I'm looking into daycare and so far am not yet finding a center I'm impressed with. Granted, I've just started looking so I'm not saying there isn't one out there for us. But I also want to explore the idea of a licensed in-home daycare provider - anyone have any suggestions of how to go about finding in-home daycares to review/interview? I know the issues with in-home providers (that licenses are not the same as accreditation, that often people providing the care don't have degrees in early childhood development, that there might not be anyone to 'watch over shoulders' that things are being done properly, etc.) but also know sometimes you can stumble upon a real goldmine.
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Deep in the suburbs of Minnesota, this East Coast gal's just trying to survive.
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Deep in the suburbs of Minnesota, this East Coast gal's just trying to survive.
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4 comments:
First off, congrats on the pregnancy! I'm a long time reader, first time commenter. I have a 2 and 4 year old, and they were in an in-home daycare, but she did no teaching. I would highly recommend if you go with in-home care to make sure they have a teaching program. We changed about a year ago to a center in a church basement daycare/pre-school and it is bar-none the best decision we have ever made! We are Christian and it was awesome last month when my 4 yr old came home from school talking about Christmas and Jesus birthday rather than all about Santa. That made me proud. Finding the right care for your child is hard, but don't settle. It's one of the most important things! Good luck.
I will be compeltely honest and tell you I would never, EVER, take a child of mine to an in-home daycare provider. I've heard too many bad stories and not enough good ones, ya know? However, I did have to take my 3rd child out of the daycare she was in because I found out that one of the teacher had rocked on her hand with a rocking chair, one of the other teachers yelled at her and was fired and was told NOT to tell me. WTF.
As Joy stated, I've heard nothing but good things about the church day-cares. In fact, I tried to get my 4th child in one, called nine months before she would even start (I always take four months off from work) and the list was so long there was no way she would get in by the time I went back to work.
I'll balance that with saying that we have Margot in an in-home daycare and we are all incredibly happy with her situation. She's been there for almost nine months and I can't imagine a better place for her to be. Her provider is a mom to four (all grown and gone) and she is both licensed and loves children. There are only 4-5 other children there and they are all friends, which is great to watch. They learn from each other and Barbara just loves them all. It was more important for us to have Margot in a place where she was loved and nurtured than in a place that focused on schedules and development, and it has worked out beautifully for us, but if you want a situation that is all about development than a center may actually be better for you. We found our provider by word of mouth from friends whose son had been with her. They can definitely be hard to find. Good luck!
--Simone
B is at an in-home daycare and we LOVE her. I don't know that she necessarily has an early childhood degree (she's like 60) but she's been doing this all her life and she's amazing at it. I would definitely, absolutely ask for referrals for in-home providers, rather than just looking online for someone. There's no way I could leave B in someone's home if I didn't have some background knowledge on who has him. MN should have a website or something that has a list of licensed providers, negative actions, etc. Maybe consider putting the baby in in-home care while they're a baby and then moving to a center once they need more structured learning. Our lady only does babies (up to 18 months) and only has 4 kids at a time, so it's a perfect situation. He gets loads of one-on-one time and she teaches him tons of stuff. But when he's 18 months he'll move to a center we found (and love!). Good luck with the search, it's SO stressful! Email me if you ever have questions!
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