Childminder vs nursery

[user1487365954]

Hi

My son is 2 and has being going to a Childminders since he was 10 months and loves it. They are 2 carers with max 5 kids.He is very sociable despite his language skills being very poor.

I was happy when he was the little one with older children to learn/play with, but now they have moved on to school he is the oldest with 2 babies.

I am worried that he isn’t getting enough attention as the babies need more time and that he isn’t being challenged.

Would he be better in a nursery setting? Or should we keep him where he is as he is settled and happy there?

If there are 2 carers and only - at max - 5 dc, then he is (numbers wise) getting a better ratio than he would in a Nursery.
Nursery numbers are
1:3 for U2s
1:4 for 2 - 3yr olds
1:8 for 3 - 4+ yr olds (unless there is a teacher in charge at which point it moves to 1:13)

So, potentially, at 2 yrs, in a Nursery, with two carers, he would be 1 of 8 dc, so numbers wise, he won't get more attention or more time.
Of course, if you don't think he is being stimulated enough, and that he would benefit from more opportunities to be with others his age, that is different.

My CMers always used to take my dc to groups 2 or 3 times a week, so they had that experience as well, might this be something your CMers might do ?

What activities does he do whiles there, if he is meeting others regularly like at groups, childminder drop in, visiting childminders going on outings he is meeting enough older children. Do they do group times like stories and song times (equivalent to nursery circle time) are there messy play and outside play opportunities?
Child-minders are in a very good position to support school readiness and independence skills as well as to meet children's nest steps by individual planning and activities that follow each child's individual interests and needs unlike a nursery that has to do themed plans often termly in advance. A good child-minder can pick up on todays interest and serve it up in all areas of learning today when it interests that child not next week after a meeting, talk to your child-minder's and see what they are doing and how they are supporting your child.
A nursery cannot give the same amount of individual focused attention as they will never have a ratio of 2 to 3.Speech is better supported in small environments where children are not over looked or hidden amongst 20 other children. Many child-minders have specialised training in supporting speech development and certainly in my borough attend the same training run by the early years teaching team.