Child Care Options

There are so many different options for having your child cared for while you work. My husband and I choose daycare. There are many options with just daycares. We chose a large in-home daycare.

I thought I would list the benefits of this option. Of course all care choices have pros and cons and fit different families' needs. A large in home daycare is best for our family.

What is a large in home daycare?

• A daycare that is ran out of someone's house.
• Its licensed and regulated through the state.
• Have to fill out standard paperwork that commercial daycares have like child history, medical forms, & physicals. And you have to register persons who can drop off & pick up your child.
• The daycare has state inspections like commercial daycares.
• The state provides credits for items such as food and formula like commercial daycares.
• Meals are provided to the children
• My state has a max of 16 children for in home daycares.
• Whoa you say. That's a lot of children. There still are rules on the ratio of care providers to children. The daycare we go to has 3 additional workers besides the owner.
• Not all children are full time at the daycare where we go too. Many children are only there before and after school.

We love our daycare! The owner has converted her garage to a preschool. It has little chairs, little tables, cubbies, and walls decorated with letters, numbers, weather, etc. The owner hires workers with early childcare education or those that are pursuing a degree in early childcare education.

Benefits over commercial daycare:

• Cheaper rates!
• The daycare does not close due to weather (i.e. snow). The owner doesn't have to drive anywhere so its always open.
• There are no age classrooms. Teagan doesn't have to wait for an opening to move to the next level. If she learns something at a faster pace, she is immediately given more challenging work. 
• Special attention. I call our daycare owner the baby whisperer. Teagan was a biter when she was 1. Many commercial daycares would have kicked her out. Our daycare owner worked with Teagan instead. It turned out Teagan was biting because she was not getting enough attention. The owner made Teagan her special buddy and kept her at her side all day. We also did the same thing at home. All the extra loving allowed our little girl to feel more confident and the biting disappeared  I cannot thank our daycare owner enough for working with our daughter and helping her. 

Benefits over small in home daycares (1 worker/owner) or nannies:

• If the owner is sick or un-expectantly needs a day off, the daycare is still open. The additional workers are able to run the daycare. 
• Your child gets the interaction with other kids his/her age. 
• Our daycare occasionally does field trips or themed days such a PJ day and holiday parties.
• Pretax benefit. Since our daycare is registered through the state, it has its own tax reporting number which allows us to take advantage of the pre-ax childcare spending account through our employers. 

Wow. This became a long post. If you are still reading, what are the benefits from your child care choice?

Love,