Mix and matching childminder and nursery?

[ShreddedHoops]

Is this a good idea? I have been offered a job 3 mornings and one full day. My 2yo currently goes to a lovely childminder 2 mornings a week, but she can't do one of the mornings as she has that day off. What would people recommend? It's from January so I might not get nursery hours to suit anyway, I'm just starting to work things out. DD is very shy and gets overwhelmed easily at playgroups so I don't know how she'd cope at nursery either. But our current CM doesn't drive so I don't think she goes to groups and so on, I currently take DD to a few different things like music and tumble tots which she'd miss out on. Any advice gratefully received! I'm thinking a day and a half with CM and 2 mornings at nursery maybe would work?

To be honest if she's not able to do the extra morning I think I would look for a childminder who does take the kids out as it doesn't sound to be helping your dd staying in, especially if your activities won't be possible any more, and maybe a nursery wont be the right place not all children suit nurseries.

I'm a cm and had a very shy mindee who used to scream all day the days she was at nursery but never did with me, through doing school runs, toddler groups and general socialising you would never know now she runs into school happy as anything.

If you think that's going to work for you and your DD, then go for it.

My DD goes to a childminder one full day a week and to a preschool two mornings a week. She was at the childminder first and we all LOVE the childminder. But DD also enjoys preschool and it's a different experience for her. Practically speaking, these options also fit in with my part time work. So, it works for us.

So, only you can really say what will suit you and your DD. But yes, combining child care options can work really well.

Thanks for replies, food for thought...

It's quite a daunting idea finding another childminder tbh... we might have to anyway if I can't find a suitable nursery place. Preschool type thing not an option as I'd need to drop her at 8am, and they all seem to be from 9 or later. Unless I got a new CM and she could drop DD off at a preschool maybe 3 mornings and keep her for the full day...

If you did get someone to dropsy preschool be prepared to pay for the full day as they probably couldn't fill a morning space.

Hi we use both since ds was 9mths old he started with a cm for 3 days a week and then from 13mths also added in one day at nursery, when he was 19mths we changed this set up due to cm being due her baby and also we would struggle to cover her mat leave and the fact they didnt really go anywhere despite always saying we will do x,y and z today it didnt always happen, we then changed to 2 days a week nursery and 2 days a week childminder. we have recently got the funded hrs but only use 12hrs of that as our cm doesnt do the funded sessions and its not cost effective to increase at nursery for another whole day when you factor in holidays and our childminder is £15 a day cheaper than the nursery (he could do an xtra hr at nursery though for the money we pay we chose to pick up early as convient for us)