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Northern California Babies
Daycare Question: Mixing infants with "toddlers"
Has anyone run across a day care that mixed infants with "toddlers"? By toddlers, I mean kids under age 2 but obviously crawling and some walking.
I visited 4 and the one with the best location was the only one to mix its kids. They have 5 infants in each infant room, and 7 older kids (but under age 2 where they move to the next room). Teacher ratio is the standard 1-4. All the other daycares had an infant room of 12 and then toddler room, then a 2 year old room.
This seems like a weird idea to me and that kids who are over 1 year would need very different types of attention because they are mobile. However, maybe I'm missing out on some new teaching philosophy and this is a good thing? Anyone have advice or read research on this?
TIA!
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Re: Daycare Question: Mixing infants with "toddlers"
I think in family daycares mixing age groups is very standard.
In our daycare facility children ages 0-2yrs share the same room. HOWEVER, they are separated by a gate and 6 babies stay on one side, and 6 toddlers on the other. The definition of "toddler" is a little mixed though, because readiness to move over to the toddler side is gated by the ability to go down to one nap a day. It's not just a mobility milestone.
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So basically it's 6 weeks - 2 years and then they move up to another room? I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure licensing requires walkers and non-walkers to be separated in their own areas for safety reasons.
Personally it would depend on the age of my kids (sorry I don't remember how old your LO is) but I would worry about a tiny one getting smashed by an older toddler and I'd worry about a young toddler getting less attention in a room with infants.
In the end I would try to do a couple of visits and really go with my gut.
dd's never been in a separate room due to age. my dcp (in-home vs center) has always mixed them up. i like it b/c from what i've seen, dd's learned some things AHEAD of schedule b/c she sees the older kids doing it and she wants to do it too. now its a non issue as she's one of the 'older' kids there but i did like it.
I'm not sure that's true. At our daycare center, kids are in the infant room until they are 1. Then they move to the toddler room until they are 2. Then they move to the discovery preschool room and so on. DS didn't walk until he was 16 months, but he was still in the toddler room starting at 12 months. I kept questioning the move since he couldn't walk and they said it was fine. There is a boy in his room now that can't yet walk.
For me, I'd want the bigger kids away from the infants. At least with my DS, he's pretty rough with babies. I picked him up from his infant room once when he was near 12mo to find him practically smushing a terrified baby (the teachers were dealing with an upset parent at the time). I took DS2 into the toddler room to pick up DS1 and all the kids glommed onto him and were poking at him, etc.
For licensing, if the center does not have a 'toddler' option, then infants (and a required 4:1 ratio) is all children under age 2. Do the children have a primary care giver and then additional help from others? Or is it all shared responsibility?
I ask because even though its the same room, they may keep them seperated by age by having a primary care giver for the 'older' infants. They probably also stagger outside time/naptime/reading time. I would ask more questions.
~~ married 8.11.07
~~ DD1 1.16.11 ~~ DD2 1.3.14 ~~
~~ BFP3 12.22.15 MMC 2.29.16 @ 13 weeks ~~
~~ 2 D&Cs (3.1.16 and 3.10.16) for MMC
~~ BFP4 10.27.16 MMC 1.23.17 @ 16 weeks ~~ D&E 1.26.17 ~~
This is not a requirement.
walkers do not have to be separate from non walkers ... there is no such state requirement separating them. if a center wants to do that on their own, fine but there is no state mandate.
Good questions. I'm not really sure. Since there are 5, it seems like one infant would be the "odd man out". Or maybe they are fudging things by having one person be the infant caregiver and the rest take care of the older kids. The infant rooms are pretty small and I doubt they divide them. If they have outside play (i.e. good weather) then its not as big of an issue.
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So are there 12 kids altogether? The 5 infants = the 7 "toddlers" or are the 5 babies divided into two rooms with some toddlers to bring it up to 4 or 8 in a room? I think that sometimes you know instantly if something is right and sometimes you need a couple of visits to parse it out. I thought I had found a preschool for Andrew (mostly based upon a recommendation I really trusted) yet from the first visit I thought "hmm" so I visited a 2nd time and really pressed things and uncovered things I didn't like. The school he ended up in I knew from simply talking to the teacher/owner on the phone that it was the perfect fit for him.
What are your instincts telling you about this place?
The current school does what you are talking about for particular times of the day (early morning and later afternoon evening). Basically, when the numbers go down enough to combine the classes and teachers end their shift.
The old school had the 18 and under totally separate from the 18-24, no matter what their capabilities were. (Hated that. By 15 months he was beyond bored in the baby room and they didn't have activities geared for that inbetween age group. Also, the sheer amount of kids they had, was overwhelming spacially.)
In my experience I see H learning from the older kiddos and ALSO learning to be gentle and how to interact/be around the little ones. A teacher is usually holding the little ones or they are in a sectioned off area so the biggers todds can't get to them. An all day situation like this might be hard, but during early drop-off breakfast and then at pick-up...not a biggie.
Go in and observe some more. Also, observe when other parents are picking up and you can ask them questions in passing. I loved hearing the parents comments as well as the director/teachers when I was checking out schools.
I believe 12 in each room. So 5 infants, 7 toddlers. They have 2 rooms. I'm going to ask a couple more questions of them to confirm this (perhaps my memory is wrong) and get answers to some things ladipale suggested.
I'm on the fence because of the mixing of infants and toddlers and I don't have enough experience with children to know for sure if its a good or bad thing and because the other 3 didn't do it.. it concerned me. The location is ideal in that I could walk to it from work (so visits are super easy) which is why I'm trying to get more information about mixing of infants/toddlers. However, location is only part of the decision here (there are many things I'm considering that I haven't listed). I'm just trying to get as much data as I can.
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My DD was in an in-home DCP. When DD started at 13 weeks the ages ranged from her to 2.
The places we looked at were mixed from infant only (under 1 yr) room and others had infant to 18 months. I think the infant to 18 months is pretty standard.