Can someone explain the advances of childminder over nursery to me?

[sourpatchkid]

I thought it might be smaller rations but I believe childminders are 1 adult to 8 children and my local nursery is 1 adult to 3 (under 2 years)

The nursery isn’t right for DS but is chilldminder different?

I opted for a CM over nursery as I wanted the home from home setting, smaller number of children, increased flexibility, wider range of activities & knowing exactly who was looking after my DS. CM is also considerably cheaper than a nursery in my area as well but that wasn't a driver for me.

I met 4 or 5 different childminders in my area. All had slightly different set ups & pricing structures, some gave meals, some didn't etc. My cm was the only one who asked if she could give DS a cuddle & that was what sold her to me. She absolutely loves children, isn't interested in the money. She cares for them as she would her own. She also takes childcare vouchers & the 30 hours free childcare. She'll take him when he's on antibiotics or has a temp which nurseries won't do. She doesn't charge for her holidays. They're always out & about doing things, making crafts or baking. He's never bored & always has lots to tell me at pick up.

DS has been with her for over 2 years now, 10 hours a day, 4 days a week. He still gets excited to go. He runs in at drop off & if im very lucky I'll get a goodbye but at pick up he's delighted to see me & gives me a big hug, exactly how it should be.

He's starting preschool one day a week soon as he needs to get used to being in bigger groups of children ready for school. I'm currently 37 weeks pregnant and have already requested a space for the baby when I go back to work as I can't imagine going anywhere else. My only challenge will come when DS starts school as she doesn't have any school age children however I'm hoping that as he will be at the same school as her DS & the baby will be there she might make an exception for me.

She sounds like my ideal Toosy

Thank you everyone

Another question (sorry!) do childminders do settling sessions like nursery? He’s not liked his nursery sessions at all (too loud I think) and I think it’s unsettled him and he would need time before feeling able to be left (I have time, I’ve now got 10 weeks before I’ll need care)

Every Childminder I know does settling in, but can vary depending on the child & parents etc. I tend to do a couple where the parent stays for a couple of hours, then one where parent stays for a little while. Maybe 30 mins & then says bye & comes back a short while after. Maybe nip for a coffee, or do a quick food shop. Then if that's all gone well we start. I don't charge for this, but if you wanted a lot of settling in some may charge.

As pp said just see as many as you can & you tend to click with someone & get a good feeling. On a side note I've been a cm for 6 years now & only taken 1 day off when my son was in hospital for a few nights. Trust us, most cm dread becoming sick. It's so awful to let a parent down. It's one of the worst feelings & stresses us out to the max. It's great if you can find a cm who knows plenty of others to help out in emergency situations. My mum is a cm too so it's nice to be able to put into my policies how she can help if needs be. So far not been needed though touch wood.

Goodluck in your quest!

Thanks so much - I really appreciate it

I do settling in sessions. I normally have parent and child for half an hour, then child alone for a couple of hours, then a morning, then an afternoon, then start. I encourage people to start a week before going back to work, so if there are any problems in the first week, the parent is around. At some point during all this, I visit the child at home, but not all parents want this.

I do charge for settling in sessions and parents can have as many as they want.

I used a childminder until I moved overseas. We are still in contact with her.

My daughter loved her and her children were like siblings to her. She worked with another childminder and so if she was ill my daughter could go there. She would do regular trips related to what they were doing or what the children were interested in. When she knew about the move, she did a topic on the country we were moving to.

She only took holidays during school holidays which as a teacher was perfect for me.

She did settling in sessions, because of the timings we only did a couple. The first day I phoned to see how she was doing after a couple of hours and they had gone out to a park because my DD was so happy.

My childminder is awesome. She has had DS a couple of hours a week from 6 months to give me a break.

I work full time so DS is with her 50 hours a week. With all the nurseries I visited that meant him being in one room and a garden all that time.

With CM he has several rooms in her house plus garden. Every day he visits the school he will eventually go to. Weekly they go to playgroup, the library, the park and local national trust.

In the school holidays they go out for amazing day trips.

He only has one adult to get to know.

I will acknowledge I am lucky to have in laws and parents who live far away but are willing to come help when cm has holiday.

For me other advantages were that he was be able to bond with the childminder, who would hopefully be there for the whole time he was, rather than in a nursery where staff turnover can be quite high. I didn't like the idea that he would bond to his key worker and then move rooms and have to do the same thing over again.
I was also keen on the idea that there would be children of all different ages, as there would be in a family. Looking after nine babies all together is a lot harder than looking after eight children all of different ages, even if there are three of you. I liked the idea that he could play with smaller children and have bigger children play with him as he wanted - it seemed a lot more interesting for him than being with other one year olds all the time.
My childminder also has a garden which they can access whenever they want and they go out loads, which suited me, as toddlers in nurseries often don't get enough exercise. (Though obviously this depends on the nursery/minder).