My Day-Care Search

We are buckling up for a new arrival in our family. Out of scare from our friends/colleagues who had kids, we started looking out for daycare options in the 7th month of pregnancy.

The whole idea of looking for a daycare center before even the baby is born seemed a little weird. How would I know what to look for in a daycare? How would I know what do I really want for my baby?

There were so many questions. And then my friends, colleagues came to my rescue. Well, this being our first baby (who hasn't arrived yet even as I write this), we went with tips from friends based on their experience. I collected tips from them about what to look for in daycares and what are my options around here. Later I realized that this would be an important compilation of information for many.

So I short-listed the daycares in the vicinity of home and work (around Redmond and Bellevue) and made appointments with them for tours. Some daycares had fixed days/hours in the week where we could go for a tour and others welcomed us just anytime. I omitted daycares that had a wait of more than 10 months as they were practically not useful.

What to look for in daycares

• Educational Philosophies
• Staff:Child Ratio
• Cleaning Policies
• Staff Hiring Practices
• Staff Training
• Minimum Education for Staff
• Toys provided
• Books provided
• If the day care facility smells funny when you visit, that’s a sign that the place is not clean and is not clearing out dirty diapers regularly.
• Talk to the teachers, alone, without the Manager or Director around. Are they happy? Have they got an education/teaching background?
• Ask for references and contact info for other parents.
• What kind of snacks do they provide? Can we give snacks from home?
• In-Home vs Professional Day Cares

What ppl have to say about in-home day-cares

• Indian in-home day cares might not provide an organized curriculum for kids. But parents sometimes think it is ok for kids to stay relaxed for the initial 2-3 years. They do provide toys/songs/basic things although.
• In-home day cares might be more flexible in matters of time. In professional daycare chains, you must pick up your kid by 5:30-6:00 (depends on daycare time)
• In-home day cares are more homely and ppl feel that they give more attention and affection to the kids
• In-home day cares work on a trust relationship between parents and the care giver.

Most professional daycares had a few things in common:

• They do provide food to kids, but for infants we have to provide with milk/formula.
• We have to provide supply of diapers, wipes
• We also need to provide an extra pair of clothes for the baby.
• Most daycares follow charts of when the baby ate, how much did the baby eat, how many diaper changes did the baby go through and when did the baby sleep during the day
• Almost all daycares tried to do activities like art, music, motor skills (for infants)
• Most daycares said that they take care of special vegetarian diet
• All professional daycares bleach/sanitize toys used by kids every evening.

Given below is a list of day-cares that my husband and I visited. The notes are our first impressions of each daycare. We specially took notes on infant rooms and not on any other age group.

KinderCare
Location: 6534 E Lake Sammamish Pkwy NE, Redmond, WA – 98052. 425-869-2084
Person we met: Amanda
Notes: The day care was very pleasant. Infant:Teacher=4:1. They sterilize and bleach all rooms every night. The facility was clean and the kids looked happy there. They do NOT take more than 8 infants at a given time.
Tuition: $300 per week (20% discount if you work for Microsoft) = $240 per week

Bright Horizons
Location: 3635 150th Ave NE, Redmond, WA – 98052. 425-702-5700
Person we met: Aaron
Notes: This day care was very very methodical. Good feel, but we felt that it was too systematic for a small kid. The major turn-off was the tuition fee. Way too expensive. We feel that we don't need to pay so much for the system/education/competition that is not required for a kid that age.
Tuition: $1760 per month

Taru's DayCare Home
Location: 10124 179th Ave NE, Redmond, WA – 98052.425-497-1718
Person we met: Taru Aunty
Notes: Liked the homely ambience. She takes around 8-9 kids, prepares breakfast, lunch, snacks for them. Not suitable for infants (till 11 – 13 months) as all the rest of the kids are older and she does not have professional setup (crib etc) for infants. Moreover, it would be hard for her (considering 2 of them look after all the babies) to fulfill special needs/schedule of an infant. However, the ambience was very homely, kids spoke hindi/gujarati, she was loving, kids were coming happily to her when parents dropped off. I like this for our baby when she gets around 1.25/1.5 years old.
Tuition: $1100 per month

ChildTime
Location: 4306 156th Ave NE, Redmond, WA – 98052. 425-869-3949
Person we met: Dusti
Notes: As soon as we entered the daycare, it smelled very funny. But the infant room smelled of sanitized (bleach) stuff. The infant room teacher was nice and was taking good care of the babies. Everything else was standard – get your own diapers, they maintain chart of the baby's daily routine, feed the babies, get your own food, et al. The best thing is it is VERY near to my office and I can go in anytime I want to :-)
Tuition: $306 per week

La Petite Academy
Location: 8675 161st Ave NE, Redmond, WA – 98052. 425-867-1998
Person we met: Monica
Notes: The daycare was typical. Rules same – get your own diapers, wipes, blankets, food. The only thing that we did not like was that there was no teacher in infant room when we went. The infant room was being looked at by "break ppl" who were mostly young girls. One of them was not holding a 3.5 month old girl right; the baby's neck was not supported. Moreover, saw some babies crawling on bare floor – wonder whether it would be cold for the baby to crawl on bare floor. The infant room teacher brings her daughter to the room – not preferred by many (including me). She might pay more attention (be biased) to her daughter than other babies.
Tuition: $208 per week (after Microsoft discount)

What appealed to us might not appeal to everybody. We like more of a free environment for babies, kids where they can express themselves and they are not bound by unnecessary rules and discipline. So the best thing to do is to go and visit each of the daycares.

You will instantly feel welcome in some setups and you will know what you want for the baby. There are parameters to consider like distance, hygiene, ambience, tuition (well it IS an important criterion), but then I am sure you will find something that strikes to you as RIGHT.

Leaving a kid (especially an infant) in a daycare is hard and so the decision of which daycare to choose is harder. We went and visited some daycares multiple times. We went without an appointment to some places to make sure how are the kids treated, how welcome are we when we landed without any appointment etc.

So please do go and visit the daycares once or multiple times however you wish. Good Luck with the search and the decision!