This New York Times piece today has some surprising news about how often kids in day care and preschool get to play outside. According to a survey of staff members at child-care centers, sometimes the whole group would have to stay inside if one child didn't have the right clothes for the weather.

File under things you didn't want to know: Kids also apparently eat mulch. And throw it at each other.

I've always felt fortunate about the outdoor play time situation at Govans Presbyterian Preschool in Baltimore, which our kids attended for years (my son will age out in a month). They seem to go outside every chance they get, and the creative games they come up with when left to their own devices on the playground are amazing. My daughter still wistfully looks back on all the play time they had there, even though she's almost finished with first grade.

I tell myself this is a very good thing each night when I shake all the sand out of my son's shoes.

How do you feel about the outdoor play situation at your child's day care/preschool/school?

(Sun file photo by Algerina Perna)

Posted by Kate Shatzkin at 2:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
                    

 Where are the best resources for finding quality daycare in the area? I've used the Baltimore's Child website, but I have a hard time believing that it is comprehensive. Also, it is just a long list and does not have any interactive tools for sorting, filtering, etc. Is there a better resource out there? I'd love it if I could read reviews on daycare centers somewhere... Maybe I'm dreaming of something that just hasn't been created yet.

 This is a huge topic, and I know we'll be discussing it often here. But I wanted to at least begin by pointing her to the web site of the Maryland Committee for Children, which has a searchable database of child-care providers. You can customize your search by proximity to your home, age of the children served, and drop-off and pick-up times.

There's also a call-in service, if you'd like an actual person to help with your search. (The phone numbers for your area can be found on the site.) But the site makes clear that its referrals are not recommendations about the quality of the care, and that it's the parent's responsibility to check references and to interview any prospective provider.

I love Debra's "dream" of a site where you could read reviews of day care centers, but I've never come across such a resource locally. If any of you knows of one (or has other ideas for parents on the hunt), please post it here.

I know lots of folks who have children at Tide Point Day Care in Locust Point must be scrambling right now. Does anyone have leads for them? Here's our story about the center's closing, which is scheduled for this summer.

(By the way, this isn't Tide Point or anyplace local in the picture, which was an Associated Press file photo. But it seems to illustrate what we all hope for: engaged teachers, bright lighting, lots of stuff for kids to do.)

Posted by Kate Shatzkin at 1:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)