Work in a Daycare Center

In Costa Rica, low-income families are very prevalent. This means that both parents often have to work fulltime in order to support their family. As a volunteer, you will take care of children at day care centers while their parents are at work and help create home-like atmosphere that fosters growth and development. Typically, the day care centers are filled with children in the surrounding areas from different backgrounds, ranging from low to middle class. What families are charged depends on household income. The children’s ages vary from 6 months to 12 years old. 

One of the major goals of the day care centers is to keep kids away from the streets, drugs, gangs, alcohol, and prostitution. The centers provide the children with care, education, snacks, and meals. They also specialize in certain topics, such as nutrition and other types of education. 

The day care centers are situated in and around San Jose, which is the capital of Costa Rica. The centers can be reached by bus if they are not within walking distance. The day care centers vary in size, ranging from very small groups of children to groups with over 100 children. The children are split up into both age groups and personal development groups according to their individual needs. 

The children are given classes to help with their education in addition to taking part in recreational activities and meals. Some specialized centers also offer therapy sessions.

When working with children, you will be seen as a role model, something that comes with a lot of responsibility. You should be very creative, spontaneous, and patient on a day-to-day basis.  

Your work may include the following tasks:

• Organizing games and activities
• Playing with the children outdoors
• Doing handcrafts, painting, building, creating
• Playing group games or with single children
• Helping out with the daily operational tasks of the centers
• Providing warm and caring attention to the children
• Helping to feed and wash younger children
• Assisting in napping the small children
• Monitoring and supervise the children 

On a day-to-day basis, you will be expected to organize and play games with the children. In addition, you will have to be creative when building and creating various objects with the children. You will also be expected to help with daily operational tasks, such as painting a wall or bathing and feeding small children. 

In some centers, especially for children in pre-school, tasks may include teaching arts and crafts and other classes, such as English. You may also be asked to prepare materials for lessons.

Note: The tasks may vary. They depend on factors such as number of volunteers, season, current needs of the project, as well as self-motivation. Not every volunteer may be fully involved in all these tasks.

Being in the vibrant city of San Jose, there are many activities to do in your spare time. There are regular concerts, and a wide range of sports to participate in. Weekends are the perfect time to enjoy an exciting hike through Costa Rican nature since the main attractions of Costa Rica is its system of national parks and protected areas, which cover around 25% of the national territory, in order to protect the rich variety of flora and fauna, which is estimated to contain 5% of the world's biodiversity in less than 0.1% of the planet's land mass. In addition, Costa Rica has countless amazing beaches on both the Pacific and the Caribbean Ocean. 

Costa Rica is the perfect place to combine volunteer work with tourism, enjoy activities like:

- Adventure sport
- Dream beaches
- Ecotourism
- Local culture
- Bird / wildlife watching
- Visits to unique National Parks
- Rural tourism
- Sightseeing and history in San José