We’ve been struggling this past month trying to decide where to relocate OG for daycare. Our current arrangements have become a non-option for the time being as that family is preparing to increase its head count.
The struggle we are having is whether we want to enroll her in a commercial daycare environment. For the past week we’ve been visiting a daycare very close to my office. It is a fairly large daycare where they do the standard division of ages and can have capacity in a single room of up to around 15 children. I believe a minimum of 3 caregivers are in the room at all times.
Not impressed. Although a fairly reputable establishment I’m sure, the environment did not suit us, especially OG (at least we think). The environment seems a little too institutionalized for me; far from a homestyle comfy feeling I would want to see. Play, naps, meals all take place in the same room which although is somewhat large is not suitable for all three needs.
We did a few trial runs of a couple hrs each to get a feel for how the staff interacts and it wasn’t sufficient for us. OG (biased) is a quick learner and requires more stimulation than simply running around from toy to toy. Reading, colouring (which was controlled to specific times) and crafts are what she is getting more interested in. And interactively with older people. The caregivers were providing what I felt was minimal interaction on an educational level. The rest of the time was mere supervision.
So we’ve been researching other in-home possibilities where we can expose her to an environment with a good mix of children of different ages. We felt a huge advantage of our old arrangement was that there were kids older than OG that were playing and interacting with her frequently. I would attribute a big part of her rapid vocabulary and memory development to this exposure. Being in a room full of similar aged children is not going to be the same. I’ve observed that equal aged children about her age ( < 2yrs ) tend to not interact meaningfully. They pretty much just stare at each other and then sometimes try to take each others toys. I'm not child expert person but I really don't see anything much going on there at the surface at least. We have a few leads that we're following up that could provide an environment similar to what OG is used to. We haven't given up on the commercial product yet....just the initial one we gave a try. There is a top notch daycare facility that we are on a waiting list for that provides a lot of the educational stimulation that was lacking in the other place. And the environment is much less institutional. By sending her there a couple days a week and spending some time with both Grandma's on the other days can be very beneficial.