Daycare woes
akstanl
member
We were supposed to have our first interview tonight with a possible home daycare and no one was home when we got there! I called and left a message and never heard anything. What a bummer. I am not looking forward to this process, I have a feeling it is going to take us my whole maternity leave to find care for our little one, and yes, I know we should have started looking a long time ago. 
So if anyone has any recommendations for home daycares in Oakdale, N St Paul, Woodbury, Mahtomedi, Maplewood areas it would be much appreciated. I am just working my way down a list and half the time no one answers, so I am going to try calling tomorrow around 8am I think.
Also, does anyone know where I might be able to find a listing of legal unlicensed daycares?
Re: Daycare woes
also consider when you call, first thing in the morning might be good, or late in the day like 4:30-5pm. It gets chaotic between 8-12 with play, breakfast/snacks, and lunch. Nap might be a good time as well, probably 12-2. I found that providers in-home won't answer if the kids are awake because its hard to focus on answering questions when they've got kidlets running around their ankles.
Thanks! I ended up calling around 9:30 this morning and got quite a few answers. I had previously tried shortly after their closing times I think. I have a couple of more interviews set up and was able to cross a handful off of my list after talking with them on the phone. I was starting to stress about this quite a bit, but it will all work out I am sure. Just such a time consuming task and I don't feel like I know what the heck I am doing or what questions to ask. LOL
So on that note...if anyone has any recommendations of odd questions they wish they would have asked, or did ask and found helpful. I have read the lists of recommended questions on what to ask, so if there is anything out of the ordinary or not regularly found on those lists that you found helpful to know it would be appreciated!
I got the best results calling during typical nap times. And my son was 4 weeks old when I finally got around to searching, and I spent a good week doing only that and made a decision in about 2 weeks. So while it is overwhelming and scary and time consuming, it is possible!
On the phone I pretty much asked availability, hours and what they charge. If it sounded good I asked to set up a meeting. Big things to me were: would they cloth diaper, what are their views/how do they discipline, policies around kids bringing their own toys/blankies etc, if they serve food what is the quality (kraft mac and cheese every day vs. homemade), policy on sick days for kids, does provider have back up if they are sick, what is the set-up for play time/nap time/potty time etc.
ETA: This was all for home day cares, we didn't interview any centers.
I went yesterday to a few centers and here were some of the questions that someone gave me to ask:
- do they follow a particular school district schedule for closures? (like if Maplewood schools are closed for a snow/cold day, is the center closed? Or if they have school off for Presidents Day, is the center also closed?) It seems that most centers are closed on the typical 'holidays'
- what is the ratio of infants to adults (I seemed to find 4:1 at most centers)
- do they offer vacation time and if so are you responsible to pay for that time? One place I went, if we were to take vacation time, we would still have to pay the center 1/2 of what we would owe if the baby was there. If you are looking at an in home place, what is their procedure when the provider takes time off? I checked with one home place that stated that she would be gone for a week in July and a week in August with no coverage available.
- what items are you expected to provide for the child when they are at the care providers? Most expect you to provide diapers, wipes, extra clothes, bottles, pacis. Some also expect you to provide formula and food (when they get to that point) whereas others provide this.
- if you are planning to breastfeed - how do they want the breastmilk? do they want prepared bottles, can you bring it in in freezer bags, etc.
- what is the communication between parents and providers? are there weekly or daily notes? most of the places I went had daily sheets that the parents filled out in the morning that were then returned at the end of the day with notes from the provider.
- if it's a center - a few of the places kind of 'assigned' your child a certain provider - where that person is kind of the primary provider. not to say that no one else is going to care for your child, but it was nice to know that at a few places, there would likely be someone who knew my child very well and was kind of 'in charge' of keeping tabs on them.
- do they offer any discounts? some corporations have discounts through some of the bigger providers (like my company has a discount through New Horizon centers) or are there discounts for paying monthly vs weekly, or a discount for good attendance.
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