This blog was originally published on Oct. 6. 2022, and updated on June 6, 2024, with new information.
A preschool open house is a great way to show off all the great things you have to offer to prospective families!
And if you’ve done many open houses, it may be time to refresh what you’re doing with new ideas.
And while a preschool open house often caters to families not yet enrolled at your center, don’t forget about including current families! Make sure they’re invited and feel welcome.
Benefits of Hosting a Preschool Open House
An open house provides a prime opportunity for you to build strong relationships with parents and caregivers. It’s a great way to grow your child care center’s enrollment, but it’s also a way to deepen relationship with families who already attend your center.
Inviting families into your preschool classrooms school fosters open communication. This transparency is crucial for building trust, which is the bedrock of any successful educational partnership.
Face-to-face conversations allow you and your teachers to address any concerns and answer questions directly to create a positive first impression.
Encouraging parents to engage with the environment and educators makes them feel more involved in their child’s learning.
Let’s take a look at five preschool open house ideas for your child care center that will highlight your wonderful early childhood education program!
1. Host Open Houses Throughout the Year
Sure, it makes sense to hold an open house a couple months before the beginning of a traditional school year. But also consider holding an open house every three or four months. Families are moving into your area, or their child care needs may change unexpectedly.
Companies have tightened their work-from-home policies and many are requiring their employees to work at least a few days in the office, according to the Associated Press.
These types of changes mean parents might be scrambling for a new preschool for their child, either closer to their office or perhaps closer to their home.
If they see that your preschool is offering an open house, that could be the prompt they need to consider your program!
So consider hosting an open house a few times a year, perhaps every quarter!
2. Highlight the Education Your Preschool Offers
Parents touring preschools will no doubt ask how your program will help their children be prepared to enter kindergarten.
Set up an information table with greeters offering brochures, enrollment information and family handbooks.
Post a sample schedule of the day so parents can see what their children will do through the day.
And being able to tout a curriculum that’s tailored for early childhood education will be a strong selling point for your preschool.
Take control of the learning happening in your classrooms with Procare Early Learning powered by Learning Beyond Paper.
It blends Procare’s classroom management features with a 100% online curriculum developed by Learning Beyond Paper, a leading provider of digital curriculum designed for early childhood education, within one platform.
Pre-made lesson plans are ready to go for your teachers. It’s easy to use because the curriculum is embedded into Procare — new content, training and tools arrive automatically! This saves you time and money.
Children get access to a high-quality online curriculum with a focus on STEAM learning — science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics. It includes 52 weeks of lesson plans for five age groups, from 6 weeks old through pre-kindergarten, and over 4,000 daily and weekly activities.
And every activity is linked to early childhood standards for each age group!
Read this case study to learn how Procare Early Learning helped save a West Virginia child care center up to $1,600 a month.
3. Include Kids’ Activities in the Open House
Parents likely have lots of questions for you. And it can be difficult for them — and you! — to concentrate with little ones running around.
Set up a table with crafts or a game in a part of the room where the children can be supervised, but also kept busy. Refrain from showing a TV show or using screens. This could send a message that your daycare relies on screens to keep kids entertained, which something many parents will see as negative.
Go through the toys and art supplies you have and think about activities kids can do independently. Painting and puzzles often can require help from adults, so consider avoiding these activities.
But do consider finding other ways to include children with families. Ideas include a scavenger hunt, family photo station, tours the children can join, introducing children to teachers and providing refreshments (if your center provides meals, show off a typical snack prepared in your kitchen!).
Instead, a coloring station or blocks center might be a fun idea. What activities do your preschoolers enjoy doing during their independent play time? By setting up an area that showcases independent play, you’re giving parents a deeper look into what their child will experience during his or her day with you.
Parents love seeing what their children are doing. The Procare child care app allows parents to be immersed in their children’s day-to-day activities — that includes tracking developmental milestones, sharing photos and videos as well as enabling two-way communication.
Parents can see their child’s activities that are shared by your teachers. This lets families see what their children are doing and learn what’s happening in their day, including when and how long they napped and what they ate, in addition to learning updates.
4. Include Preschool Teachers in Your Open House
Research has shown time and time again that highly qualified early childhood educators who can create a dynamic, accountable learning environment are at the center of a high-quality early learning experience.
A teacher who families connect with, and get a great first impression from, will go a long way in making parents move your center up the list in places they’re considering.
Think carefully about which teachers should be at the open house. Some teachers are more shy than others — and of course, that’s fine! But these teachers might not be well suited to an open house.
Instead, think of the teachers and other staff who are more outgoing and likely to strike up a conversation with a prospective parent, and be knowledgeable enough to answer a parent’s questions.
If possible, a mix of teachers who’ve been at your center a long time and newer staff would be ideal.
5. Don’t Forget to Follow Up
Make sure you collect parents’ contact information and load them into your Procare to help you track prospective families from when they show interest to when they enroll!
Procare offers you the ability to apply software metrics that are tailored to measure the effectiveness and health of how your child care center is managing those prospective families, often known as leads. And it gives you the results in a concise, easy-to-read format.
And if families don’t enroll their child at the end of your open house, contact them no later than 48 hours later. Thank them again for coming and reiterate that you’d love to have them in your program. Mention something the parent brought up during the tour, such as potty training or that a child is a picky eater. Encourage them to contact you with questions, and make sure you provide your phone number and email address.
Keep sending communication after that message at regular intervals and schedule emails or texts with helpful information such as articles about potty training or preparing your child for kindergarten to go out once a week.
How Procare Can Help!
When you use Procare, parents can feel confident in the safety your preschool provides.
Millennial parents, the largest group of parents today, use their smartphones for almost everything — 80% of millennials use the internet to manage their finances and pay their bills!
If your preschool doesn’t offer online and recurring payments, prospective families may look elsewhere for a program that better suits how they prefer to make payments.
Procare was built with parents in mind, allowing for convenient online and secure payments that ensure your program gets your tuition on time — payments are automatically posted to the correct customer account!
Families can access tuition statements, receipts and their payment history in real-time on the Procare child care app or any computer. Payments can be made quickly and securely. Funds are typically processed the following business day (subject to bank funding and processing approvals)! And you can see a comprehensive payment history for each family at your center or enrichment program.
Finally, digitize your enrollment forms! Procare’s eDocuments feature takes much of the hassle out of reminding parents and staff to complete their daycare paperwork. You can prompt them to review documents by email, and they can digitally sign a document — no need to download, print, sign, then return to you.
Documents can even be signed and returned through the Procare child care mobile app.
Two out of three child care businesses that use management software choose Procare. We’d love to show you why and give you more reasons why parents should choose your preschool.
Request a demo today to see for yourself how Procare can help you!
