What are the best childcare facilities you've put your child in and why? What should I look for?

Question

Please include cost, cleanliness, dicipline and safety in your answer. These are the most important categories besides others I haven't thought of.
My son is 29 months (2-1/2) and not yet pottytrained.

Answer 1

Hmmm, not sure which part of the world you are in, so I can only speak for the centre I use (and love) in Brisbane, Australia.

To be honest, the number one factor in my decision was actually getting Isabella IN somewhere in time for my degree recommensing, waiting lists can be horrendous!

Once I had found several options I looked out for:

1) workers who I found pleasant to be around and talk to, that I was comfortable approaching, and whom I was not afraid to raise issues with. I have found that, generally, if YOU like the workers, so will your children :-)

2) a centre which highly publices its practices, philosophies, and beliefs (ie. has it in view for EVERYONE to see, whoever they may be), and, obviously, one that you AGREE with! (the centre I use, for example, chooses not to use physical punishment as discipline. Obviously, I agree with this practice!)

3) a centre which willingly participates in regular, stringent accreditations (and, if possible, has a low staff turn-over rate), and encourages parents to visit WITH the child the first few times (a sort of orientation process).

4) has information readily available for parents regarding healthy eating habits, sun safety practices (and, for example, insists on children wearing hats for outdoor play etc.), dental health, physical safety etc. etc.

5)has no more than about 4-ish kids per staff member, in any given playroom/nursery

and, most, importantly (for me)...

6) a centre in which the OTHER children looked happy, healthy, well looked after, and friendly with the staff!

Cost can be highly dependent on what services they actually provide: nappy services, meals provided, and extended opening hours can all incur higher fees.

The centre I use provides a cloth nappy service (cheaper than centres which provide disposables) if you wish to use it, and is open from about 7am till 6pm. It does not provide meals, but this suits me really well as my daughter is quite a puritan with her diet: she refuses virtually anything that is not home cooked, is processed, or came out of a bottle/jar, and she's only 13 months!!

Anyway, I pay around $AU47 a day, but this is before any child care subsidies are applied. So in other words, expensive. Really, really quite pricey. And my centre is one of the cheaper ones!

Having said that, though, its last accreditation score was nearly perfect, I get on really, really wonderfully with the staff, I am always welcome to stay a bit longer if Isabella is a little hard to settle, and it really is just a beautiful place! Lovely big gardens, simple, unpretentious toys to stimulate kids IMAGINATIONS, pictures of kids' families and friends everywhere, and they even own 2 roosters!

They also promote a great sense of family throughout the centre. For example, a little boy in Isabella's playroom has an older sister who is about 4 years old and in a bigger room. This little girl is often allowed to come down and eat her lunch with her baby brother. Sometimes in the spring/summer, they allow the bigger kids to come down and 'help' bathe the *little* babies. These acts just really seem to promote a sense of empathy in the children, and bigger kids just LOVE babies!

Good luck finding good quality care (I am not being sarcastic, it is out there!) I find the smaller, community based centres are much, much better quality than the big, shareholder-run centres. All of the profits, in the community centres, go back into the centre (NOT into the pocket of some rich, big-wig, who in all possibility doesn't even LIKE kids!).

Hope this has been of help! It's kinda long, sorry, but there is no quick way to choose day care!!

Answer 2

Kindercare. I think they have many locations nationwide. My children are 1 and almost 3. Monthly cost for the older one is $950. More expensive for the younger one.

Children are kept is separate rooms: Infants, 1-yr old walkers, 2-yrs, 3-yr old potty trained, etc. The facilities are clean, and toys are sanitized daily. Kids wash hands before eating.

Safety: For parents to get into the facility, we enter a code. Once a month, they do fire drills.

Discipline: They don't do time-outs. They would tell the child to not , and separate from other kid if they were fighting.

Potty training: Teacher said she will tell us when he is ready to be potty trained, so we didn't do anything... until last week! I agree that he was not ready earlier. Now the teachers are potty training several kids at the same time. The restroom has 2 small toilets, and they round the kids up every interval, and line them up to use the potty. Seeing his friends use the potty has been working to let our son use it too.

Meals: Meals are cooked on-site daily, and consist of nutritious food with veggies and fruits.

I like this facility obviously, but still check the local center. The people there might be different from the ones we have. Every place is different.

Answer 3

to give my wife a break we send the youngest children to a catholic child care/ per school facility... four of our kids attend three times a week....it cost 1000 a month.....it is a very clean and loving environment....they discipline and teach respect to all the children no child is treated different....they have a code for each child which the parent or legal guardian must know to enter into the premises....we have to sign the children in and out everyday so the school can keep track of them...its through a computerized schedule......they also take them to church and have bible time but that is only because it is a catholic facility.....one thing my wife and i focused on was how much of a teaching facility it was....some child care facilities dont focus on early childhood education as much as others...so make sure you look into that cause statics show that those who get early childhood education go on to achieve higher then those who didn't.....all of my kids have attended this school and my oldest kids are above average in many subject in school...

the four children we send are between the ages of 4 and 1....three of which are potty trained...and our youngest has been training for the past month....we found it to be great when the facility helps with potty training.....takes some stress off you....

Answer 4

My son goes to a sitter that works out of her home. She is licensed by the state of IL and is checked up on periodically. One thing I really like about having him in someones home, who is licensed, is that she is limited to the amount of kids she can have at one time. My son is there with 2 other boys his age and one infant on a full time basis. There are other times that kids are there that are part time but they are older. There is never more than 7 kids there. Her husband is there on those days and he is licensed too.

When it comes to discipline she uses the time out method and does not lay a hand on any of the kids. She is very helpful with suggestions when there are problems at her house. For example, my son was into biting when he was 18 mos and I didn't know what to do. Things that I was trying were not working. She made a suggestion that she used on her son, but told me she would not do it unless she had my permission and I attempted it at home first.

Make sure that there are locks on doors and that they are locked during the day while your child is there. If there are stairs, make sure that they have gates closing them off to your child. If there is a fireplace...is it secure so kids won't get hurt on it if they fall. If there are pets ask if the pet will be around the kids. If it is and you aren't comfortable with that let them know. My sitter uses her family room for child care. She has a gate up that keeps them in there. For outside play...she has made a play area that is fenced in so the kids can't "escape".

Hopefully this helps you out. The most important thing is that you want your child to be safe. Don't feel bad about asking too many questions, or having a lot of expectations.

Answer 5

Consider what you need in a child care facility first and then chose based on this criteria:

Hours of Operation.. are they going to be open when you need them?
Ages of children in the center.. are there many children there that are within the age of your child?
Fees... are there additional fees for applications, picking your child up late.. etc
Staff Training...what kind of training do they have? Do they all have CPR and First Aid?
Staff Turnover.. do they go through alot of staff or have trouble finding people to work there
Meals.. are they provided or do you have to provide them?\
Safety.. is it well lit, are there gates near stairs and areas of danger.. are there front and back exits?


While there are many things to consider.. consider these first and foremost..

Will they discipline in the manner that you set? Will the follow any household rules that you have.. ie: no tv? Will they follow your child's schedule.. ie: your child naps in the morning, but they have naptime in the afternoon..? What is the staff to child ratio.. will your child be one of 2 children to an adult or one of 8?

Answer 6

I put my daughter into a christian day care.I was very worried about safty when she first went.It turned out to be great.