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Since my wife and I have no family support, we are forced to send our children to day care. Up until this point, my daughter has been going to a center with over 150 children total in the whole place. Just in her class alone, she has been bitten twice by two different children, punched, kicked, smashed over the head by toys, and has been sick ever since day one. There are 3 little children who have been sick ever since I started my child in day care over a year ago. These three children have had red eyes, black circles around each eye, and running snot oozing from the nose. I cannot believe this has been going on for so long. Most of the teachers look like they have been ran over by a truck and dragged 20 miles. My wife and I have sick more times in the last year than I have ever been in my entire life. I am fed up with this. We found a nice small licensed day care through a state referral service and enrolled both kids. My daughter starts Monday and my son starts as soon as another opening is available. Kind of like a wait list. The day care is licensed for 12 children only. The back yard is massive and has play structures that make me jealous. The husband and wife are both certified in CPR, have a disaster plan, and provide meals along with snacks. There is a curriculum based off State standards and is very clean and well organized. All kids are clean, well behaved, play nice together, and are not sick. Question, what are the good and bad about in-home day care? I want to hear some testimonials from people who switched to a smaller day care.
We made in home day care arrangements for our oldest child. The first woman was licensed by the state, and only accepting one infant. We were there exactly one day. I picked up my son (on time) to find him strapped into his car seat, in a snow suit, screaming his head off.
But, this was before day care centers were widely available, so we ended up placing him in a second home. He was there for 4 years, and truly was treated like one of the family.
Just don't put too much faith in state licensing. Get to really know the provider's schedule, philosophy on child rearing, and policies on things like vacations and sick days.
Geez, anything sounds better than where you are! My kids and almost all my friends kids were in or go to various daycares and I've never, ever heard anything like this. Yes my kids got sick. Yes my kid got bit but those kind of things were the exception not the norm
Since my wife and I have no family support, we are forced to send our children to day care. Up until this point, my daughter has been going to a center with over 150 children total in the whole place. Just in her class alone, she has been bitten twice by two different children, punched, kicked, smashed over the head by toys, and has been sick ever since day one. There are 3 little children who have been sick ever since I started my child in day care over a year ago. These three children have had red eyes, black circles around each eye, and running snot oozing from the nose. I cannot believe this has been going on for so long. Most of the teachers look like they have been ran over by a truck and dragged 20 miles. My wife and I have sick more times in the last year than I have ever been in my entire life. I am fed up with this. We found a nice small licensed day care through a state referral service and enrolled both kids. My daughter starts Monday and my son starts as soon as another opening is available. Kind of like a wait list. The day care is licensed for 12 children only. The back yard is massive and has play structures that make me jealous. The husband and wife are both certified in CPR, have a disaster plan, and provide meals along with snacks. There is a curriculum based off State standards and is very clean and well organized. All kids are clean, well behaved, play nice together, and are not sick. Question, what are the good and bad about in-home day care? I want to hear some testimonials from people who switched to a smaller day care.
I think any day care can be hit or miss. Kids get sick everywhere. It will happen no matter where you are. That first year is the worst. The new place sounds nice. I hope it is. Mine were always in larger centers. They weren't perfect, but I felt like there was more accountability there. An aside, even people with family support send their kids to day care. It's ok.
-licensed for 12
-on a NYS meal plan
-Active participant in Michelle Obama plan which allows breast feeding mothers to come in and nurse
I work at an in home daycare center PT and although I don't have kids, my sister was at a center and the home daycare has been much better. As of now, the center I am in is licensed for 12 which means there is a lot of individualized time bc in my state the ratio is 7 to 1, including an infant- so there is always 2 teachers present. I've found that the kids here develop skills that they wouldn't in a typical day are center. For example, because of the meal plan the children are able to learn table manners and how to eat family style.
Since it is home based the environment is more nurturing because teachers are able to develop personal relationships also, at my job, the flexibility exists where if a child has a special service worker they are able to come and work in a secluded area with the child at any time, mine also provides transportation to and from trips and school. And since working I learned that in NYC home based daycares have stricter guidelines than centers.
Cool, Keep them coming. My little girl has picked up some bad habits that I hope she will not keep. I am really concerned by the big center she just stopped going to as of today. I never really opened my eyes and looked around till early this week. My daughter started going to this large day care center a few months after it opened. She was one of the first handful of kids attending the center back then. I was like cool, this place is clean, nice kids, and good staff. When I finally opened my eyes to the center early this week, I realize just how many kids were enrolled. I started counting the enrollment sign-in sheets and I was shocked. Then I started to see just how my little girls class has no structure now compared to when I first enrolled her. The teachers look tired and stressed. The kids are literally bouncing off the walls. I hope my daughter can get some personal attention with this new place. I fee like a bad parent for what I put my child through at the big center, but I had to find something for the time being. We shall see how it goes with this new place.
Both my kids went to home daycare and then off to K. We skipped preschool and the large centers until they reached school age. This was a good choice for us.
Pros: Small environment, no real turnover, you get to know your care providers and the other families. We are still in touch with my son's first care provider and he is now 23 years old. Less illness IMO due to less kids. I preferred the laid back style of a home vs the structure of a facility. I was not really concerned about curriculum in their early years. They got enough of that when they started K.
Cons: When caregivers go on vacation or get ill other arrangements must be made. In-Home tends to be Moms. If you are looking for an school type environment this is probably not the place.
I have worked in a large daycare center that had many franchises (we called it the McDonald's of daycare )...and it was horrible. Too many kids, too institutionalized, not enough structure, not enough providers - you get the picture. It was chaos from the moment you walked in the door. There was a sick policy, but few children were ever sent home because it was bad for business (parents still had to pay for the day, had to leave work to get their child, etc...).
I have also worked (and co-owned) an in-home daycare. I would pick the in-home every time. More personable, more caring, generally run by folks who really CARE for children, more flexibility.
Over all the years I've worked in centers (large and small) and been a nanny to 3 different families...I've always tried to care for other people's children in the same loving manner that I would want my own kiddos treated. I found that I was at my best when I was running the in-home daycare. It is easy to feel taken advantage of when working as a nanny (some people feel that you are bought and paid for - I'm a nanny, not a maid / gardener / bookkeeper / etc...), which leads to some apathetic behavior when caring for their children. In the large centers...you cannot possibly provide each child with the attention and care they need. Simply changing all the diapers of the toddlers in one room took 2+ hours, and then it was time to feed them all, clean up, bed down for naps, and now you're changing diapers again...one person in that room was doing all the menial tasks - that left one single person to entertain 20 toddlers.
You cannot buy the caring, stable, nurturing love and attention of a dedicated and talented home-based child care provider--not to mention what those things can do for your child--but you will have to sort out how to handle that provider's sick days and vacation days. There is absolutely no comparison to the warehouse or institutional care at the huge chains.
Find out which homes the local elementary school teachers recommend. They work with the end product so they have a good perspective.
If the provider has kids that live at home just know that when the kid is too ill to go to school, the kid will likely be at home...with your daughter. My friend's daughter got sick like this. The lady's son had pink eye and was home with the kids in daycare. Her daughter caught pink eye from the providet's son.
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)...and it was horrible. Too many kids, too institutionalized, not enough structure, not enough providers - you get the picture. It was chaos from the moment you walked in the door. There was a sick policy, but few children were ever sent home because it was bad for business (parents still had to pay for the day, had to leave work to get their child, etc...).
