Changing daycare

schmidtapril

Ok everyone I despartely need your opinons on this one!  I have my almost 4 yr old son and 1 yr old daughter in a public daycare facility right now, which I love.  But they keep raising the prices on us and its getting to be pretty expensive.  My husbands co working told him of her brother in laws sister who is looking to take on one more family to watch at her home.  She has two kids of her own, a 3 yr old girl and 17 month old boy.  She also watches another 1 yr old girl. We have meet with her and her husband and both were very nice and the home was very nice as well. I am just finding it hard making a decision on what to do.  They are both comfortable where they are know and is it the right decision to take them out of that?

What would you do, would you move them to save around $500 a month or would you keep them where they are?

Thanks!

howleyshell

That's tough. 

At age 4 I think I'd want a larger social interaction option than an in home day care will give but at 1 I think it would be nice to have a smaller ratio of care giver to child.

How would you feel about splitting them up?

I know it would take more time to do drop off and pick up but it sounds like their age differences indicate different day care needs. 

We're doing a nanny share right now and what I'm finding is that the older kids kinda get stuck because of the younger kids napping schedules.

Do you know the nap schedules of the younger kids?  If they nap earlier than the older kids your kids basically get trapped indoors for most of the day. 

franciscaz

The first thing that struck me is 5 kids under 4 yrs old for one person sounds a little crazy (this from a mom who has 3 kids under 4).  I would worry about safety and honestly wouldn't consider it seriously. 

shellybird101

franciscaz:

The first thing that struck me is 5 kids under 4 yrs old for one person sounds a little crazy (this from a mom who has 3 kids under 4).  I would worry about safety and honestly wouldn't consider it seriously. 

She is with in ratio of child and caregiver at least in my state.

jellybean529

For the older child, I'd personally want a more structured environment with more interaction with kids his own age. Our state does voluntary pre-k which is paid for by the state at age 4, so you may want to look to see if your state has anything similar. That may help save on costs. If $500 will make a positive impact on your monthly budget though, I don't think it would hurt at all to have your kids in a private home daycare environment either.

franciscaz

shellybird101:

franciscaz:

The first thing that struck me is 5 kids under 4 yrs old for one person sounds a little crazy (this from a mom who has 3 kids under 4).  I would worry about safety and honestly wouldn't consider it seriously. 

She is with in ratio of child and caregiver at least in my state.

I understand that it is legal in certain places.  I guess just having been in the situation I am currently in caring for 3 very young children (my nanny teases me that if I were to have another she is quitting), I personally wouldn't feel comfortable with one caretaker for 5 small children.   In that type of situation I would prefer a larger daycare facility where teachers can help each other out if things started getting crazy.  That is just my preference.

photoqueen115

If my kids had to be in daycare it would be in a private home. Even the larger daycares have a large number of small children to adult ratio. And at least in my state in home daycares can only have 8 children with 1 adult. And (I can't remember) how many can be under the age of 2 in that 8 kids. Yet the large daycare facilities do not have to follow that number.