Local nursery V big smart nursery + childminder

[DorsetPlantation]

FTM with baby due to start nursery next March/April. We’re trying to decide on childcare, it’s probably the thing we overlooked most before LO arrived!

Scenario 1:
DS goes to nursery in next village every day. It just opened a couple of months ago and has plenty of availability from March when I go back to work. Pros are it’s small and has some very nice experienced local staff. Have a friend are planning to send their children there and most of the other children there will go to our local primary. Cons, no dedicated admin staff. DS will need packed lunch every day. Not very impressive facilities (relatively).

Scenario 2:
Go to a childminder 5 days a weeks from March to September. From September combine nursery and childminder. A lovely big nursery with great reviews has space for him 2 days a week, so would do a combination. Pro’s are dedicated admin staff, lots of facilities and outside space, food prepared in house so no packed lunches needed. Cons are it will cost a little bit more, is 10/15 minutes out of our way, and routine/logisitics/admin sounds like a bit of a faff going one place Mon/Tue/Thurs and nursery Weds/Friday.

We’re leanings towards scenario 1 but would like go hear some others experiences/POVs

Thanks xx

Have you actually got a childminder who has space five days a week? Personally, I wouldn’t combine settings but packed lunches for a child this age are a complete pain, so I don’t know really.

Yes, have found a childminder. For everyones sake we want to decide in the next week. Wary of combining settings for doubling the amount of bugs and illnesses he can pick up, and if I were a childminder I would feel similar! Also thought that re packed lunches, but hopefully gets easier and time goes on

If you went with the childminder, would they be able to provide wraparound care when they start school? If they would, I’d go with option 2. I think a childminders home is a nicer environment than after-school club.

Otherwise, option 1 sounds better.

Well, I wouldn’t worry too much about the illnesses. Most children do get hit by illnesses in childcare settings, at first at least (my second born was barely affected.) It can be a bit unsettling for children in two settings I think, but if he’s doing three days at one and two at another that’s not so bad. Arghh. I don’t know.

Ime though childminders often do end up not taking the children a lot.

Local one sounds good to me. If the staff and kids are local your child will have more of a community. You can ask the staff if they do occasional babysitting (more likely if they are local). Our big nursery had a lot of staff turnover.

Scenario 2 all the way!

Scenario 1. There is so much value in the local connections and for packed lunches you could send a food flask with already heated beans/soup/leftovers of dinner, to avoid having to cut up a zillion grapes etc every day.

A baby's main need is to form a string attachment with a caregiver or caregivers. So I would chose whichever setting facilitates that the best.
I Personally prefer a childminder to a nursery. But I would be a little concerned at a 2 day nursery week as that might not be a enough consistency to help baby settle.
I would choose just the childminder on her own.
Or the local nursery if the staff turnover is very low.

Do you know what school they are likely to go to and if that school has a nursery attached? round here you would usually start a school nursery the term after they turn 3. Or not a school nursery but a nursery where a lot of the kids end up at the same school.
If so I would do childminder until they are 3 and then start nursery.

Both my children attended a childminder and nursery when three as I felt this was the most decision for them. They was both very attached to me as babies and helped just having the one person to develop a bond with so also depends on how your child is.

I’d add a potential third scenario in there- could you use the childminder for a full 5 days? And then when your child is older, send them to a school nursery and use the childminder for wraparound care and school holiday (with a view to keeping the childminder on for school wraparound and school holidays?)

we did this with our now 4 year old and it’s made things far simpler for us, it was less expensive (though that wasn’t the primary reason) and now I’m on maternity leave with my second one it means I’ve been able to drop some childminder hours and do my own pick ups from school nursery but keep her on a couple of days a week. Then full time for the baby from September

a lot of childminders offer funded places and will be very grateful to have a child with 30 funded hours a week and you just pay the extra if you need more than that

I would personally go for the childminder full time and send them to nursery when they’re about 3.

But if I had to choose from those two options I’d go for the first option.
In my experience, it’s a lot harder for them to settle into nursery if they’re only in two days, especially if they’re not consecutive, and it would be unfair to put them through having to settle into another new setting so soon after they’ve went through the process of setting at the childminders.

As an Ofsted Outstanding Graded childminder myself, I personally don’t do split care with another setting as I have found little ones finder it harder to settle and also we then have different routines.
I offer my families a small gentle, nurturing setting with a home from home environment with the same educational curriculum as nurseries offer.
I do outings each week to parks, farms, the seaside ( i live at the coast)
Everyone looks for different requirements for their child and each child’s needs are different!
I always advise families to go with their gut feeling after visiting a setting.
Good luck with whatever you decide

I spent a short amount of time working in 2 bigger settings (that had admin staff) whilst looking for a job. One was a large chain, one was a very established local independent nursery. I'm not sure what the attraction is there tbh? I'd go for a community feel every time - Does the little nursery not have much room or something? One of the nurseries I experienced that had "admin staff" also had 2 managers that spent the majority of time in the office but I'm sure we're still being counted towards ratios. I saw so many things that set off warning bells for me so I didn't end up working in either. I'd rather just have experienced staff that cared. I didn't want to use a childminder and I feel my LO really benefitted from interacting with more adults in the nursery setting I eventually chose. She would talk about others more than her keyworker so I guess it was nice for her to have a choice over who she interacted with the most.

I wouldn’t split across two settings. I think it’s a rare child who would cope well with it at that age. Is there any chance the big nursery will have more days available?

Option one.

I had my child in a larger chain nursery - bloody awful. I moved him to a smaller one that didn’t honestly look as impressive but the staff were so much better and way more engaged!

How about scenario 3 - use childminder or the first nursery now and when place at the other nursery becomes available for 5 days per week, move there?
2 days of nursery per week is not good, it's harder to get used to it.

1 without a doubt. Sounds like a lovely nurturing session

As a nursery nurse I'd go with childminder or local nursery.
The big nursery chains use clever marketing to draw you in (staff and parents) but the reality is inconsistent agency staff and a high staff turnover.