As a service to our valued members, the Family YMCA of Black Hawk County Child Watch program provides on-site child care for those with family memberships while enjoying our facility. Our goal is to provide a positive experience for children in a safe, healthy, and secure environment during your visit to our YMCA. We offer interesting and inviting age-appropriate activities implemented by warm and engaging staff
The Clubhouse
The Clubhouse – Child Watch Services:
We offer free drop-in child care for Family Membership holders. Playful, engaging options are plentiful for young children while you exercise or connect with others over shared interests. A parent/adult guardian MUST remain in the facility at all times.
Ages:
6 months – 10 years
Times of Operation:
Monday-Thursday: 9 am – 12:00 pm, 4:15 PM – 7:00 PM
Friday: 9 am – 12:00 pm
Saturday: 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM
When you arrive:
Parents utilizing our services are asked to sign each child in. You will receive a pager that will alert you if we need your attention in the center. We do not offer diapering services at this time. If your child is not potty-trained, we will page you should there be an emergency.
Sign In/Out Procedures:
- Guardians are required to sign in each child, completing all sections of the sign in sheet.
- Select a pager and record the pager number.
- The same person who signed the children in should sign them out as well unless other arrangements have been made beforehand.
General Rules:
- Shoes must stay on at all times
- No running or jumping off of the slides
- No food in the room, including gum or candy. Water bottles OK.
- Children should not have toys on the play-set or be playing in front of the door as it poses potential harm. This includes throwing toys down the slides.
- There should be absolutely NO use of foul language or unkind words of any sorts.
Safety/ Wellness:
- The child watch capacity is set to 15 children! If we reach capacity, staff will turn away any more children and ask the parents to wait.
- For infants who need held – ONLY ONE AT A TIME. Use your best judgment. (see next bullet point)
- Staff reserve the right to page guardian if staff does not feel that they can adequately watch the child or ensure their safety.
- Children can stay for ONE session. If there are empty slots and parents request to have them stay, that is OK.
- Parents must remain in the building while their child is in Child Watch.
- Staff does not change diapers or take children to the restroom. If this happens, parents should be paged to come take them to the restroom.
- If a child becomes ill (fever, rash, vomiting, etc.) a page will be sent for the parent to pick up the child.
- Staff does NOT administer medication; an exemption would be administering of a medication for life threatening reactions. In this case, parents should train staff on duty to administer the appropriate medication. Please see a YMCA supervisor for procedures.
- Staff does NOT bottle feed infants or allow food in the room.
- In case of an injury, an incident report should be filled out and turned in to the Child Watch Coordinator as soon as possible.
Behavior Policy:
- Verbal warning: use redirection and positive reinforcements!
- If behavior persists and the child is posing danger to themselves or others, the guardian should be notified immediately and remove their child from the area
