Seeking affordable, reliable childcare West Haven/Cedar Hills?
Hiya. I'm pregnant with my first child, who's due to be born in December. I will be returning to work in February or March and my husband will be attending school full-time and working part-time (I know - what are we thinking?).
I am exploring childcare options in the West Haven, Cedar Hills, and North Beaverton areas. We use an in-home daycare for my 8-year old stepdaughter who is here in the summer, but I want to see what else is available.
We aren't sure yet whether we'll be on a full-time or part-time schedule. Affordability is key and I'd love to find a place based on the personal recommendations of other moms.
I appreciate any suggestions you can provide - whether it's from personal experience or if you know other moms in my area. Thanks so much!
Re: Seeking affordable, reliable childcare West Haven/Cedar Hills?
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I'm the other bumpie that uses Care A Lot.. We really love them. DD absolutely loves going there and we've had very minimal issues. DD is very well taken care of during the day and they will do anything I ask them to when it comes to her care, even gave her reflux medicine when she needed it. They are about as affordable as day care can get as well. About half the cost of Kindercare.
We're leaving them in September because we're moving to NY, which breaks my heart and all of the teachers there have said they're going to be very sad for DD to leave
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Thanks so much for the suggestions! I hadn't heard of either of these facilities. Care A Lot is only 2 miles from our house and I was PSYCHED when I saw their rates. I had previously researched KinderCare, which is within walking distance of where we live, but $320 a week is out of the question.
About how many infants do they care for? I'm curious as to what the "minimal issues" you experienced were. It's looking great so far, we're going to pop in for a visit sometime soon. I'll keep my eyes open for cute little Morgan.
They have no more than 8 infants and always have at least 2 teachers in the room, sometimes more than that even. Each baby has their own crib they nap in, so you can leave a blanket/binkie there during the week. They have you take the blanket home on weekends to wash it. If you formula feed, you can have them feed your baby their formula (It's Albertsons generic formula) and they'll also feed your baby their Gerber pureed foods and rice cereal if you choose not to bring your own. All you have to bring is diapers and bottles (with your own Breast milk or formula from home if you're not using their formula).
My issues:
I had a run in with a new teacher who thought I was late picking Morgan up.. in fact I wasn't late at all.. I sent an email to the director about it and haven't had an issue since then.
Morgan pukes a *LOT* (She has reflux, is on medication for it and thickened formula) and goes through an outfit or two a day .. If she is out of her back up clothes, they put her in THEIR back up clothes.. Which tend to be.. not so desirable.. I've told them a couple of times that she usually has another back up outfit in her diaper bag as well, but they have put her in their ugly back up clothes.. Which maybe I'm being snobby, but I was embarrassed because I had to go to home depot after picking her up, and she was in a stained, boy outfit. Not their fault, that's just me
Another time, back before the new teacher, Hanni (who is just awesome) started.. The assistant director called and said Morgan had drank all of her bottles, could they feed her some of their formula.. and I said "yeah, sure, surprising, she must've been extra hungry today, but that's fine.. " but then when I got there to pick her up, she still had 1 bottle (I used to pack 4 bottles a day) un eaten in the fridge. So they must've gotten babies mixed up and then I felt horrible I gave permission for them to give formula to another baby!
Oh, one time she came home in a LUVS diaper, but we use Pampers..
Other than that, I love them. They do cute art projects with the babies, like finger painting, etc they take lots of pictures of the babies and make them into a project and send them home. They made a mothers day and fathers day card and a cute 4th of july project.
Oh, DD has also never had a diaper rash and has only had 1 cold (which I think she got from me, as colds were going around at work) since starting daycare.. So I think they keep things pretty clean and sanitary
Oh, one of the selling points for me, was that the center is on a dead end road and random people will never be just driving by. I also like that they have ALL DAY kindergarten. Obviously Morgan will probably be going to kindergarten in NY now, but it was a selling point before!
If we ever move back to Portland and Care A Lot is still in a convenient location, we'll use them again
Also, all of the workers wear Care-A-Lot shirts, so you know who is a parent and who is a teacher.