[KH02]

I had my eldest in 2 corporate daycares b4 i decided to stay at home..and both he was bitten by other children and came home dirty etc.
I had a home care one that was incredible and he learned SOO much and they can be cheaper. Mine only had a max of 5 kids at once...so i would look into it to save money but just interview VERY rigorously.. IMO either can be good, but you need to know what to look for.

[activemom]

I send my little guys to an at home facility- just 2 other children besides mine! I don't have very good "centers" in my town, so am grateful to have found the at home one. She is state certified and runs a great program. It is $50/day for each child. The centers around here run $40-50 a day for a child as well, so I think that is the going rate. (I live on the shoreline....there is full day kindergarten in my town, but half day in the next town over.)

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by KH02

I had my eldest in 2 corporate daycares b4 i decided to stay at home..and both he was bitten by other children and came home dirty etc.
I had a home care one that was incredible and he learned SOO much and they can be cheaper. Mine only had a max of 5 kids at once...so i would look into it to save money but just interview VERY rigorously.. IMO either can be good, but you need to know what to look for.

Any child care should be checked rigorously. The things you mentioned happen anytime you get a group of children together. It does teach kids how to interact with other kids. I must say though with home care you do not know what you get. Some are good (as the one you had) and others are bad. Personally we went corporate because we really did not trust the home care. You never really know what is going on there. Not that corporate is perfect, nothing is. It is just a matter of personal preference. Jay

[JViello]

Well said Jay. To clear up a couple misconceptions as well...

1. ALL "childcare" centers have to be state certified as do the workers. (Finger prints, background checks etc) Don't just take word for it, ask for creds on home based centers. People lie. You can easily call the state as well and find out for yourself a TON of information such as "incident" reports.

2. ALL centers/homes and/or classrooms have student to teacher ratios. If you are out of ratio, you get hammered by the state. (Same for leaving a child unattended. BH for instance has a zero tollerance policy on leaving a child unattended...even for 10 seconds. They get fired.) This ratio is usually higher for a home based center. This is determined by the STATE and not at the "owners" whim.

3. Also be aware that most corporate centers are what's called "self reporting". In otherwords, they report any and all things they know to be a violation of a state mandate. I.E. Leaving a child unattended. The directors have no choice, it's corporate policy. The state then comes and does an investigation on the report. That IMHO leave a nice paper trail for a center regarding incidents. Centers that are NOT self reporting leave it up to the state to "find out".

Home based centers CAN be good, but you really really really have to know and/or be sure about it and trust me, without being a "pro" just by walking in you have no idea what you are looking at or for. I am amazed when my wife walks into a foreign center (Went "center shopping" for the nephew who could not be in her place) and she just starts pointing things out left and right that are "wrong" against "state code" or just not very well done.

It's a very very sick world out there. IMHO the corporate centers have a much higher operational safety net than someone in their home.

My wife has been in the industry for 15 years, and a director for almost 9 in both private owned and corporate centers with a degree in Early Childhood Education. She is one of the best in her field and was in fact hired to turn her current center around - and it's become one of the tops in it's respective "region" that includes a very large geographical area up to the Boston area.

In proxy I have learned a lot myself and am simply AMAZED at some of the questions and/or reasons people choose one center over another. Things like the adults bathroom being out of toilet paper.

If you all would like some tips, I'll ask my wife if she'd be interested in making a "top 5 list" of "good" and "bad" things to look for in a center.

Oh and as for children being bitten...it happens. It's a part of life. Kids do that. It's not about supervision or "quality" of care when that happens. The parents on both ends of the spectrum feel terrible when it does.

They are going to get a lot more than a "nip" in life. You can't shield them from everything.

[JayCT]

Just to add to what Jviello says, kids coming home dirty can be a good thing. When they are busy and playing outside, they get dirty. That is normal and clothes and kids can be cleaned. If they are coming with soiled underwear from accidents, that happens too but most places require a change of clothes and/or have a stand by set for kids to wear. That never bothered me. Jay

[KNOTTE]

Thanks for all your input! Please keep it coming!

I feel very strongly about centers as we had an awful experience with our now 8 year old daughter when we lived in CT with a registered home daycare that came recommended. The center our 3 year old is currently in is an "early education and care" center run by the local Lutheran church (although we're Catholic). We are very pleased with the program as most children "graduate" from Pre-K knowing how to read and write. We'd really like to find something similar in CT for our little man.

[KNOTTE]

Originally Posted by JayCT

I am not sure why you are surprised at the cost of daycare when you were paying almost $200 eight years ago. JViello is saying between $200 and $300 depending on the center. That is definitely inline with what you were paying back then when you consider inflation over an eight year period. I am surprised it is not more.

I believe that most kindergartens are still half-day. You might need to research which ones are full day and consider moving there.

Jay

The reason I was surprised is because we were paying nearly $200/wk for a baby and typically prices go down the older a child gets because the staffing ratio goes up. Thanks for your input though. I really appreciate it.

[wanderintonc]

Are you moving back to the Cromwell/Middletown area? I think some of the religious schools might have a pre-k program for 3yos-maybe Fellowship School and St. Sebastians. As for centers, lets see, there is a Kindercare, a Bright Horizons, Apple Tree, Kidde World-these are all pricey I believe but all are in Cromwell/Middletown. I think the Y in Middletown has a daycare now too, but I don't know anything about it.

[JViello]

Originally Posted by KNOTTE

The reason I was surprised is because we were paying nearly $200/wk for a baby and typically prices go down the older a child gets because the staffing ratio goes up. Thanks for your input though. I really appreciate it.

I'll say it again...they have state mandated teacher/kids ratios. It's not about "dollars" or "want".

Trust me, centers very very rarely put in additional staff beyond being in "ratio" and if they do, it's because of a situation like "ratio" is 5 kids to a teacher and there are 8 in the room so they need two teachers to be in "ratio". If they could put an extra two kids in and make the max of 10 with two teachers - they will.

[KNOTTE]

Originally Posted by wanderintonc

Are you moving back to the Cromwell/Middletown area? I think some of the religious schools might have a pre-k program for 3yos-maybe Fellowship School and St. Sebastians. As for centers, lets see, there is a Kindercare, a Bright Horizons, Apple Tree, Kidde World-these are all pricey I believe but all are in Cromwell/Middletown. I think the Y in Middletown has a daycare now too, but I don't know anything about it.

Thanks so much! I really do like the religious programs. Our daughter was at Kidde World when we lived in Cromwell. We were happy there, but want to weigh our options. Thanks for the info on the religious programs.