• What are the pros and cons?
• Home-based Daycare

What are the pros and cons?

I would like to send my son when he turns one to a daycare. Because the list of daycares is so long I realize I first need to make a decision and chose between home based daycare or daycare center. What are the pros and cons for each? Roni

- Low child to teacher ratio (3:1) which means your baby/child gets individual attention when he/she needs it.

- Separation by age group. This keeps the toys and activities age appropriate and prevents the little ones from being run over by the bigger kids.

- Experience and education. A high-quality center requires some level of training for all teachers, certification or a BA by head teachers, and provides or encourages on-going training/education. At a center, there are a variety of teachers - some with years and years of experience and some who are young and full of energy and fresh ideas - which creates a nice balance.

- Your child will form bonds with several teachers over the years, instead of just one or two. Good luck with your search!

In my own case, I had my son in a home based daycare from 5 months to 2.5 years, and then in a daycare/preschool setting from 2.5 yrs on. I visited a few centers and some home-based places and came away thinking that a young child under 2 could not really benefit from the more educational and physical activities that daycare centers are good at providing. An intimate surrounding seemed the better place for a little one. In the centers that I visited, those under two were also stuck together in a room with other babies, and did not get to mix with older children. Since my child loved learning (to walk, to eat, etc.) by following the example of older kids, I really liked the mixed ages that you can find in a home-based environment. He was the youngest in his home-based daycare when he entered; the oldest was four. Rather than prove a danger to him (the argument of my friends who prefer same-age grouping), the older kids were wonderful in playing with him and providing extra stimulation which he found much more interesting than adult attention.

I also got the sense that a home-based daycare could better adjust the day to my child, especially when he was younger and his 'schedule' (napping, etc.) kept changing. Bigger centers, in order to manage, seemed more rigid in what the kids had to do.

Finally, I have the preception (perhaps wrong) that there might be less sickness passed around if there are fewer kids, as there tend to be in home-based daycares. Your child will still get sick once they go to daycare (once every six weeks for us!), but he still seemed somewhat better off than an another child that went to a center. Some of the arguments against a home-based center is problems if the provider gets sick (no one to cover) and/or fears about comptency, etc. that are not checked by anyone as they would be in a larger institution. In my case I used two absolutely wonderful home-based daycares and never had either problem. I think each only called sick one day a year. And, they have been much more flexible about drop off and pick up times when we had extraordinary situations than a center would have been. That said, I think once the child is about 2.5, centers with more educational activities and more children can be a good thing, the main reason we are leaving our provider in September. Irene

Personally, I prefer a home-based Daycare until a child is old enough to communicate pretty well (sometime between ages 2 and 3 years.) I think that babies/toddlers are better off in an environment that is as home-like as possible, where they can sleep and eat when they feel the need and are not surrounded by too many people. Most home-based daycares don't have more than 5 kids (which depends on the license the caregiver has) so they are more likd a little family. Additionally, our pediatrician has mentioned that babies get fewer colds when they are in child care with less than 5 other kids.

The draw backs are: 1)the caregiver is not supervised by anyone but the parents... so if you are suspicious, you have nothing but your gut to go on. 2) when the caregiver is on vacation, you have to make alternate arrangements because their isn't an automatic substitute. another mom

For me the drawback of a home daycare wasn't that my child might not have care on a day when the provider needed to take vacation or sick leave, but rather that the provider would end up NOT taking those days off. Coming to work sick when you work with kids is not a good thing, but if there is no paid sick leave, or no easy way to get a substitute, it often happens.

One of my childcare requirements is that the teachers have the same type of benefits I do: paid vacation leave, paid sick leave, paid health insurance, etc. Of course it may not be at the same level I have, but they must have something. This was not something I could provide for a nanny, so I chose a center. Not every center offers these things, but I asked every daycare I called about these issues, and chose one that does.

Also, I want my children cared for by teachers who can reasonably chose providing care as a career (not just a temp job). I believe that having benefits like sick leave, health coverage, etc. makes it easier for it to be a real career, and helps prevent burnout. Granted, even at the great and expensive center we chose, the salaries probably aren't much... but it is a start. Along the lines of preventing burnout, I like the way our center supports our teachers: there are enough extra ''hands'' so that everyone gets breaks throughout the day, and there is always a ''floater'' teacher who helps out whereever the need is greatest. The teachers are part of a real community and provide important moral support for each other. All this leads to less turnover, which is better for my kids, and to happier teachers I think. - Charis