Childminder or nursery

[time2changeCharlieBrown]

My lo is entitled to the 15 hours funding now and I work from home

theres a childminder on my older kids schools street who has three full days available - but is the days I don’t really want due to grandma and swimming lessons day and gym mini day (lo is two) we’d have to pay extra two hours as she only allows minimum of two full days
(I’d only do 9-3) due to picking up older kids
but it could work I could try swap activities or something

theres a private outstanding nursery that’s a 15 minute walk or few minutes car that has a few afternoon or morning sessions left so three half days (15 hours) q few options to choose from

and there’s a pre school that’s also a few minutes drive away this is outstanding too and has a good outdoor area and sort of forest school site they use too, these are flexible so can do three hours a day or up to 9 hours a day you pick and choose no minimum requirements

so what would you choose?
my lo is two and not very confident , not talking , not potty trained, super clingy,
shy and has separation anxiety as I’ve never left them except grandma!

The preschool sounds brilliant.

Do you have reviews from parents who've used all three settings?

I'd go preschool, nursery, childminder in that order but I'm a nursery fan as both of mine have been FT since the baby room and loved it.

I presume you've investigated top up fees with all of them?

No I hadn’t actually that’s a good point!! I will ask about this
fo they all have top up fees??
thank you I do know people that have used the pre school and they all speak very highly about it and haven’t heard anything at all negative

I'm not in England so we don't have the funded hours, but from everything I've read the funding that settings receive from the government comes nowhere near the cost of actually providing those hours. So yes, I would expect all of them to be charging some form of top up. I'd get the details of that before you do much more because it may make one or more setting unviable if cost is the reason you haven't used childcare to this point.

I definitely will do that thank you