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I thought about switching her but I feel like 14 months would have been a tough time. Now that shes 2, I feel like I would be more ok with it now. We just recently went through a bunch of research to look for other options, but short of driving 20 minutes out of the way (doubling our commute) there just wasn't anything better.

When #2 comes around, we may have to look again because costs for two at this center are a bit higher then we comfortably could afford.

@regberadaisy: I feel like verbally, she can understand the change now. She understands "my house" versus "my friends house" versus "my school". She would understand a change in schools. Plus I feel like develomentally, shes at a good place now. No teeth, no new foods, sleep is in good order, etc etc. But I felt like she was still changing so rapidly still around 14 months.

We changed right at one year. It was hard for about a week. LO would cry when I left but all in all it was the right choice. She changed classes at 15 months and was fine. And recently changed classes again at 22 months. I think any change is going to cause some stress regardless of age.

Would you think about switching her when it's time to switch her to a new room?

Even though this daycare goes up to preschool, we are thinking of switching her to Montessori around that time.

@locavore_mama: I can understand the hesitancy to switch...because you never really know if the other place will really be better! Is the Montessori a much bigger improvement?When #2 starts daycare, where would you send him/her? When you say it's not an "educational center" is LO not really learning anything?

These were the pros/cons for me:
Old daycare:
Pros: she (we) likes 1 of the caregivers, 5 min drive from house.
Cons: Food sucks, no curriculum, 1 of the 2 caregivers isn't really engaged with the kids, the room is 0-18 months so the older babies were super bored, they only go outside June-Aug.

New daycare
Pros: same building as work, $300/month cheaper, can see the outdoor playground from my office, they have a routine/curriculum, both caregivers are very engaged, kids go outside almost every day, LO never has a diaper rash because they change her 6x a day!
Cons: food still sucks

@locavore_mama: off topic, but when did u change your username?! I really liked your old one.

We are changing my son to a Montessori school this week. The program starts at 2 years old so he is starting at 2 years old. I like my cheap daycare but I LOVE the Montessori program. I know a lot of kids who have come out of it and I love how they act etc. He will go to his daycare in the afternoons for the next year and go full time at 3 years old (that is how they do it).

From your description I would start her at 18 months. 18 months for us was a hard time (that is when we started at the current program). He is just now willing to go without crying for mama. So that only took a whole year. But I am sure they are prepared for that. I know he will have a hard transition to Montessori in the same way but I think it will be very good for him.

Also it is good for me. His current school closes at 4:30 pm but when he goes full day at Montessori he can go until 5:30 pm.

We decided not to switch our toddler.

Back story: when looking at daycares, it came down to these two, both with similar curriculums...

Option 1: closer, $100/month cheaper since you bring your own sheets & lunch, no PT until 3yo, smaller center with only 1 room per age group, admin seemed more organized, didn't know anyone who personally had gone there.

Option 2: bigger center (2-3 rooms per age group), meals provided, 2 friends with multiple kids there, a little out of the way but not trafficky, more established center that has been around a lot longer, and very flexible PT options in case we needed it.

I actually got a better feel for Option 1, but they had a waitlist and couldn't guarantee a spot for LO until she was 8 months old. So we went with Option 2 in the meantime (not un-happily...) and assumed we would switch.

By that time, LO (we) loved her teachers, she had some terrible separation anxiety, and I figured that all of the "issues" that I had with the center (few and far between) were known at that point. I couldn't necessarily guarantee that Option 1 wouldn't have the same or different/worse problems. So we stayed, and I'm very content with it!

@locavore_mama: well maybe just check it out and see what you think - no need to commit yet! Do you even know if they have an opening?

@littlek: After the third day i was ready to call the old daycare! I say give it two weeks. She did much better the second week and by the end of the week i was so glad DH didn't give in to my worries.

We took DD out of daycare at 2.5years because DS had arrived and we were moving both of them to a private sitter. There are no other kids at the sitter's but DD had no problems adjusting. She is starting pre-school next week so she will resume regular interaction with kids her own age as well as get the educational component.