sste
10-06-2009, 03:58 PM
UPDATE: So, I made my peace with the open classroom and even decided that it was a positive thing from the perspective of child abuse prevention and oversight. On Monday, after some phone stalking, I got off the waitlist at a DIFFERENT, non-open room child care center/preschool after three waitlisted years!
New center is really incredible and I am picky, picky. One and a half blocks from my office, a full developmental daycare and preschool, for the two year old room a 1:5 teacher ratio, creative curriculum, developmental assessments of kids every three months, parent meetings to discuss child's development 2-3 times per year, special speech consultant available to the children at no cost and other educational consultants who work periodically in the center, two year old lead teacher is working on her masters degree in special ed and the preschool room teachers all have teaching masters degrees, very nice outdoor playground . . . and its $800 per month in a major metro area!!! The center is a cooperative between the federal government which subsidizes space, easter seals which provides funding in exchange for fully inclusive classrooms, and my city's public school system and headstart. So, the programming is on par, in fact exceeding, the best programs I have seen at twice the price and in fact exceeding the NAEYC standards. And it is truly diverse and not as chi-chi as the open center daycare: the kids are a mix of children of federal employees, at risk/lower income children, and children of fanatical stalkers of this particular daycare center who tend to be upper income.
DH and I practically did a war dance in the director's office when she let us in! Thanks everyone for your advice.
Thanks to all the BB posters who advised me on questions to ask when touring a daycare for our 2 year old. The place I found is *almost* perfect: terrific ratio and small classes, a few blocks from DH's job and a five minute bus ride from my job, kind of a school-ish daycare so full day, play-based curriculum and minimal teacher change during the day, very well qualified teachers, beautiful facility with magazine-quality brand new facilities and classrooms, indoor gym built as a "kids tree house," rooftop deck playground, and short walk from a city park, great nap/food/potty train/parent drop in policies and also eco-friendly - - they provide all organic meals through a kids catering service, insist on cloth-diapering for you and only have wood/safe plastic toys!
The only downside I see is that the classrooms were purposefully set up as huge open rooms with low-wall dividers separating the classrooms. DS's room would have 2 classes of 2-3 year olds and a year from now also 2 classes of 3-4 year olds in the back portion of the room. I cannot imagine the noise - - the center keeps on assuring me that they have kids rotating out to indoor treehouse/rooftop deck/city park/other field trips so its not what I am thinking.
Would this be a deal breaker for you? We can also look for a nanny and waitlist ourselves at another preschool - - I just wonder if there is always going to be one item on my preschool wish list that isn't perfect no matter where I go.
New center is really incredible and I am picky, picky. One and a half blocks from my office, a full developmental daycare and preschool, for the two year old room a 1:5 teacher ratio, creative curriculum, developmental assessments of kids every three months, parent meetings to discuss child's development 2-3 times per year, special speech consultant available to the children at no cost and other educational consultants who work periodically in the center, two year old lead teacher is working on her masters degree in special ed and the preschool room teachers all have teaching masters degrees, very nice outdoor playground . . . and its $800 per month in a major metro area!!! The center is a cooperative between the federal government which subsidizes space, easter seals which provides funding in exchange for fully inclusive classrooms, and my city's public school system and headstart. So, the programming is on par, in fact exceeding, the best programs I have seen at twice the price and in fact exceeding the NAEYC standards. And it is truly diverse and not as chi-chi as the open center daycare: the kids are a mix of children of federal employees, at risk/lower income children, and children of fanatical stalkers of this particular daycare center who tend to be upper income.
DH and I practically did a war dance in the director's office when she let us in! Thanks everyone for your advice.
Thanks to all the BB posters who advised me on questions to ask when touring a daycare for our 2 year old. The place I found is *almost* perfect: terrific ratio and small classes, a few blocks from DH's job and a five minute bus ride from my job, kind of a school-ish daycare so full day, play-based curriculum and minimal teacher change during the day, very well qualified teachers, beautiful facility with magazine-quality brand new facilities and classrooms, indoor gym built as a "kids tree house," rooftop deck playground, and short walk from a city park, great nap/food/potty train/parent drop in policies and also eco-friendly - - they provide all organic meals through a kids catering service, insist on cloth-diapering for you and only have wood/safe plastic toys!
The only downside I see is that the classrooms were purposefully set up as huge open rooms with low-wall dividers separating the classrooms. DS's room would have 2 classes of 2-3 year olds and a year from now also 2 classes of 3-4 year olds in the back portion of the room. I cannot imagine the noise - - the center keeps on assuring me that they have kids rotating out to indoor treehouse/rooftop deck/city park/other field trips so its not what I am thinking.
Would this be a deal breaker for you? We can also look for a nanny and waitlist ourselves at another preschool - - I just wonder if there is always going to be one item on my preschool wish list that isn't perfect no matter where I go.