PARENTS: Is KINDERCARE any good?

[iamme]

Any parents out there send their kids to Kindercare (preschool or kindergarten)? It's more expensive than the public schools, but the child/teacher ratio is smaller.

Any opinions?

 

[PlatinumGold]

kindercare is daycare/preschool yes?

look around, we currently have 2 kids in preschool and we've found that locally owned and operated preschools are better (the good ones anyway) than any of the national chains.

we visited a LOT of preschools before we choose the one my kids are attending now and my wife has to drive 30 minutes each way because the school is kind of far away but for us it is worth it because we know it's the best we've seen in the area.

good luck, finding a good preschool is really really tough.

 

[TekChik]

yeah...that's a tough one - i recently had to take my 3 yr old daughter out of a home daycare she'd been in for a year because I didn't feel that the lady was teaching her anything.

i found a church near me that has a daycare/preschool and she's SO happy there. it's more structured, which kids need around the time they're turning 3, they're learning social skills as well as academic, and i know that what they're teaching and how they are dealing with the children is in line with my religious beliefs (if that's important to you).

 

[iamme]

so how often are your kids in preschool and how much are you paying? (if you don't mind saying)

the public school is $95 per month while the Kindercare is $392 per month :Q

 

[TekChik]

i work fulltime, so my daughter is there from about 7:45 - 5:45 every day. I pay $170/week. They provide a morning/afternoon snack (always with MILK, which is important) and I pack her a lunch (which they also provide milk for).

 

[PlatinumGold]

for us, it's preschool and not daycare. my kids are there from 9:30 to 12:30 and i pay $325 / month.

 

[CPA]

Kindercare is actually a national daycare center company. They are usually a little more expensive than most other daycares.

For what it's worth, I pay about $1K a month for my 4 kids. It used to be about 1,500 until I found a cheaper place. What I've found is cost is usually the determining factor. Most daycares, no matter what the say about their "curriculum" are nothing but babysitting services.

 

[Nitemare]

Take time off from work and sit in on it one day.

It's a small price to pay to make sure you are doing the right thing.

 

[Saulbadguy]

Originally posted by: Nitemare
Take time off from work and sit in on it one day.

It's a small price to pay to make sure you are doing the right thing.

It wouldn't be the same environment though, as the child WILL act differently if their parent is around. I would do this before you take your child to the daycare, which is what I think you meant. I used to work at a daycare, and I hated it when parents would "sit in" because their children would be little monsters. Good call.

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: Saulbadguy

Originally posted by: Nitemare
Take time off from work and sit in on it one day.

It's a small price to pay to make sure you are doing the right thing.

It wouldn't be the same environment though, as the child WILL act differently if their parent is around. I would do this before you take your child to the daycare, which is what I think you meant. I used to work at a daycare, and I hated it when parents would "sit in" because their children would be little monsters. Good call.

Yup

<--Uncle of a little monster

 

[imported_Papi]

My children never went to nursery school or daycare or anything like that. My oldest went to kindergarten and senior-kindergarten. I was to paranoid to let anyone else other than the few family members I did let watch them, care for them.

I realize I may have cheated them out on some early learning skills. Learning to be personable, friendly etc. but they have these qualities all the same. So maybe they just missed out on the opportunity to experience it rather than learn. I dunno.

Kindergaten brought him up to speed, he was and is fine now.

 

[codeyf]

Kindercare is middle of the pack as far as cost, and that's usually where it falls for care as well. We looked at well over a dozen daycare's for our son before we settled on the one he was going to. It was a couple hundred more per month (we paid about $550 for tues/thurs all day). He had been going there since about 9 months up to about 3.5. Then wife was prego again and not working and we had to pull him due to $$.

He did just start preschool 2 weeks ago at a city rec center tho. And the place is great. It's a little more for us as we don't live in the actual city it's in, but it is reasonable (just over $300) he goes from 9-1145 Mon/Wed/Fri. Snack is included and the teachers and curiculum is good. And starting this week, they get to swim in the pool there on fridays. The pool was just rebuilt a couple months ago and looks waaaaay

 

[anno]

both of my kids went to private preschool (2 days at 2, 3 days at 3 and 5 days at 4) and public kindergarten. the older one (well.. the younger one started there too) went to a private free-standing non-denominational nursery/kindergarten.. it was great, but pricey.. for 5 days we paid around 380/month, about 2.5 hours/day (this school had morning and afternoon sessions, optional lunch bunch and a "full day" kindergarten, which was on a different schedule.. later arrival than the morning kids, earlier departure than the afternoon ones). it really was a good school, and I would have liked to have kept my daughter there for kindergarten, but we couldn't afford to do that and start the younger one, and it was his turn. so.. he did a year and a half there and then we moved. he did his 4yearold year at a church preschool because there were no non-denominational ones here (neither of these facilities provided daycare), which was also pretty great (facilities-wise, the church was better, the classrooms were around the perimeter of the church gymnasium, so they had plenty of room to run and and ride and play and be loud and have "outside time", even when the weather was too lousy for them to actually go outside), and much more affordable.. 5 days was 180/month, 3 hours/day. comparable class sizes.. 18 kids, 2 teachers here, 9 kids, 1 teacher there.. which was what they had in public kindergarten too (2 different states/school systems).

mind you.. this was some years back.. I'm sure they're both more expensive now..