which is better nursery or child minder for just two year old

[zippitippitoes]

and why?

I guess it depends how flexible you can be. If for example the childminder is off sick can you easily get time off work as with a nursery this sin't a problem. Also will the childminder have other mindees, take the child to lots of activities. At nursery the child will have lots of social interaction with other kids and lots of structured activities. If your child has individual needs like a strict diet due to allergies then a childminder is probably the way to go

blimey - where to start?!
everyone will have their own opinions on this but i'll just give you my two penneth and also something else i've read recently. at the end of the day it will depend on you, your child and the individual carer(s) - there are good and bad examples of nurseries and childminders.

I, personally and IME, would say that children are better off with a good childminder up to the age of 2 or 3 just because of ratio of adult to child. If you can find a childminder who only has 1 or 2 pre-schoolers in the day i would say this is great, obviously depending on the childminder.

It used to be thought that, at two years old, children were ready for a bit more socialising and so nurseries were better for them as they didn't need such individual care and attention at this age. However, Steve Biddulph's lastest book and his research over the past few years suggest that nurseries are better for the threes and over, no younger.

It also depends on whether your child has a full or part time place away from you/the family, as a mixture of both types of care might be ideal for some children but not for others who might find it disruptive. will try to find link to article SB wrote recently - there was a thread about it.

couldn't find exact link but this is \link{http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk?topicid=8&threadid=153170&stamp=060309141931\in favour of nurseries} (just to show i'm not biased )

I think IMHO it really depends on the child as well. i.e. if the lo is very sociable then a nursery would be fine, if not I'd opt for a childminder.

Several considerations are:

Time off required:
if cm is sick you or your partner will have to take a day off.
Nursery will always be open

Cost:
cm usually cheaper than a nursery

Child/Carer ratio:
IMHO better at CM even if they have full alotment as long as they stick to the regs and only have 3 under 5's. That way the lo has bigger 'siblings' to play with but isn't overwhelmed by a whole class of toddlers.

I had dd with a childminder from age 5 months until she was 3.5 - that was when ds came along.
I had the great advantage that my cm had a very big extended family and they all lived in the same house. She was also looking after 2 more under 5's when she took on dd. DD loved playing with those two.

So it was great for the family environment and dd got lots of attention especially from the 12 year old daughter and her school friends who always wanted to play with her :) Also if cm was sick, no issue as there were 2 grown daughters, her sister and her husband who worked shifts - o.k. they weren't qualified cm's but I was happy with the arrangmenet.

it's for dgs..dd has promised to come and find out what we can on Monday so I'm looking some stuff up

Do childminders have the same kind of ofsted reports as nurseries?

dgs gets excited when he sees other children but has never really been to anything where he meets them..he doesn't really know any children, yet

Same OFSTED reports - can be seen here \link{http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/\you select C/Mers and your area}

This is a very new system and not all childminders in your area will have a report on-line (but you just ask to see it)

\link{http://www.childcarelink.gov.uk/index.asp\this will give a list of local childminders}

Good luck

Nurseries won't take children who are even slightly off colour (unless it's just a cold) but I gather childminders are a bit more flexible - Katiemac will correct me if I'm wrong!

Personally having done nursery for ds from 7 months, there's no way I'd send another young child to a day care nursery. Just not enough individual attention or home-like atmosphere. Too much being stuck in the same room all day every day. Would choose childminder up to age 3.

edam :) my cm took kids even if they had e.g. chickenpox... but all parents agreed on that as the kids had to get it at some stage anyhow. Saying that, whilst at cm dd got exposed 3x to cp but never got them. Now at nursery they had an outbreak and she finally got it. She was last in her group! Good immune system eh?!

Edam - I would take a child with CP, but only once they were "well in themselves" iyswim

D&V are an absolute no no......I'm sure you have seen my recent thread on he subject.

But colds?...I have a constantly dripping sucession of noses at my house...and they are all green

me too - constantly wearing clothes with dried on me, keep having to clean sofa etc. but hey, it's all part of the fun isn't it

snail trail

I used both and had a bad experience with a childminder and a nursery before finding a good nursery I was happy with.

The thing I don't like about my childminders was:

1. She took DS out in car without a carseat
2. She lied to me about several small things.
3. I never really knew what her other family members did with ds.

4.One of sons smoked (she didn't tell me but I saw him on the street. My DS had asthma.

1. I'm pretty sure she hit DS or at the very least someone was getting hit in that house (could have been her own 9yr son). DS started to hit DP on the bottom saying 'Naught boy, naughty boy. A bit of a give away.
2. Let me down.

The bad xperience with the nursery pales into insignificance to that.

I prefer a nursery cos if there is one bad egg odds are there are some good eggs. DD is going to nursery.

Please don't be put off by drosophilas experience, the majority of childminders are very responsible, caring professionals. Unfortunately, we all get tarred with the same brush when someone has a bad experience.

I would never take a child in my car without the appropriate car restraints, I would never lie to parents, physical punishment is never used on mindees or around mindees, if I was unable to look after mindees (and I would have to be really ill not to) I would whenever possible offer parents the choice of using one of my childminder friends (we meet regularly so that all of our mindees get to know different childminders should such circumstances arrive) and I would not let a mindee go anywhere where they would be exposed to cigarette smoke and none of the childminders in my local group would do any of the things mentioned.

I am not saying you should use a childminder but please bear in mind the majority of us are lovely.

There are pros and cons for using nurserys and for using a childminder so I would say make a list of all of the things you require and want from childcare, then visit some nurseries and some childminders and see which of them fit the bill.

Good luck.

My 15month old ds is at a childminders. My 4 yr old DD is at a nursery/playgroup. They are both suited to the 2 different atmospheres. I felt that ds would suit a more one to one relationship from a carer as he is a happy wee pet who likes individual attention and likes being with one person, dd on the other hand loves lots of stimulation and can sometimes get a bit much for one person so I guess it all depends on babys needs :)

And the CM would never ever beat ds. Or raise her voice to him even!! On more occasions than enough I have came home early without notice and she has been playing on the floor, or has him out in a swing...and we bought her a carseat for her car so she can cart him about with her in comfort! She's lovely.. a real angel :)

Drosophila soudns like she really had a bad run of luck with her choice.

my cm did give dd the odd tap on the hand, after I told her to do it ... dd was lil Ms. Octopus and had her paws in everything at any time possible.

Also I knew that cm's dh was smoking, but he always went outside to do so - house didn't smell a bit of smoke and I'm sensitive to that as reformed smoker

I know my cm never lied to me. She told me about everything in minute detai... e.g. dd fell over doing this and that and hurt her knee etc. being very apologetic about it. I told her not to worry as I knew what dd was like, espcially as her favourite playmate was 4 years older than her and she loved playing football with him! 1/2 the time dd looked like she'd been through the wars BEFORE I handed her to the cm on Monday's

Basically when going for a cm make sure that you find someone you and your lo are happy with. I gaged it by visiting and observing the other children in her care... they are the best reference I think. They all were very happy and if they fell or bumped themselves ran to her for comforting :)

TBH IMHO a good CM is better than a good nursery IYKWIM. However a bad CM can be far worse than a bad nursery I think. Simply becasue a bad CM has sole care and you really don't know what they are doing, however at a nursery it could be one bad egg.

I have had good CM, and good nurseies, and a brilliant nanny!!

I have had one bad nanny who lasted a few weeks and it was not cruelty to the kids (that was never in doubt) it was messing me about that was bad.

I agree a good CM is probably better than a good nursery and I know of people where the CM has become a family friend but I don't think my BAD experience should be ignored. If nothing else it may help you when asking your potential CM questions.

I envy people with good CM as I think the relationship can be valuable and close and I hope my experiences don't scare you too much.

we used a lovely cm for dd but swapped to nursery at the age of 2. the cm was giving up doing it but we were toying with the idea of moving her to a nursery anyway. she loved being at the cm's but as she got older, it was obvious dd needed more stimulation in an educational way. she's come on in leaps and bounds at nursery and will start school in september with the best grounding we can give her, she's had a bit of everything, time with a cm, nursery and then time with me when i went on mat leave with ds.

OK may be a bit biased here but have been a manager of a nursery and am now a childminder.

I would say childminder every time! Reasons for this are that at the age of 2 most nurseries move the children to the toddler room, this means their staff child ratio goes from 1-3 to a whopping 1-8. Also in the toddler room are 3 year olds + and these have to follow a curriculum so i found that the 2 year olds were left to play alot instead of getting one to one attention. Alot of the 2 year olds in a toddler room find it difficult to adjust to large rooms with older children, obviously some love it!!
As a childminder i care for 2 x 2 year olds and my own DD who is 3 months. We go to toddler groups every day so the children mix with a wide group of children, we also have the flexibility to visit the library and other trips out. My mindees get regular sleeps which is often difficult in a nursery setting and i also have a 1-3 ratio which means they get all they get all the attention they need. Go with your heart, you know your child, will they need alot of attention?

bonkerz, toddler room (2 - 3 years) ratios are 1:4. Pre-school room ratios(3 years and over) are 1:8. Two year olds should never be at 1:8 ratio. If you know of a nursery that does this then I'm sure OFSTED would be very interested to hear about it.

I am a nursery owner and am therefore also biased Parents choose either CM or nurseries for many different reasons.

Be aware also that Steve Biddulph's recent comments/opinions neatly coincided with the launch of his new book . Gawd help us nurseries if he brings out an exercise video.

I think there is safety in numbers which is what you get in a nursery. I don't suppose many parents feel totally happy with childcare.

How can you work if you don't feel totally happy with child care? Isn't it the most important thing?