It's come time to start putting our 3 year old in some sort of child care. Probably starting at 3 days a week. We have a Kids R Kids close to us, but other than surf their web page I haven't done much research on them. I'm sure a lot of you have gone through this. What should we be looking for as far as do and don'ts are concerned? And approx how much can we expect to pay? Thanks.
There is a guide, I don't know if it is on the web, of all the daycares and childcare centers in your zip code. These are all registered with a central Daycare registrar. Here is the online search: http://www.naeyc.org/accreditation/search/ (they only have the accredited ones, though... the ones without accreditation are in that bigger book that these accredited daycares will be able to let you read) And how to choose: http://www.naeyc.org/accreditation/search/choosing.asp Accredited schools are inspected at random yearly and are more expensive. There are FULL DAY and half-day care centers, so prices vary. You DO want to go to an accredited one, for the inspection is rigorous, and you can bet they're clean and require their teachers to go to trainings, etc. My wife used to work at an accredited one, so I can further give you some more assistance if you'd like.
send you kid to an accredited montisorri and you won't be sorry. My first grade daughter is doing math on the 5th grade level and was well beyond many of the other kids in her Vanguard classes in HISD. I almost had her tested to skip the first grade when we moved to cyfair but my wife talked me out of it.
We have three kids. We tried a nanny and other more affordable day-cares - hated them all. We then started taking them to Kids R Kids in Katy and have had them there for the last four years (now just summers). Expensive, but we had such peace of mind with them there. My twins, who are seven now, were born 11 weeks premature and went to a pre-K program at Kids R Kids and are now in the gifted program at KISD (2nd grade).
What does Kids R Kids charge? Do you have to keep them at one location or does it give you "membership" to float your kids around? We have one close to where we live and close to where I work.
well, my wife wrote the checks for that but I believe it is around 150 to 170 per week (discounted for every additional child - I cannot begin to express how much daycare has financially kicked our ass from 00-04) depending on the age of the child. The Kids R Kids are individually owned so I don't think floating is an option unless they happened to be owned by the same guy. I would recommend the one close to home as that is the destination you and your significant other have in common.
I don't think changing your kid to different daycares would be good for anyone... unless you're really needing to do it... in which case... oh, never mind... surely you wouldn't have liked to go to different schools all the time... right? Still, I don't think they'd let you do that anyway. Creme DeLa Creme sounds like a good place. Dude, just call them... don't be chicken You're not the first one that researches... and you won't be the last.
Ask your neighbors. I have seen dramatic differences in quality among Montessoris and others (chains).
my neighborhood bum in brooklyn started pushing my son around in his shopping cart while collecting bottles when my son was three. they do this five days a week 9am-3pm and it doesn't cost me a dime. he still can't do math but he is learning valuable lessons about the environment, recycling, how to treat others, and, most importantly, how to earn a buck.
