yet another child care center review
May. 3rd, 2004 11:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magicicadaa quick review, so far i have seen the:
'nice, but expensive' (just didn't like the style)
'lower rated, cheaper' (felt better, but materials a bit worn, felt a bit lower on the socio-economic scale)
'should be ok, but creepy' (this is the one connected to a pediatrician's office. that just doesn't feel right to me, and the more i hear the less i like it.)
and
'el temp license' (aka hell no)
[start prequel] the actual info is down below, but i just had to stitch this in: as i pulled into the parking lot of the latest child care center i saw blue flashing lights of a cop car in the parking lot. i paused to make sure there was nothing 'active' occuring. after a few moments, i got sylvia out of the car and walked over to the cop car and asked him if his presence had anything to do with the child care center i was about to tour. he assured me that it was a coincidence that he had just pulled a woman over for speeding *whew*. what a start to a tour, eh. i mentioned it to the woman inside who had not noticed the lights yet. after i assured her that it was just a traffic issue the asst director and another teacher tried to figure out if it was possibly the dad of one of their students as they have 'several cop children' attending. not a bad sign at all. [end prequel]
today i went to see 'oh what the hell' this is another 3 star center. that's the middling rating of the second place that i went to. it's set up in an old house, quite old as far as i can tell, but aggressively remodeled. the interior is an open space that takes up what was probably most of the interior of the original house. it's carpeted with several bookcases FULL of books which sylvia was happily allowed to play with. instead of an open space with offices for a resource center etc. the open space contained the desks of the director and assistant director and several more bookshelves of assorted educational goodies. there was also a piano, but i did not ask whether it was actually used. my first impression was that this place smelled good. there was absolutely no 'baby funk' whatsoever. the toddler classroom had cool toys and the kids all looked reasonably happy. they were in 'circle time' when i was there and some of the kids were not behaving. there were gentle reminders issued and one kid ended up in time-out all without any angst or screaming. the situation never got out of control. the playground has more than adequate nature reserves as it's in the middle of a bunch of sand with grass and bushes on the edges. i didn't actual get to see the kids play there because it was soaking wet outside. one downside to this place is that sand takes forever to dry. one upside is that it's really fun to play in. i then went through the classrooms upwards and got better and better feelings from them. these kids were having fun, and they were doing creative learning type stuff at the same time. i saw easels with cups of paint in the pre-k classroom. there were sunflower seedlings in the 3's and 4's. the center has been in operation in this location since 1990. oh yes, the 'older kids playground' that the toddlers will occasionally use when the older kids are not there is HUGE and has a really cool playhouse in the back. they not only do part time, but they do it in every possible combination. they do half days 1-5 days, either morning or afternoon or you can add them together and get full days 1-5 days. it makes the whole job hunt look a lot more possible. several of our scenarios have involved me working part time, but paying for full time daycare.
differences:
instead of moving kids up on a 'birthday basis' they move up on a schoolyear basis, space available. in other words, the oldest classroom has kids who will be in kindergarten next year. as they move up, space is created on the lower levels, etc etc. this means that the kids more or less stay with their group. there are two infant classrooms. a larger 'true infant' class and an 'older infant' classroom. the 'older infants' still take morning naps, so they were not available when i started my tour. as i was looking around the toddler class, the director noted that most of these kids were actually going to be moving up soon. so when we got done with the oldest kids, i asked if the 'older infants' were awake if i could see their room. they were and some of sylvia's peers were in here. i'm not sure how i feel about this because while these kids were obviously happy and sylvia did respond to a lot of the available toys, it felt a bit more 'babyish' than i am used to thinking of sylvia these days and the idea that if she were already in this center that's where she would be, bothered me. then again, the oldest two were supposed to be moving up to the toddler classroom soon and i was assured that is also where they would place sylvia. i also must admit that she is just moving into the one-nap structure and is going to need a lot of help with the whole plate/fork thing whereas most of the kids already in the toddler room have pretty well gotten it down by this point.
no kitchen. what this means is that this is the only center i've found so far that doesn't provide meals. i actually prefer this as i think i still need to be able to determine at least what sylvia is offered for lunch. i like knowing that if i want to give her whole grain, organic, high fat foods i can do it by just putting it in her lunch box, rather than making a huge fuss. on the downside, snacktimes seem a bit disorganized. they consist of 'whatever jo buys' and while she listed a lot of good and worthy foodstuffs, she also admitted that the kids love cheez doodles. i agreed that they probably did ;). at this point, i'm not sure that's such a bad idea for sylvia. we've got a call into the doctor to determine whether potato chips are high fat = good or junk = bad. sippy cups are provided by the parents, as are diapers, but not wipes. juice is provided by the parents by rotation. each parent is asked to bring in 1-2 gallons of 100% juice when it's 'their turn'. it doesn't sound like an onerous burden and i like that they involve the parents. also, parents are encouraged to drop in, volunteer, and celebrate birthdays with their kids. i love this.
mats vs cots. i have no idea what the significance of this is, but this is the first center i've seen that uses mats. they're 2"+ covered with a cotton sleeve similar to a pillowcase. they're numbered instead of named, but there's a chart in the storage place (a converted, very clean bathroom) with names next to the numbers. every other place i've seen uses cots. i have no idea which is cheaper, but the mats look comfy enough.
summary: i left this place really excited. i hope that i have found 'the place'.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
h_postmortemus is going to go on a surprise blitz of all the finalists and ask probing questions. we'll see how this goes. i want to make sure to find a nice place before all the 'slots' fill up. already, one place didn't even offer a tour as they already have 2 kids on their waiting list and don't anticipate a spot until august at best. i have one tour remaining at a 'so damn expensive it's not worth thinking about' establishment. now i just need to get the job thing in line.
'nice, but expensive' (just didn't like the style)
'lower rated, cheaper' (felt better, but materials a bit worn, felt a bit lower on the socio-economic scale)
'should be ok, but creepy' (this is the one connected to a pediatrician's office. that just doesn't feel right to me, and the more i hear the less i like it.)
and
'el temp license' (aka hell no)
[start prequel] the actual info is down below, but i just had to stitch this in: as i pulled into the parking lot of the latest child care center i saw blue flashing lights of a cop car in the parking lot. i paused to make sure there was nothing 'active' occuring. after a few moments, i got sylvia out of the car and walked over to the cop car and asked him if his presence had anything to do with the child care center i was about to tour. he assured me that it was a coincidence that he had just pulled a woman over for speeding *whew*. what a start to a tour, eh. i mentioned it to the woman inside who had not noticed the lights yet. after i assured her that it was just a traffic issue the asst director and another teacher tried to figure out if it was possibly the dad of one of their students as they have 'several cop children' attending. not a bad sign at all. [end prequel]
today i went to see 'oh what the hell' this is another 3 star center. that's the middling rating of the second place that i went to. it's set up in an old house, quite old as far as i can tell, but aggressively remodeled. the interior is an open space that takes up what was probably most of the interior of the original house. it's carpeted with several bookcases FULL of books which sylvia was happily allowed to play with. instead of an open space with offices for a resource center etc. the open space contained the desks of the director and assistant director and several more bookshelves of assorted educational goodies. there was also a piano, but i did not ask whether it was actually used. my first impression was that this place smelled good. there was absolutely no 'baby funk' whatsoever. the toddler classroom had cool toys and the kids all looked reasonably happy. they were in 'circle time' when i was there and some of the kids were not behaving. there were gentle reminders issued and one kid ended up in time-out all without any angst or screaming. the situation never got out of control. the playground has more than adequate nature reserves as it's in the middle of a bunch of sand with grass and bushes on the edges. i didn't actual get to see the kids play there because it was soaking wet outside. one downside to this place is that sand takes forever to dry. one upside is that it's really fun to play in. i then went through the classrooms upwards and got better and better feelings from them. these kids were having fun, and they were doing creative learning type stuff at the same time. i saw easels with cups of paint in the pre-k classroom. there were sunflower seedlings in the 3's and 4's. the center has been in operation in this location since 1990. oh yes, the 'older kids playground' that the toddlers will occasionally use when the older kids are not there is HUGE and has a really cool playhouse in the back. they not only do part time, but they do it in every possible combination. they do half days 1-5 days, either morning or afternoon or you can add them together and get full days 1-5 days. it makes the whole job hunt look a lot more possible. several of our scenarios have involved me working part time, but paying for full time daycare.
differences:
instead of moving kids up on a 'birthday basis' they move up on a schoolyear basis, space available. in other words, the oldest classroom has kids who will be in kindergarten next year. as they move up, space is created on the lower levels, etc etc. this means that the kids more or less stay with their group. there are two infant classrooms. a larger 'true infant' class and an 'older infant' classroom. the 'older infants' still take morning naps, so they were not available when i started my tour. as i was looking around the toddler class, the director noted that most of these kids were actually going to be moving up soon. so when we got done with the oldest kids, i asked if the 'older infants' were awake if i could see their room. they were and some of sylvia's peers were in here. i'm not sure how i feel about this because while these kids were obviously happy and sylvia did respond to a lot of the available toys, it felt a bit more 'babyish' than i am used to thinking of sylvia these days and the idea that if she were already in this center that's where she would be, bothered me. then again, the oldest two were supposed to be moving up to the toddler classroom soon and i was assured that is also where they would place sylvia. i also must admit that she is just moving into the one-nap structure and is going to need a lot of help with the whole plate/fork thing whereas most of the kids already in the toddler room have pretty well gotten it down by this point.
no kitchen. what this means is that this is the only center i've found so far that doesn't provide meals. i actually prefer this as i think i still need to be able to determine at least what sylvia is offered for lunch. i like knowing that if i want to give her whole grain, organic, high fat foods i can do it by just putting it in her lunch box, rather than making a huge fuss. on the downside, snacktimes seem a bit disorganized. they consist of 'whatever jo buys' and while she listed a lot of good and worthy foodstuffs, she also admitted that the kids love cheez doodles. i agreed that they probably did ;). at this point, i'm not sure that's such a bad idea for sylvia. we've got a call into the doctor to determine whether potato chips are high fat = good or junk = bad. sippy cups are provided by the parents, as are diapers, but not wipes. juice is provided by the parents by rotation. each parent is asked to bring in 1-2 gallons of 100% juice when it's 'their turn'. it doesn't sound like an onerous burden and i like that they involve the parents. also, parents are encouraged to drop in, volunteer, and celebrate birthdays with their kids. i love this.
mats vs cots. i have no idea what the significance of this is, but this is the first center i've seen that uses mats. they're 2"+ covered with a cotton sleeve similar to a pillowcase. they're numbered instead of named, but there's a chart in the storage place (a converted, very clean bathroom) with names next to the numbers. every other place i've seen uses cots. i have no idea which is cheaper, but the mats look comfy enough.
summary: i left this place really excited. i hope that i have found 'the place'.
h_postmortemus is going to go on a surprise blitz of all the finalists and ask probing questions. we'll see how this goes. i want to make sure to find a nice place before all the 'slots' fill up. already, one place didn't even offer a tour as they already have 2 kids on their waiting list and don't anticipate a spot until august at best. i have one tour remaining at a 'so damn expensive it's not worth thinking about' establishment. now i just need to get the job thing in line.