A new resource is available for parents looking for help in finding a day care or early learning center for their children. Called Tykely, the website provides information, photos, and videos about Rhode Island and Massachusetts child care offerings while also allowing parents to leave reviews about the organizations listed.
The idea, said owner Elle O’Haire, is for parents to not only have a resource to find information they need but to help each other out by leaving reviews for other parents to use in their own searches for day care. Her listings are designed to be comprehensive, allowing parents to search based on reviews, curriculum philosophies, price points, location, and more. She is listing day cares of all types, early learning centers, and camps at this time.
“It’s one of the most important decisions you can make,” O’Haire said of placing a child in day care. “My ultimate goal is to be a one-stop shop for parents to find day cares, pediatricians, doulas, all reviewed by other parents.”
O’Haire was originally going to start a day care herself but realized that there was a lack of information and ratings on day cares so she pivoted to starting Tykely which she is funding herself but plans to add advertising in the future to support the site. She envisions becoming a national listing site one day.
Currently Tykely has about 200 day cares listed but O’Haire expects to get the remaining 2,800 or so day cares listed by September 2021. Day care providers can visit the site to quickly and easily add their own organizations or can claim a listing if a parent has already recommended them on the site.
Among the unique offerings of Tykely will be video tours of area day cares where parents will get the basic tour of a site before they even go there. These videos will be professionally edited and at no cost to the day care organizations. O’Haire hopes that parents will visit the site to learn more.
“I’m encouraging parents to go on the site and help one another out by sharing their experiences,” she said.
