How To Start A Quality Daycare

and you will attract more families to your center.
If you do not have the expertise to develop an educational program for your center, contact an early
childhood education specialist at a local college or university or the National Association for the
Education of Young Children for assistance. Explain the type of service you are planning to provide
and the age groups you will serve.
There are several concepts you can use to develop a curriculum. However, many child care
professionals recommend that you use the Developmentally Appropriate Practices or the Montessori
Method. These curriculums are designed to aid a child's intellectual, social, emotional and physical
development. To give you an idea of what should be included in the curriculum for your center, a
sample is provided in Table 6
_______________________________________________________
Table 6 -- Sample Curriculum for Child Care Center
_______________________________________________________
Educational
Activities
skills
_______________________________________________________
Pre-reading ! Learn names of objects and how to categorize
them (e.g. food animals clothing
toys furniture).
! Learn parts of objects (e.g. a pencil has
a point lead shaft eraser).
! Learn opposites (big-little, fat-skinny,
hard-soft, hot-cold).
Reading
! Learn to recognize labels on objects.
! Recognize community signs (e.g. stop
signs, McDonald's, Safeway).
! Use language experience stories dictated
stories and teacher-made materials.
Handwriting ! Learn to write name date and numerals.
! Learn to write upper and lower case manuscript
letters.
! Write dictation of words and simple
sentences.
Math
! Learn sequences (forward and backward).
! Explore with unit blocks.
! Count using familiar objects.
! Use blocks to learn sets likeness
differences and intersection of sets.
! Learn to make things equal.
! Learn calendar and clock skills.