Large or Small Daycare Setting??

I prefer a larger setting mostly because there are always extra eyes watching how the other instructors are behaving and treating the kids.

Hi M.,

I am in in-home childcare provider for the past 21 years. In my opinion, as a mother of four, I think in-home care is superior to center care when your children are little. Most of the time, in-home providers are mothers themselves and tend to have more patience, understanding of stages, and knowledge than "teachers" at daycare centers. It has been my experience from parents who have come to me from centers, that there is a great turnover in staff at centers, most of whom are not parents themselves, but many times, college kids trying to make a buck, kids without any further education beyond highschool and even sometimes highschool students. They are paid a very low hourly rate and with all the responsibilities that come with caring for a child, can't handle the stress and find other work. I am not saying that this happens every time, but this has been the rule, not the exception in my experience.

As far as having "more eyes" on your child. Either you trust your provider or you don't. We all speak more harshly to our children when the day has been long, kids have been unusually cranky, or things are not going well. That is human nature for most of us. But a long term provider will bring many things to your child that a short term provider simply can't.

Here is what I offer my kids:
A place to call home, and arms that are the same from day one. A hug and a kiss in the morning and many, many times throughout the day. When someone comes to me and needs to be held, I stop what I am doing and sit down for squeezes. I have had many times when a parent walked in to find their child in my arms, snuggled in tight and they wondered, is she sick? My simple answer is, no, she just needed arms. They then run to their parents for even more.

I offer an extended family. Each child in my care has not only me, but my entire family as well. And each of the kids in daycare become their siblings. My favorite is when one of my little girls Abbie claps when someone gets here in the morning and says "yay...Ben is home!" and then the next one and the next one. This IS their second home.

I am a mother first...and because I have cared for so many children, my parents will come to me many times, asking for advice on all sorts of different things. I can spot an ear infection a mile away, when a child has "sicky" eyes, when they are simply "owley", all sorts of things. This comes from not only experience, but from the mere fact that I am a mother and have invested a lot of time and care into my "children." I am not certain that most high school kids can do that.

With all of that being said, I do have one concern. I don't like to transport children in my car ever. The liability is so great and I would never forgive myself if something happened to one of them. This issue is a tough one for me to get over.

Another mom said that a provider can take a shower with children in her care. In Nebraska, that is NOT the case! There are strict rules that we must follow. I would suggest that she look into the laws that rule in HER state and then give information on THAT state. Every state is different, with different rules and regulations. I cannot go shower, take a nap, step outside and do lawn work, work in the kitchen, etc. without directly supervising my children.

I hope this helps! Good luck with your decision!

C.

I have over 10 years in child care. I always tell moms to go to regular child care centers. I don't personally have anything against home centers but I feel the pros and cons are rather obvious in this case.

Without the extended car ride almost every day I would say they are pretty close, just because of her degree and background.

The pros of a full child care center are:
Multiple staff, less chance for anything going on where someone else can't see. In a classroom there is almost always 2 teachers. No one can be ornery to a child without being seen and reported. There is always another staff to relive a teacher who needs a break.

It would not matter to me how long the home provider had been in business, you can go online at the licensing agency and read her inspection reviews or call the office and ask them about her inspections.

Did you know that in home settings the providers can even go take a shower while your kids are there? The state regulations are WAY more lax. It is their home and they give the home providers much more freedom. That is one of the main reasons I would not use one. My friend had kids in her home and she would let them out in the backyard to play and go cook lunch. She couldn't even see them from her kitchen. I did not like that, in child care centers we are not allowed to have any children out of sight, ever. She said her kids go out and play in the backyard all the time and she isn't out there with them watching them. That it was safe.

No matter what you decide you can always change your mind if it doesn't work out. Pick the one you feel safest with.

As an in home provider I am biased. I also do transport my children to various play places and they go shopping with me since I'm open 7 days per week/24 hours per day. BUT, I do my shopping and our playing close. We don't hit the highways if at all possible. I leave myself time so that I can be very careful and watch out for others. It would bother me if my child was on the highway for an hour per day no matter who they were with.

I had a home daycare for 8 yrs. When it came time for the oldest daycare child to go to preschool, I was more than happy to drop and pick up. That meant that sometimes the little ones would be with me (they were not full-time). I had more fun times in the car driving and waiting for the children to come out. We would listen to kids music and play games and just get a chance to talk, they were captive audiences and loved being entertained. They were always excited to "go" somewhere and were always super excited to see the big kids come home. So this said, I dont think this would really be a con.
I have also worked many years in a corporate run center. I feel the intimacy your child would receive in the home daycare just cannot be duplicated in a big center that doesnt always focus on the childrens best interests. Usually, its numbers and money.
There will always be concerns with a in home daycare and a center. You cant get around that, but I really feel like a home daycare which is smaller and more intimate can be a good thing.
I really hope this helps you some. Your a great mom, taking your time to think through what will be best for your baby! Good luck!

I run a home daycare as well. I am not sure about going to pick up my child from preschool with five children. That sounds like a lot to handle. When my kids were little, I also had to pick my children up from our preschool. Although, I would never bring five children with me to pick up my child from school. I made sure that the days I needed to pick up from preschool, I only watched two or three children. Also, I do not think having your child in the car for one hour everyday for pick up and drop off is ideal. I do feel that home daycares have many pros over commercial centers, but in this care, I feel like that the cons of this particular home daycare outweigh the pros.

Maybe try to find another home daycare that does not have the driving to/from preschool issue and then see which daycare feels right for your child.

I have had a home daycare for 17 years and so I would definitely recommend a home daycare over a centre. However, I don't like the idea of an hour long care drive EVERY day. I do daycare 24/7 so of course kids come with us quite often, but NOT an hour during the day. why do you say your daughter wouldn't have interaction with older kids at the home daycare? Doesn't she have an older children, 2 or 3 year olds? At a large center, she would have no interaction with older kids, expect for maybe a small bit outside, inside, they are all grouped in classrooms acording to age.
Does she have a back up person for sick days? How many sick days has she actually taken in the past year? I have only taken 1 sick day in 17 years, other days my mom has come here, but I don't get sick very often and my own kids are also quite healthy. I plan my vacations well in advance so moms can take the same time or use family ( I don't charge for my vacation, so if parents have to pay someone else, they are still only paying once). Is there are any other home daycares in your area that you could visit? I would stick to a home daycare, they are usually moms who love what they do, and your daughter can interact with other children of various ages. You also mentioned pick up time, I am mucn more flexible than a center with closing times. I can understand bad weather or emergencies, centers will charge you a large late fee, no matter what.

Have you done any research on either of the centers? In Colorado, we can go to the Division of Childcare website and search records of all licensed facilities- you can see if they've ever had complaints and how they were resolved. Not sure about Kansas.

Have you taken your daughter with you to visit either of these places? She is young but you might be able to get a feel for her comfort level...

My daughter started in a large center 2 days a week when she was 14 months old. It took her a couple months to get used to being away from me, but she ended up LOVING it! Her teacher was amazing, the other children were her age, and she just learned so much. She is now almost 3 and still at the same center 2 days a week, and she doesn't stop talking about her friends and her teachers. I think the peer interaction has been so great for her.

I don't have any experience with home centers, but based on the cons you mentioned, I would have a hard time with the home center. I wouldn't want my daughter to be in the car on a daily basis, especially if it would interfere with her nap time. If I put my almost-2 year old in a car around lunch time, she'd most definitely fall asleep and then she'd never get a good nap.

My 4 year old son was in an in home daycare until this past December and it was the best thing for us. I had a great provider and my son did have a good amount of individualized attention. He learned a lot from her and got comfortable with playing with other kids. When she moved out of state, I went ahead and put him in a large daycare to get him ready for what he will experience when he is in school. I don't have anything against the larger daycares, I just think that younger children can benefit more from having a smaller setting.

Having said that, I am not crazy about the in home person transporting her daughter to preschool. That's a lot of children to be toting around and does she have enough room for all of those car seats? Not to mention how long it takes. The length of time she's been open isn't that big of a deal to me. That's a long enough time to get honest information from the parents that already use her. Unless she can get someone else to transport her daughter to preschool, I'd have to say per your daughter in the large daycare or try to find another in home provider.

6 kids is a lot, and so I don't know that your daughter is going to be getting any more attention at the in-home than she would in the center. Does the small in-home have infants in her home? I provide in-home care for one infant (plus my own infant) and let me tell you, the two of them are a FULL-TIME job! So, if the in-home provider has infants and not just toddlers, I would probably go with the large center. Also, the hour in the car is not ideal, is it? It will be boring for her and also needlessly puts her on the road every day with plenty of bad drivers.

With that said, what does your gut/heart tell you when you visit the two places. Do you get a better feeling at one or the other. I would trust your mother's intuition on this! Just my thoughts....good luck!

My concern is the driving. As a provider here in MN, even here most providers have no idea of the Grey area that transporting is for daycare. Most liability geared trainings I have taken have stated you will NOT be covered under drivers insurance should an accident happen. Unless you have a special commercial/business policy specific to transporting childcare children (which are expensive).

Insurance people are in the business of selling you policies, but other people in their same business have the task of never paying out on a claim. If they can reasonably say you were in this accident while performing a BUSINESS task or doing business hours, your regular policy does not cover you, you bet they will to avoid any pay out. I would make sure you know for certain the rules in your state...get several opinions. And if asked to sign something saying you release them of liability..its worthless. You can never ever sign away your child's right to sue in the future (like is they were hurt and they wanted to go back and sue when they were an adult for the scar or minor deformity that broken arm caused them, etc).

Plus, here in MN anyways, it certainly is against the licensing side of things to leave a car full of other daycare children in a waiting vehicle while you "run in" to drop off one other child. You would have to unbuckle, etc all other children in the vehicles if you are required to bring a child into a program (for signing in ,etc). Its never OK to leave unattended kids in a vehicle.

So these are some of the things I would be concerned aobut..regarding the transporting portion of the days.

As a home childcare provider...I also endorse the use of home facilities....but as a parent I would seek one who offers a quality program that falls in line my own parenting style/philosophy, without the transporting issues. Then I would put a great back up plan in place. I am a referral coordinator for our small association here, and we try to network some of the providers to be back ups for each other (full files of paperwork on file with each other..parents have interviewed, etc....its a bit of work to put into place, and all based on availability...but very helpful for those without alot of other options like gramma or taking days off work, etc)

Large sounds better for you. I used large for 2 kids and they were wonderful, only downside was getting ill more and cost (but both worth it in my eyes)

Small....more care and one on one attention for your children.

Blessings....

My son goes to a home daycare and we love it! I'm not sure that I would have chosen it, if the provider were going to have to drive somewhere during the day though.