Hellobee Boards

@Coco Bee: yup, they were all licensed. They had quite a few kids, not just one family like you are planning on doing. I remember them telling me a little about the state licensing requirements and how they have unannounced check ups by the state regulators.

Oh! And another one had all the kids playing in the kitchen while they were cooking food!?! Um, what? That seemed so dangerous to have a bunch of little kids in a small kitchen while the stove was on...vegetables are being chopped...nightmare!!

@Coco Bee: in regards to the credential or her own kid getting preferential treatment in my mind at least?

@Andrea: yes! I would want the "day care" space to be delegated. With the understanding of course that some of it will spill over occasionally into other parts of the homes.

@Coco Bee: I think you would have a hard time finding a family that would want to use you if you weren't fully licensed and covered by liability insurance. For what that would cost you you would end up having to charge the family a hefty fee in order for you to make a profit. Therefore, the family could probably just get a nanny who doesn't have her own child to come to their home which is much more convenient for them. So I think in order for you to have a successful business model you would need to take on more kids.

@regberadaisy: yeah, I wasn't comfortable with kids playing in a kitchen even though they said that they provided healthy, home cooked meals.

A friend of mine used in-home and loooooved the experience when her boy was very young. She said it was a very homely experience and he got more one-on-one attention because he was the only baby and the lady only watched two other kids. Her raving review of it is why I'm definitely going to take a peek at in-home daycares around here. There are actually some teachers in our subdivision that now do this, it sounds really great in theory.

if i had to find some sort of daycare for peanutbaby, i'd totally prefer in-home. the teacher/caregiver to child ratio alone is enough to sway me, but i like the homey and personalized aspect of it too. i feel like a lot of daycares in my area feel institutional, and i don't like that.

in-home daycares in my area make much less than an actual center, but it's much less overhead and upkeep!

we wanted in-home until about 3ish. Then we want a daycare center which will be a great preface to kindergarden.

We live in Chicago so our prices might seem a little high. From what I've seen, day care centers run around $350-$500/week and up and I've seen home day cares running around $245-$350/week and up.

We're putting DS in a home day care for a few reasons. One, it's just up the street from us so it's really convenient for us to walk to drop him off and then walk to the train to get to work. The woman who runs the daycare is awesome so far. I love how it's like a second family. That being said, we also looked at a day care center that we liked as well. However, we would have had to drive him to and from the place and then take the train.

Honestly, both places are the same per week but convenience won out for us. That and I just got a really good feeling about the home day care and the people who run it.

We only considered a center due to the following reasons:

1) I wanted to dictate my vacation. I don't want to take vacation on someone else's schedule or find a backup to a sick in home caregiver.
2) I wanted an environment where LO will be challenged to grow. I wanted a learning environment.
3) I wanted someone certified in infant CPR.
4) I wanted to know the state requirements were being met and the state was checking on the care giver.
5) I wanted a variety for my child, various caregivers, various playmates, various healthy foods, etc.
6) We needed long hours.
7) Reputation and referral from trusted sources/co-workers was important.

I would have considered an in-home if most of our requirements could be met. #7 was highly important for an in-home and I never got that so nothing else mattered ultimately.

eta: transportation! I don't want my child transported anytime soon by anyone other than family.

If there were in-home daycare options here, it's something I would definitely consider. I would feel more comfortable sending a younger baby to another home. As it is, I think there are about 20 different centers within a 15 minute walk from our place, of all different sizes, prices, and qualities. We're still thinking about whether we want to send Baby Boy to daycare at 18 months or wait until he's 2.

Our son is at a in home day care and he loves it! He loves his teacher (who is like a 2nd mom to him) and really likes playing with all of the kids there. She cooks super healthy foods and has an art background so she has really fun arts and crafts activities every day. My son is a little bit shy so the in home daycare was a perfect setting for him. We plan on putting him in a preschool when he's 3 1/2 to prepare him for kindergarten. But this in home daycare is the perfect transition to preschool.

If I didn't have a really really good feeling and references for in-home then I'd do centre. As a JK teacher, I've seen a lot of kids who come from various places and that influences me a bit. The kids from our centre have had some major behavior issues....not sure if I can blame the centre, but it makes me hesitate. There is one particular lady that I'm hoping to get. Around here (small town in Ontario Canada) the centre is $50/day and in-home is less, but not much less.

I always thought I would go with a center, but we actually ended up with a home daycare that we love. We're in a rural location and there are only 2 centers (used to be 3), so our options are pretty limited. On top of that, two of the daycares have awful records (1 got shut down by the state after years and years of issues), and the other one has a several year waiting list. So there weren't a lot of choices for us.

Anyway, we ended up loving our home daycare so much, mainly because it is set up very similarly to the good center in town. Everything is done on demand for infants, the preschool curriculum is the same, they have a similar menu, etc... One thing I do love about the home daycare that isn't available with the center daycare is the flexibility. For example, our provider (or one of her helpers) rocked DD to sleep until she was over a year old. Sometimes they even held her for her naps, if she was having a rough day. They also allowed her to decide if she would take a morning nap, which was great because shedidn't fully transition to one nap a day until like 20 months. Our provider was also on board with potty training DD at 18 months, and was a big help in that area. I know not everyone is comfortable with this, but I love that our provider takes the kids on field trips; they go a couple times a week, and DD always has so much fun! Our provider has up to four helpers come in at a time, and whenever a baby under 12 months is there, they get their own designated helper, so the teacher:child ratios at the home daycare are much better than the center. Those kinds of concessions wouldn't have been available to us had we been in a center, and I love that our provider has a very child-focused philosophy and the ability to be flexible and cater to the kids' individual needs.

The other thing I like about home daycare that isn't available in a center is that DD gets exposed to a wide range of kids. There are kids at her daycare who just come after school, there are babies, there are kids her age. I like that she has been included in the preschool curriculum since she was 9 months, and that now she gets to be "the big kid" and "help" with the babies. I feel like it's a more rounded experience for her, and she's way ahead developmentally, which I partially attribute to her exposure to older kids/advanced activities from a young age.