Montessori vs. KinderCare

NIKKILEW

which do you think is better for day care? I'm going back to work when LO is 3 months and have to do daycare. I went on a tour at a Montessori day care and at Kinder Care. Any opinions on which is better? Going JUST off the vibe i got from the teachers i really liked Kinder Care, but i'm torn.

smilelari

DS goes to a Montessori and we love it, but to be honest I'm not terribly clear on what makes Montessori different.  I know that at DS's age they are starting to have parts of their day that are pretty structured with self-directed work activities.  Really, I think that the vibe that you get from the particular center is more important and that's mostly what we based our decision on.  We loved the teachers.  We loved that eating and sleeping was baby led in the younger rooms.  We loved that we were allowed to bring in homemade baby food and cloth diapers.  Now that we're beyond the infant stage, we like the discipline methods that they use.  We also like that it's a smaller center with a "homier" feel and that the turnover rate for teachers is super low.  The center has been open for 8 years and most of the teachers were there when it opened

Check to see if any reports have been filed with the state (abuse complaints, that sort of thing) and then go with what feels right.

NIKKILEW

what is the website i can check that on

smilelari

NIKKILEW:

what is the website i can check that on

That's going to depend on what state you're in.  In CO it's:

https://www.colorado.gov/apps/cdhs/childcare/lookup/index.jsf

authorofdreamz

smilelari:

DS goes to a Montessori and we love it, but to be honest I'm not terribly clear on what makes Montessori different.  I know that at DS's age they are starting to have parts of their day that are pretty structured with self-directed work activities. 

Lots of places call themselves Montessori so it isn't neccessarily true for all of them but true Montessori schools place a high emphsis on independance and child-lead activities rather than teacher directed, they have mixed age classrooms so that younger children can learn from older children, and they teach from a hands-on approach, using discovery models, rather than direct instruction.

At the pre-school or younger level it is not that much different then most pre-schools today as they are tending to move more in that direction but if you continue on with it through elementary school and above it will be quite different. 

MommaErica

Anyone can use the name "Montessori" so, unless you really look into it and find out where the director was trained and where the teachers were trained, there is no guarantee that you are getting a Montessori environment. If you are, comparing Montessori to Kinder Care is apples to oranges. What's "better" is going to depend upon your patenting style and later, your child's learning style. 

 Kinder Care is also extremely difficult to give an opinion on. So many ceters operate under that brand, some are great and some have really earned the nick name "Kinder Scare."

I really think your gut feeling, combined with references and background checks will be your best guide.  

Bananappeal145

I can't speak from recent experience but my little brother and I both went to kindercare until I was old enough to take care of him at home and HATED it. Probably it was just the one we went to but when he was a baby I remember they would ignore him when he cried and inevitably I would end up going to get him and take care of him myself. They pretty much ignored all of the children, there were lots of fights and bad behavior but there never seemed to be anything done about it. Again, this was probably just the one we went to but I certainly have a bad tasted in my mouth about Kindercare.