If you have sent your child to daycare, you want him or her to be receiving the same level of interaction and stimulation that he or she would be receiving at home. However, your child might come home and complain that he or she was bored with daycare. Here are some tips for helping your child remain engaged during daycare and thoroughly enjoy the experience.

1. Isolate the Place Where Your Child is Bored

The first thing that you want to do is isolate which part of daycare is unexciting for your child. There is a very low chance that your child is truly unstimulated the entire day while he or she is at daycare. It is far more likely that your child is bored during one or two specific parts of the day. If your child comes into the car and immediately says that he or she was bored, then there is a good chance that the activity that bored him or her was at the end of the day. Ask your child questions to figure out exactly what activities he or she didn't like.

2. Make a Plan

Once you know exactly when your child is bored during the day and what activity it is that is boring him or her, come up with a plan. For example, if your child is bored during circle time because circle time is devoted to learning letters and numbers and your child knows them all, you will need to help your child come up with something to think about. That way, he or she doesn't get up and go somewhere else during circle time. See if your child can guess in his or her head what letter is going to come next or to see if he or she can remember the alphabet backwards.

3. Ask for Additional Work

Finally, talk to the people who work at the daycare and request that they give your child additional work to do during the time that he or she is bored, specifically if that boredom is coming from the fact that he or she already knows what is being taught. The daycare is there to fulfill your child's educational and developmental needs, so they should have a contingency plan for children who are more advanced than others. If they do not, print off more advanced worksheets that pertain to what your child is learning so that your child remains engaged and is not a distraction for others.

For more information, talk to your daycare provider.