Daycare chains: where do you go?

margaerytyrell

I'm looking for daycare for DS in the fall. I've toured so many that none are standing out at this point. If you go to a chain, where do you go and what has your experience been like? I realize each individual location will differ but I'm still interested to know.

I've looked at the children's courtyard, primrose school, Goddard school, kids r kids and some Montessori ones.

serend

We had a bad experience with CC and pulled LO after less than a month. I've heard good things about Primose from multiple people. We're just not near enough to one.

thesportsgal

We go to a Goddard and I absolutely love it (and you can find earlier posts from me where I was freaking out about it . They're amazing and she's extremely happy there. There is a curriculum and they do fun activities with them (even the babies) throughout the day. We get pictures sent throughout the day as well and then an end of day report. They use the Tadpoles app so you can google it an see what it's like.

I'm not sure how it works as far as the locations being franchises though, but I'm sure the idea is the same. Like pp said, every time I walk in there, I know we made the right choice. Was there one that you just felt better about than another?

lifeinthedreamhouse

My dd went to kindercare and we loved it. It was actually the least expensive in our area too compared to primrose and Goddard. We had to pull her out when I got pregnant with #2 because 2 kids in center childcare was wayyyyy too expensive.

sleepymonkey

prettykitty2012 said:

I fangirl the kindercare that we take LO to. It was the most expensive DC in our area, but they have been so great, and they love LO. Whenever I walk in, I know we made the right choice (and like you, we toured dozens).

Good to know.  Most of the chain DCs in our area look very sketchy and Kindercare is the only one that doesn't.  It's the only chain on our list of DCs to look at in a few months when we get ready to put DD in full-time. 

74dragonfly

Honestly it varies by location. you need to check out the local ones, read on Yelp, tt friends/co workers. My DD was at a kindercare (liked it for infants, hated toddlers) then we moved to bright horizons which I LOVED until they had managment issues/half the staff left etc. then we left. we were there 3 years and first 2 were awesome. 

For me the ratio thing was huge, especially when they are young. there are state ratios but some places have less kids/staff. The kindercare iw as at had 14 kids/2 staff at age 18 months. this was legal per the state but i thought to high. at BH the ratio was 10/2. I was much happier. even though it was more money. 

eggmankate

I used KinderCare for a drop-in daycare a few days. I loved that they follow what the research shows when setting up the infant room and creating curriculum. For instance they said that they don't use bouncers and other sitting apparatuses because research shows that it doesn't promote infant development. I like the idea that they think about those things.

margaerytyrell

thesportsgal said:

We go to a Goddard and I absolutely love it (and you can find earlier posts from me where I was freaking out about it . They're amazing and she's extremely happy there. There is a curriculum and they do fun activities with them (even the babies) throughout the day. We get pictures sent throughout the day as well and then an end of day report. They use the Tadpoles app so you can google it an see what it's like.

I'm not sure how it works as far as the locations being franchises though, but I'm sure the idea is the same. Like pp said, every time I walk in there, I know we made the right choice. Was there one that you just felt better about than another?

Maybe I should revisit Goddard. We went to get information about their facility on Saturday and there were no kids there. It was just some big carnival/open house. The director was very robotic and cold. I loved that every lead teacher had education and experience, though.

I loved Children's Courtyard. I liked how they broke up the infant ages so it wasn't just one room with 6 weeks to 1 year. The infant teacher who took DS away from us and played with him. We got all the feels from that lady.

Good idea, @74dragonfly‌. I will check out yelp and look over the reviews. I also just found the state compliance website reports so that is interesting and may help us make a decision.

MissyC979

I live outside Boston and Little Sprouts is a big center in our area. We really like it. I like the idea of a big center, with all the schools having set rules and standards.

littled2013

margaerytyrell said:

thesportsgal said:

We go to a Goddard and I absolutely love it (and you can find earlier posts from me where I was freaking out about it . They're amazing and she's extremely happy there. There is a curriculum and they do fun activities with them (even the babies) throughout the day. We get pictures sent throughout the day as well and then an end of day report. They use the Tadpoles app so you can google it an see what it's like.

I'm not sure how it works as far as the locations being franchises though, but I'm sure the idea is the same. Like pp said, every time I walk in there, I know we made the right choice. Was there one that you just felt better about than another?

Maybe I should revisit Goddard. We went to get information about their facility on Saturday and there were no kids there. It was just some big carnival/open house. The director was very robotic and cold. I loved that every lead teacher had education and experience, though.

I loved Children's Courtyard. I liked how they broke up the infant ages so it wasn't just one room with 6 weeks to 1 year. The infant teacher who took DS away from us and played with him. We got all the feels from that lady.

Good idea, @74dragonfly‌. I will check out yelp and look over the reviews. I also just found the state compliance website reports so that is interesting and may help us make a decision.

I don't know how to make don't bold on my phone, but breaking the infant room up is huge to me and I didn't realize that at first. We go to Kid City which is a chain in our area and we love them. They have 6 weeks - 6 months and then 6 months - 1 year. I can't imagine having walking babies in with newborns. Sometimes even my crawling baby gets trampled by the walkers.

MissyC979

littled2013 said:

We go to a Goddard and I absolutely love it (and you can find earlier posts from me where I was freaking out about it . They're amazing and she's extremely happy there. There is a curriculum and they do fun activities with them (even the babies) throughout the day. We get pictures sent throughout the day as well and then an end of day report. They use the Tadpoles app so you can google it an see what it's like. I'm not sure how it works as far as the locations being franchises though, but I'm sure the idea is the same. Like pp said, every time I walk in there, I know we made the right choice. Was there one that you just felt better about than another?

Maybe I should revisit Goddard. We went to get information about their facility on Saturday and there were no kids there. It was just some big carnival/open house. The director was very robotic and cold. I loved that every lead teacher had education and experience, though. I loved Children's Courtyard. I liked how they broke up the infant ages so it wasn't just one room with 6 weeks to 1 year. The infant teacher who took DS away from us and played with him. We got all the feels from that lady. Good idea, @74dragonfly‌. I will check out yelp and look over the reviews. I also just found the state compliance website reports so that is interesting and may help us make a decision.

I don't know how to make don't bold on my phone, but breaking the infant room up is huge to me and I didn't realize that at first. We go to Kid City which is a chain in our area and we love them. They have 6 weeks - 6 months and then 6 months - 1 year. I can't imagine having walking babies in with newborns. Sometimes even my crawling baby gets trampled by the walkers.

I agree. Our school has three infant rooms. Finn is moving up to the more mobile room on Monday, now that he's moving around more. There aren't any walkers in that room, but the kids are all crawling and pulling up.