Need new childcare - any advice?

[2jamsandwiches]

Bit of a bombshell this morning. For personal reasons, the lovely CM we've had for DS (now 2.4) is going to give up childminding at Christmas. So we need to find a childcare option both for him, and for DD from about March, when she'll be 11m.
I will go back to work 3 days/week in March; my contract expires in August, and I'm not at all sure what I'm going to do after that, but will probably still need 2 days/week childcare.
The plan had been for DS to start at a not-very-local but nice private nursery 3 mornings/week from Jan, and for the CM to have him in the afternoon. I can't collect him myself those days, as it finishes at 12.15 - hopeless. Then from Sept '10 he'd start at a school/children's centre nursery, 9.30-3.30.
DD would have gone to the CM for the whole days I was working.
I don't know what to do now. I don't want to chop and change too much for DS, or to make too many changes too quickly.
I'm so upset, I feel that everything has suddenly been turned upside down! DD has just woken and I'm going to go and have a little cry with her (DS is spending the day with the CM).

id forget the nursery and start with a recomended cm now well at least 4 visits then its not such a shock 4 him u still have pleanty off time to settle him in and may be your cm now could go with him aswell for a while so he just thinks its a p,lay date good luck .

thanks v much for answering...
You're probably right that a double switch in Jan would be a bit much (new CM AND starting nursery); however the thing is that he's clearly very ready to start playing more with other children.
The other option is to try and get him a place at the 'toddler' bit of the children's centre from Jan, then he can just move into another room in Sept, as they run a nursery class too.

We had exactly this situation and decided not to bother with nursery until both the ds were properly settled with a new CM. In the end ds1 did one full year at nursery from 2.3 to 4.5.
IME you will be very grateful for going the CM route when you have one at school and one still preschool.

I think i'd try and get him into the school.children's centre from Jan. leave him with the old cm til then. Then look for a new cm for botht the children starting in march(not sure if you need more cover for ds or just a cm for dd?) I do think going to a new cm and new nursery would be a bit much tbh.

Try not to worry, i was panic stricken over childcare in June last year. My SIL had my 2 and then suddenly said she couldn't do it anymore, so I found a nursery(way to expensive for 2 children on my wage) then dd started school in jan just gone, I was in 2 minds whether to leave ds at the nursery but decided to change for my sake more than anything. He has been with a cm since jan and he quickly got used to the change. I was worried about moving him but it's worked out for the best. I wanted it to stay like this til he starts school (2 years) but I'm thinking of changing it next sept once he gets his free sessions at pre-school.

I guess one of the reasons I've been so upset about this is because of guilt about leaving the children with 'someone else' - sort of fine if it's the same someone for a long time, not so fine if it's a different person every few months. And I changed schools several times myself, and hated it (got more and more unhappy with each change, now I think about it).

The children's centre is full time, and we only need 3 days, but it's relatively cheap, so that's not a catastrophe, but would make a CM on top (for DS) unaffordable. They do have a baby room, but I really really can't cope with the idea of teeny tinies in institutional daycare. Not sure how we'd manage two different childcare options (CM for one, nursery for the other), but maybe we'll just have to.

what about an acredeted cm who is qualified to teach nursery in her setting u still get your free 15 hours with her and ur younger dd can go as well both problems solved good luck

oh, that's an interesting idea, missymoo, any idea how I'd find out who is accredited to do that?

Re Missymoo's suggestion, I think you should also remember that your CM has been quite considerate in giving you that much notice, so it would be quite unfair on her to quit immediately.

oh heavens, I have NO intention AT ALL of quitting immediately, I think we'll almost certainly stick with her until Christmas. DS loves her, and it'll be impossible to find anyone who loves him so much, or is so fantastically flexible. So I'm thinking ahead, really.