Now which one to choose (daycare)

Option 1 sounds the best but its stinky they don't do cloth!

I'd take your que's from Jack. If he was feeling it at the first one, well go for that. Maybe do one more visit at both at a different time of day and see what they are doing?

Do they do teacher/child activities in groups? That's what I liked about Nyah's daycare.

Is there any other options? Neither of those sound ideal unless #1 will be persuaded accept cloth!

I am putting Spencer in for two afternoon starting next week and I picked the oldest looking place out of all of them. My reasons being

Place number 1
Brand new
Excellent facilities
would do cloth
strict routines
seemed unhomely/production line like

Place number 2
nursery only seperated from preschool by 3 foot partition.
Very loud
didn't like sleep set up
didn't do hours that suit me best

Place number 3
sister of place 2 but runs more hours
nursery seperate
they were very busy.
do cloth nappies
nice outside area which is due to be redone.
have set activities each day

Place number 4
older building but still lots of good equipment
great outside area
run reggio emilia approach to teaching
teachers showed me around rather than supervisor
do cloth naps
more of a homely enviroment and they have less children on the days Spencer will be going.

Basically Spencer I spent half and hour looking around them all and then yesterday we went back to place 4 and spent 2 hours. He joined in with all the activities and sat and had afternoon tea with the other babies. I got to watch how the teachers interact with the children and I didn't see anything I didn't like. I also prefer their child led teaching approach as opposed to the other centres that had set out activities.

Yeah I dont understand why some centres dont let u . If u provide a scented wet bag, flushable liners, and the nappies and stuyffed and ready to go,...then whats the prob?! I only send the aplix (velro) nappies to dayacare cos Ive found that sometimes if the person is not used to snaps, they do it up too loose!

I personally favour parent co-operative centres. It means a bit more work on the part of the parents but the whole philosophy behind it suits me that much more.

Rach: re cloth nappies. I'd take them in and show them... they won't get it til they see it.

Edited by nikkiwhyte

a sluice is like a big sink with a thing in it to send poos down it ..but its no different putting them in nappy bin or whatever they do if they have liners...weird:(it depends what you are after...I've worked for both sorts(including kindercare and a homely place) and both places have great things.. Kindercare's food is done by a nutritionist as well.. (the menu)

nikkiwhyte wrote: I personally favour parent co-operative centres. It means a bit more work on the part of the parents but the whole philosophy behind it suits me that much more. Rach: re cloth nappies. I'd take them in and show them... they won't get it til they see it.

I didn't even know there were such places? I don't want to put too much on my plate for full time study tho.

I might casually ask one of the other teachers about cloth and then bring them in. The fact that they already have one in cloth means there is room to push

RachandJack wrote: nikkiwhyte wrote: I personally favour parent co-operative centres. It means a bit more work on the part of the parents but the whole philosophy behind it suits me that much more. I didn't even know there were such places? I don't want to put too much on my plate for full time study tho.

There are heaps of them around.

It basically means that parents act as a board of trustees type of thing. As in there are different committes, staffing, environment, policy etc which you can join... Also the centres are usually non-profit - all the money goes back into the centre and fees are kept as low as poss.

It doesn't actually mean any more work for the parents, I mean, I work full time so I can't commit to more stuff! But I did participate in a working bee a few weeks ago in the weekend and it was really cool getting involved.

emz-it is fab in terms of teaching and food esp:) which is weird for me as i dont generally like big places... and rach not sure which ones i think ones like just kids are in bickerton st but not sure