age children are forced to work on different industries today. This means that there is a definite need for day care centers. Many experts believe that there is a big increase in the popularity of this type of business. The basis of their forecast is continuing need of young mothers to work outside of home. Thus, profitable Day Care Centers are more glorified than baby-sitting services.

Mothers of today are more aware of these needs. They demand the structured pre-school education. They want the learning stimulation given by modern day care centers.

Finding quality and affordable child Day Care Center, especially for children younger than 5, is a major concern. Child Day Care helps by providing care in:

- A Child's home
- An organized child Care Center
- A Provider's Home

Types of Day Care Services

There are 2 types of child care that make up the services for child day care industry:

1. Center-based care
2. Family child care

There are Formal Child Care Centers that are:

a. Pre schools
b. Care Centers for children
c. Head Starts Centers

There are also non-profit Child Day Care Centers which are provided by religious institutions. Examples include YMCAs and other social or recreational centers.

Hours

Most centers are usually open 12 hours or even more during the day. Some do not close until the parents pick up their children. Some reasons that can cause parents to be late include traffic jams, unscheduled overtime, and other emergencies. In fact, almost 18% of all full time employees in day care services work more than 40 hours a week.

Staffing

Pre-school Teachers make up the biggest occupation in the child day care industry today. Pre-school Teachers teach pupils basic physical, intellectual and social skills required in order to enter primary school.

Working with children can be very rewarding. Helping children grow, learn, and gain new skills is a glorified feeling. Most Pre-school teachers and child care workers have already improved their communication, learning and other personal skills.

Child care workers must be always alert, anticipate and attend to each child's needs. They must be able to anticipate and prevent trouble. They must deal effectively with unruly children and must give fair and firm discipline.

Child Care Workers build:

1. Objectives and standards for their centers
2. Provide day-to-day supervision of staff and
3. Bear all responsibility for program development, marketing, budgeting, staffing and other administrative tasks.

A lot of day centers enroll from 35 to 65 students. This is because of the regulations imposed by the state government.

Many states require the day care center to provide:

- a minimum area per child inside and outside the building
- one hot meal a day
- Licensed teacher for every 15 - 20 children
- Licensed Nurse

States and Insurers impose staffing requirements for Child Care Centers. In most cases these requirements are:

- Minimum age of 18 years old is required
- 21 yrs. Old for Directors or Officers
- 14 or 16 yrs. old for Assistants
- Minimum educational or training requirements must be met.

Training requirements are most rigorous for Directors, less for Pre-school teachers and minimal for Child Care Workers and Assistants

Teachers must possess :

- A High school diploma,
- A combination of college education and
- Experiences.

Schedule of activities

In a typical day center, the day begins with a play period until 9 a.m. From 9 - 10 the children are separated into groups or by ages. Between 10 -11, snack time for the mid morning is scheduled. You can add a mid-morning nap for younger ones. After snack time, academic sessions are usually held. Lunch break is generally from noon up to 1 o'clock. Another type of learning session is from 1pm up to 2pm. In the afternoon, they usually offer rudiments of 3Rs- reading, writing, and arithmetic.