Switching from nursery to a childminder - good or bad idea?

[bunyanvillas]

Hi, I hope you can help! My 1.7 month old dd has been at nursery 3 days a week since the age of 13 months. She settled in really quickly and seems to love it there. The primary school that we would ideally like her to attend is a local church school, which offers pre-school for 2 hours each morning from the age of 3. This is free. My quandary is the following: I would like another baby, next year or the year after (I'm an older mum so time is not on my side - and nor is money!) My thinking was that (a) would it be better to switch dd into this pre-school as she would hopefully settle in and make some friends ahead of starting school? (b) if I had 2 children I would still need to work so would it be better to employ a childminder who can drop dd and collect her from pre-school - as well as looking after the baby? I assume a childminder would still charge for the hours that dd is at pre-school?

The main issue here, is, do you think it would unsettle dd hugely to switch her from nursery to pre-school at the age of 3.5? This is my fear, and if you tend to agree then I'll have to ditch this particular idea! Thanks for any advice you can give me.

I think you should switch her if you want to. Children are more resilient than we give them credit for. Also, you check various rates. You might find that a childmender is considerably cheaper then a nursery. They are also typically more felible, like they won't charge you an arm and a leg if you are 30 seconds late. As you point out, they do school runs. Some will charge for the time at school, some won't.

Thanks, Uwila - that's helpful. There is so much to constantly think about re: the whole work/life/childcare thing!! It's very difficult to manage having more that one child in London unless you are super-rich, it seems to me!

Oh how I share that sentiment! The cost of childcare is nothing short of cripling. Don't suppose you have a spare room? A live-in nanny can work out cheaper than 2 in nursery/childminder, but only if you are willing to work full time. It doesn't really work out if you only work 3 days a week (huh! Wouldn't that be nice.)

Hi bunyanvillas, I recently started sending both my boys to a childminder. The older one goes to a nursery school anyway, the little one is still going to his day nursery but at greatly reduced hours. We did a very extended settling-in period, and they absolutely love the childminder - as far as they are concerned it is just like going round to see a friend, but I know how much planning she puts into it and she does some great activities with them. I find I worry far less about them being with her than when they were at the nursery. (This is partly due to illnesses and food intolerances in the family, which I felt the nursery staff weren't dealing with very well.) Plus, as uwila has said, she is far more flexible. I can ask her to have them for an extra hour or so with very little notice, as long as it fits in with the rest of her week. (She sends her son to preschool on Monday and Friday mornings so we don't send our boys to her then.)

In terms of an hourly rate, with two of them, it only works out marginally less expensive than the nursery, but as I said, there's more flexibility, so I don't have to pay for a whole morning or afternoon when I sometimes only need a few hours. I work from home, part-time, so a nanny wouldn't have worked out at all for me.

It probably depends on your situation and whether you can find a good person. My sister used a childminder for a while but didn't get on with her, especially regarding the food that my sister provided, which the childminder thought was a bit weird (before organic yoghurts became more commonplace ). But I don't think you need to worry too much about your 3 1/2 yr old settling in - if you are both comfortable with the childminder then you could be surprised at how easy it is.

hope that helps