Part time day care for 20 month old in Cary? (King: chapel, day cares)

[mcb03]

I am relocated from MA and am very confused. I searched past threads on the subject and have looked at Carolina Parent.com but I still have a few questions. First, at what age does preschool start around here? Age 2 or 3? My daughter is 20 months old and I am looking for a place (not sure if I am calling it daycare or pre-school?) to send her for a few hours a day a couple of days a week (ex. Tues/Thur 9am-12noon). I guess I am trying to narrow down which places allow part-time care. It doesn't have to be preschool, I am Catholic (although I haven't been to church in a long while), so I am not sure what the deal is with church pre-schools/day cares. Do you have to attend the church to have your child attend day care there?

Also, we are in temporary housing for 6 more weeks in Cary way over on the East side of Cary where Walnut Street meets Tryon Rd. I am wondering if a day care would let me sign up for just 6 weeks there? We are closing on a house in Cary Park in early September and this is about 30 minutes from where we are now. I'd probably be sending her to a different day care closer to our house once we move. If a day care wouldn't let me join temprarily for 6 weeks, does anyone have feedback about the drop in childcare places? Has anyone tried the Just Playin' Around drop in child care center in Cary (NW Maynard Rd)? My husband and I looked at the Right Time Kids in Cary (Edinburgh St.) but I didn't feel comfortable leaving our daughter there. At 20 months, she can climb and run and is fine gross motor wise but she still needs help climbing down and off of things sometimes (ex. needs help walking down stairs, not that much awareness of when she's at the edge of something). She was climbing up a slide there while we were touring the place and she almost fell off and no one saw it, except me of course. I am an overly-cautious first time parent so this made me uneasy. Is 20 months too young to be leaving your child at these places for a couple of hours at a time? Has anyone done it with kids this age and it worked out OK? Thanks so much to anyone who can read this confusing post and provide me with feedback

[lamishra]

It's usually preschool that is a part time place for kids to go and play, although many day cares have part time options too. Preschools tend to have a set curriculum that builds with age and leads to a pre-kindergarten preparedness curriculum.
Anyway, as for church perschools: you'll find the majority of preschools around here to be church preschools but 1.) you do not have to be a member of the church or the denomination and 2.) they are generally not "religious" although *some* do require chapel, others don't. We've been to both in the past and I'm not even Christian. You just have to call around and ask. They all start at different ages and most have cut off dates that parallel public school cut off dates so that they can finish the preschool program and go straight into KG.
Many programs have 2 and 3 day morning hours for 2 year olds, but not ALL of them do.
My child went to a preschool at Cary Presbyterian church (which is in Central/East Cary BTW) and I believe they did have a program for 2 year olds (they even had a one year old program that was just one morning a week, like a mother's morning out thing). They did NOT have religious instruction or chapel there, but were able to do things like sing Christmas songs and have an Easter party. We enjoyed it there very much.
As for only doing six weeks...have you already chosen a preschool in your new part of town and signed up for a spot? Getting a spot in preschools in the area is not easy, and probably less so once they are six weeks into it. If you do find a spot in East Cary, you may be stuck with it for the year just due to lack of being able to switch to something else at that point. I'd strongly suggest finding something now and getting your name on the waiting list ASAP.

You can always try to sign up for a program on this side of town and just drop out when you move. I think Cary Presbyterian asked for a 2 weeks notice. You'll loose your registration fee (probably around $100.00) but that's it as long as you let them know ahead of time.
I live in East Cary and there are several larger church based, 1/2 day preschools: Cary Presbyterian, Christ the King Lutheran Church (on Walnut), White Plains Methodist (although I think this is called an "inclusion" preschool and integrates "normally" developing children with children with disabilities) and both of the big churches on Academy Street have preschool prgrams, I think one is called First Baptist Church of Cary and I can't remember what the other one is called. Those are just a few I can think of right off the top of my head.
Good luck!

[clairet]

I highy recommend Just Playin' Around in Cary. I moved here from NYC 4 months ago (I'm originally from MA) and have been sending my 23 month old son there ever since. The staff is very friendly and my son usually doesn't want to leave. It's not as structured as a regular daycare--besides meals, the kids basically just run around and play. The staff pays extra attention to the youger kids. It's been an absolutely invaluable resource for my family! My husband and I both work from home, so we drop our son for 2-3 hours a day and he loves it! Let me know if you have any other questions!

[sls76]

We use Just Playin' Around. The owner and manager are great. We always feel comfortable dropping our kids off there and they enjoy it. We mainly use it for going out to dinner without the kids or if I need to go to a doctors appointment. I would definitely recommend you try it. My only issue with using it regularly is it's not as structured as preschool. My kids go to First Baptist Cary preschool and they have an 18 month old class, but I'm pretty sure it's full. You'll definitely have lots of options next year.

[sls76]

I just thought that you might want to look for Mom's Morning Out programs. They are usually done at churches and are for children your child's age.