Evgeniya Usmanova

We’ve had a pretty warm fall, but as the temperature drops, it’s time to prepare for the start of the cold and flu season. For parents with children enrolled in a child care facility, the big question is: are my kids safe with all the germs in daycare?

Here’s the truth:

T

his weekend as I cleared out the basement in hope of making some room, I found a box full of baby clothes. I was too attached to give it all away, but didn’t really want to continue to have it sit in the basement collecting dust. A brilliant idea came to mind: I decided to give my daughters, Eva (4) and Maya (2), some of the newborn clothes to play with and dress up their dolls. Seeing those sweet items around the house once again reminded me of when they were oh so tiny! It turned out to be a big success, the newborn onesies fit their Ikea dolls perfectly and were the highlight of the day!

What your child will learn:
– Fine motor skills: practicing to put on shoes, tying laces, buttoning onesies, buckling overalls, etc.
– Pretend play, which builds skills in many essential developmental areas.

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When I needed to find a daycare and a preschool for my girls, I spent days on Google, on the phone, and then visiting child care providers. I visited 16 centers before settling for the one that felt right for us. In this post I will share 10 tips that I hope will help you in your search for finding great and affordable child care.

1. Start your child care search early, as far as a year in advance, especially if you live in a concentrated urban area like Washington D.C. or San Francisco. This is even more important if you will be looking for an infant. It’s usually more difficult to find space for an infant than for a 3 or 4 year old because of the teacher-to-child ratio: for infants, you must have 1 teacher for 3-4 infants (depending on the State) but for a 4 year olds, it’s around 10.

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I’m proud to announce that CareLuLu is now live! We’ve been working hard for the past seven months and are extremely excited to finally show you what we’ve been up to!

CareLuLu is the most convenient way for parents to find a daycare center or preschool that fits their family’s specific needs. The idea emerged after Patrick and I, like many other parents, struggled to find the right daycare for our girls. After realizing that finding a daycare was no easy task, we decided to build a resource that would allow parents to quickly find and compare child care options.

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