Child Care

Hello and welcome to my 2nd post. I've been thinking a lot about child care lately, mostly due to our new addition to our family. We have our son in a daycare and it is expensive, so chances are, our 2nd won't go in until he is out.

I've found there are definite differences in types of daycares and I want to applaud the one my son is in. Now I will always love my children no matter what they do or how well they do it, but I am extremely proud of how well he is doing. He is only 3 yrs old and already has quite a few skills, and more importantly the confidence to get more. This is pretty much all because of the day care he is in. It is very structured and organized, and I find my 3 yr old referring to it more often as school than day care.

He has been in a home day care before, which while meeting the needs of the attendees such as meals, diapers, and averting boredom, I do find them lacking. His daycare has a staff of probably close to 15 "teachers", some of which are actually accredited and accomplished educators.

Most of his day is usually play time, especially the afternoon, since the kids are picked up at random, depending on the parents, but the mornings are where he gets the most out of his experience. Structure is good. Especially structured learning, where he and his peers are learning and doing the same things together. At the home day care, the day was mostly filled with playing with toys while something was on the television while the SOLE provider took turns feeding and changing each kid.

I guees I am just saying that I really appreciate where my son is at, because he is getting so much more than someone just making sure he is ok when we pick him up. My wife and I also appreciate the personal attention each teacher gives all of the kids, and we make sure we do something nice for the staff about once a year. Granted, we pay them a handsome bit on a monthly basis and don't need to do this, but I know it's not an easy job, so if buying them all pizza for a staff meeting shows my appreciation, then great!!

On another point, it's almost a known fact that 99.9% of Day Care employees are female (I avoided saying 100% because there is probably at LEAST 1 male crazy enough to want to work at one). Kids take energy and patience, both of which are qualities men lack, imho. Bless the women who love these jobs!!!

So it goes almost without saying that my daughter WILL be going to the daycare as well, because I can see all the benefits she will get. I feel my son will be so well prepared for when he does start school and hopefully it will be a less traumatic experience (for me and my wife anyway, he'll do just fine!!!)

So if you're torn between putting kids in a home daycare and an actual Staff run kind, I recommend the latter, but be sure spend ample time looking into them carefully. Home rum daycares are usually cheaper, and probably better if your child is still an infant, but I recommend switching to a Staff run daycare once they are walking and exploring and communicating.

Thanks for hanging around for another Rumbling...