Day care

[georgy.livejournal.com]

(For those of you who know me IRL, nothing is imminent or even remotely in the works, just gathering information :-))

What are some of the better day care options in town, and what costs are involved? I live in Winter Hill.

Comments

[mcary219.livejournal.com]

Head Start...if you are income eligible, in Union Sq

[balsamicdragon.livejournal.com]

I have an _excellent_ day care person! She has a family day care out of her home on Walnut Street. It's about $500 per month for two days a week.

When I was looking for day care, what I did was call the Somerville Family Network and give them the parameters of what I was looking for. They searched their database and gave me a list of possibilities with all the contact info, so I could make appointments to visit!

[turil.livejournal.com]

The Agazzi School (Currently in Porter Square) is moving up on top of Spring Hill, on Summer Street. They take state financial aid vouchers (or whatever the program is these days in the state) and they are excellent! I have no idea what their prices are for people who have plenty of money, and I imagine it might be a bit pricey, but they are, as far as I've seen, the absolute best in the area that serves the public. Some of the teachers have been there for 30 years! It's that good.

Also, check the memories, as there have been a few other people asking about this in the past. One thing I will say is stay far, far away from the for-profit one in Davis in the Harvard Vanguard building (they recently changed their name from Bright Horizons to something about "Learning" or somesuch). I interviewed there for a couple of hours for a teacher position and can honestly say there is a very good reason why they are always looking for teachers. Their school is run like a business, not a school. Teachers are overworked, and underpaid, and the curriculum is like something out of a Happy Meal.

The YMCA school seemed OK, but nothing special.

[mamabunny72.livejournal.com]

My daughter goes to an AWESOME family daycare in Teele Sq; this is her third and final year in the daycare (hopefully in the fall, she will have two afterschool slots during the week).

Logistical caveats:
1./... does not enroll infants; minimum age is 12 months, and they only have two "young toddler" slots per year at most. (When my daughter was 18 months, they didn't have a space for her, so she was in another daycare (I barely got her in that one! My advice: start looking way ahead, like one year ahead), then a slot opened up for her the following year.)
2./ ... schedule may not be great for two full-time working parents (Mon-Thur 8:30-5:00 firm; Fri 8:30-1:30) (works for me b/c I work part-time and mostly at home. Kiddo goes two full + 1 half days.)
3./ School closings follow the Cambridge Public Schools calendar b/c one of the teachers has a son in Cambridge school, and another teacher lives in Cambridge.
--
Rates this year (Sept 2008-August 2009) have been: full day $65; half-day $47.
New family interviews start in January for that year's Sept enrollment, for the most part.

MA Dept of Early Education and Care has a good search engine (although since they revamped the site, it's harder to find!), but here it is: http://www.eec.state.ma.us/ChildCareSearch/searchEarlyEdu.aspx

Are you having a baby!!!???

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

:)

[phoenixy.livejournal.com]

The Davis Square daycare center is affiliated with the Kindercare Learning Centers franchise--Bright Horizons is a competing company and not AFAIK affiliated with that center.

[nomacmac.livejournal.com]

check out the Child Care Resource Center www.ccrcinc.org They help with childcare placement and financial assistance in Cambridge and Somerville.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Starting from the beginning, just in case you're completely clueless ;) You basically have three options for childcare. There's a) a nanny or au pair, someone who comes to your home (nanny) or lives in your home (au pair) and cares for your child all day every day. b) an "in-home" daycare center, which basically means a person caring for kids in her home. Or c) a daycare center not in anyone's home. This may be a stand-alone center or part of a chain.

There are pros and cons to each, and some people feel very strongly in favor of this or that. It comes down to what factors matter to you and where your personal comfort level is. I will say that my two kids have always gone to "corporate" daycare centers and have done fine there, and turned out quite well if I say so myself. ;)

My daughter currently goes to the Kindercare that was mentioned above, the one in the Harvard Vanguard building. I will say that it is on the pricey side (will definitely run you at least $500/week for an infant - I'm not sure the current infant rate but I'm paying $375/week for my preschooler) and I won't disagree with anything that turil wrote about the place. I honestly mostly stick with it just because my daughter has been there long enough that she's comfortable with the place and I don't want to move her unless I really have to. But every week when I write the check, I think to myself, "why the heck am I giving these people all my money?"

But this is not an argument against corporate centers in general. Previously we used a different one (out in Acton where I was working at the time) that was absolutely great. In between, I've used two other centers that I'd call mediocre.

You can go on the MA website for the "department of early education and care," and they have a search thingie where you can find all licensed care providers in a given area. This will find regular centers and also in-home centers that are licensed. Of course, then you have to call them and discover that they don't have any openings until November; but that's just how it is. The more popular a place or person is, the longer the waitlist will probably be.
umm, I could go on at length, but I'll shut up now ;)

[obie119.livejournal.com]

! :)