After 2 and a half years of being home with my little girl, it is time for me to get back to work. I am a teacher and will be going back to work in late July 2009. I am heartbroken about this but will feel a lot better knowing she is being well cared for and loved. I don't know of any good Childcare Centers in the Mt. Plymouth/Mt. Dora area. I am still trying to decide which would be better--a childcare center or in-home childcare. As long as she is happy and my husband and I feel she is being cared for, either one is fine with us. Any advice on centers or in-home care givers will be GREATLY appreciated! I am really worried about finding the perfect place!
Hi
I do not live in Lake County, but you can call the resource and referral agency in your area for a childcare listing. They do not provide recommendations but at least you know what is out there (centers and licensed homes). Also, go to www.myflorida.com/childcare and you can do your own search by city and zipcode. You are able to review past inspections and see their performance.
Remember to visit and compare. Good Luck!
Hi K.,
I am not near you so I can't comment specifically on any day cares in your area, but I have had experience with both in-home and day care centers, so I wanted to share.
At the in-home day care my son was one of only three kids and he was the only infant, which was good. He was well taken care of, and even freshly bathed each day when I picked him up. She would also do little extras, like trim his nails and work with him one-on-one on developmental skills. For me the biggest drawback though, was that whenever the caregiver was sick, or had to go out of town, I had to take off work (it didn't happen often, but it was VERY inconvenient) and we had to work around her vacation and find alternate care for the week. Whereas with a day care center, they have enough employees so that you don't have to worry about things like that. The other drawback to the home day care was that she was very scheduled and I had to drop him off and pick him up at the same time every day and notify her in advance if we were taking a day off, but with a day care center, you can drop off or pick up at any time during the day and you don’t even have to tell them if you decide at the last minute to take the day off. Both worked the same way as far as payment. I paid by the week whether he was going to be there or not. Not all in-home day cares may operate that way, but that was my experience.
One last thing I want to mention is that when you are looking at day care centers, I have found that price really does equal quality (at least in my area it does). You will pay more for better center. The one my boys are at now is fantastic. It is on the smaller side than most, and they have a set curriculum that is age appropriate and work on achieving developmental milestones, and even potty train the kids in accordance with way you are doing at home. And, no TV (which, one center we looked at actually plopped the kids in front of the TV for two hours at the end of the day and thought that was okay). So make sure you visit the centers and get as much info as you can before choosing one.
I am in agreement with a lot of what Mandy said. If you use in-home daycare, there usually isn't much of a learning environment going on, they are just usually glorified baby-sitters. At 2 1/2, she will really benefit from more of a learning environment to prepare for what is now a highly academic Kindergarten. If the inhome provider is sick, you have to scramble for alternative care or miss work altogether.
Child care centers can be a bit more expensive than in home centers, but I truly believe you get what you pay for.
Have you looked into the local YMCA, I've thought about that when I have to put my girls into daycare, in the future... Just a thought.. Good luck with returning to work.
Liz
