Children's day care in plain language

Child day care is a care service
for children under 3 years of age.
It is a good alternative to other forms of care,
for example, daycare.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, there are around 68,000 child day care places.

We explain to you here:

• What is child day care?
• What is extended day care?
• Where does child day care take place?
• What does early childhood education in child day care mean?
• How do you find the right child day care provider?
• Where can you get help?

Child day care is an offer for parents.
This means:
A child day carer looks after the children.
This can be a day mother or a day father.
Only 1 to 5 children are cared for together in child day care.

Where does child day care take place?
The care is usually provided at the day mother's or day father's home.

Child day care can also be provided in the parents' home.
Sometimes the care also takes place in other rooms.
These rooms must be safe and suitable for children.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, 2 or 3 children's day care professionals can work together.
The technical term is: large-scale day care.
Then up to 9 children can be cared for together.

What does early childhood education mean in children's day care?
Education is very important for young children.
This is why education is an important part of the work in children's day care.

The children's day care staff in North Rhine-Westphalia are well trained.
They take care of the children's education and upbringing.
They accompany the children as they learn and grow.

The children's day carers provide learning opportunities.
For example,

• playing
• singing
• crafts and
• moving

This is how the children learn new things while playing.

Every child is good at different things.
And every child is interested in different things.
In children's day care, children learn in small groups.
This has many advantages:

• In the small groups, the children play together.
• The children can learn from each other.
• Each child also gets help on their own.
• Each child is encouraged.

This allows the children to learn new things.
And the children can get to know the world.

You are looking for a day carer for your child?
You can go to the youth welfare office in your town.
The youth welfare office will help you find one.
There is a special office at the youth welfare office for this purpose.
This office is called:
Specialist advice and placement office for children's day care.

You can get information there.
And the youth welfare office will look for a good child day carer for your child.

You don't know where the nearest youth welfare office is?
There is a search function on our website for this purpose.
Enter the name of your city or your zip code in the youth welfare office search.
You will then find the youth welfare office nearest to you.