things writing my last post and reading the reponses made me realize

[flea]

1. I want RF Mom to like me. There are practical reasons for this - I work with her every day - and impratical ones - I want to be approved of by someone who is very popular and well-liked.
2. I am wary of corporate child care. On a practical level, we should ask to tour the facility, which I haven't done in 2 years. On an emotional/social instinct level, I'm not sure if anything can be done about this. I do have a strong feeling that a family-like setting is best for the care of children under 4/5. Corporate day care centers feel like warehousing to me although I know they aren't.
3. I wonder if I would be able to leave my 3 month old in a room with 7 other babies under one year old and 2 adults? If I wouldn't, we might as well just hire someone to care for Casper and hypothetical future sib in our home - the cost is about the same, since 2 kids in a center is $$.
4. Yeah, opting in is the obvious choice. The real dilemma is what to do if we are offered the spot.

Comments

[burrell.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, my personal experience with corporate daycare has led to the opposite conclusions, at least in our case. Franny's bonded very well with the caregivers in the Infant center (which is HUGE and cares for 20 or so infants from 6 weeks to 18 months). She was very well loved and very well socialized. Isaac also seems really happy there. The Toddler classes at daycare are also terrific. Lots of play & unstructured activities, and lots of life skills training (eating with spoons and forks, potty training, dressing, clean up, saying "sorry", etc).

However the Pre-School set up seems lacking. Too unstructured, no curriculum of any sort, not enough opportunity for the kids to bond to the teachers, and most telling, lots of complaints from the parents of the Pre-School kids. I am not sure when I will pull Franny out (but not before next Fall), but I can see that this daycare is a better fit for the wee ones than for the older kids. I will probably keep Isaac in through Toddlers, however, because I've been so happy with Franny's experience.

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

This i very interesting. Clearly in addition to a tour I ned to talk to some parents.