High quality, flexible daycare solutions at Pop In’s

: Published: 02 March 2015

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Special offer for knowitall.ch readers (see conditions below)

If you have a young child, the chances are that you will have experienced that worrying feeling when you leave your child in the care of someone else, even if that person is a qualified childcare professional, trained to look after children.

Whether you are looking for a permanent solution that will enable you to grab a few hours to yourself at the same time each week, or you just need a drop-in center where you can leave your child from time to time, it can be difficult to find childcare that matches all your needs. High quality, flexible daycare provided by experienced and professional personnel is simply not as easy to find as you may think - and compromise is just not an option!

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One center, which is revolutionizing the way people think about daycare in Switzerland, is Pop In’s. Based in Lausanne, and managed by the Happy Children daycare consultancy and management company, Pop In’s was set up in 2013 to provide top quality, flexible childcare solutions for both local and expatriate parents. Offering both regular and casual attendance options, including emergency childcare provision, this rapidly growing bilingual daycare center also provides weekly and holiday workshops for kids, as well as mentoring and classes for their parents. It is even possible to book parties for your children at the center.

Pop In’s is the first daycare center to be wholly owned by Happy Children. In addition to its management and consultancy service aimed at supporting existing daycare centers in trouble (caused by issues such as poor administration, educational negligence or low staff morale), Happy Children also designs and creates new daycare centers for commercial organizations requiring a daycare solution for their employees. All these services are based on the high quality, educational and environmental concept developed by the Happy Children founder, Silvye Leonardi Forler.

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Describing her concept to knowitall.ch. Silvye told us, “Having trained as a nurse and worked with both elderly and paediatric patients for many years, before taking on responsibility for the audit of private hospitals in Vaud and Geneva, I had so many ideas about how a daycare center should be run when I set up Happy Children in 2009. I am very passionate about how the education, the environment and the security of the children should be implemented. This includes, for example, bilingualism, "being green" and even how to train the personnel to deal with emergency situations. – something which is overlooked far too often in many Swiss daycare centers.”

At Pop In’s, parents can drop off children aged between 25 months and 12 years, for an hour or more, often without prior notice, although you are advised to book ahead if you can. The center holds a series of workshops throughout the week, held by professional educators and covering arts, music, gymnastics and cooking. Children under the age of 25 months may also attend the center, providing they are accompanied by a parent (who is also welcome to use the coffee making facilities and free WIFI service). To see how much fun the kids have during their time at Pop In’s, just take a look at the Pop In’s Facebook page, which is packed with photos of previous workshops and activities that have been held at the center.

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Unusually for many daycare centers in Switzerland, Pop In’s is open on Saturdays, as well as during the holidays. Indeed the holiday period is an especially active time at Pop In’s as the center organizes day-long and weekly camps for the children, covering both indoor and outdoor activities. These can range from anything such as origami and bathbomb-making, through to gardening and visits to the zoo. Click here to see the latest information on their creative workshops.

Pop In’s is also the perfect party venue – either for classic thematic birthday parties, or baby shower and gender reveal parties, two growing trends in this region. Bookable on a Saturday morning or afternoon, as well as a Sunday afternoon, the standard birthday party package includes customized printed invitations, snacks, cake, drinks, and loot bags. Check out the Pop In’s website to view the full range of options available.

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So whatever your daycare requirements, be it an urgent need to be somewhere without your kids, or simply the desire to have a bit of time alone, then give a thought to Pop In’s. The staff are totally passionate about their work, and you will be surprised how flexible they can be. The center is open weekdays from 8h to 12h30 and 13h30 to 18h, as well as Saturdays from 9h to 12h30 and 13h30 to 17h15. However, during late night shopping last December, Pop In’s even stayed open until 22h30, just so parents could grab a few extra hours getting last minute presents for the kids!

To help parents check availability, there is a live feed on the Pop In’s website, indicating whether the center is open and whether there are any spaces left. Alternatively a quick phone call to the center is the quickest way to reserve a place in the center, assuming there is space available.

discount button150new As a special introductory offer, Pop In's have kindly offered knowitall.ch readers one free hour of casual attendance at their center. The offer applies to new customers only, who have never registered before. To claim your offer, just bring along a paper copy of this article when you settle your account. Thank you Pop In's!