Need Advice Home Based Daycare

I am just wondering for those out there that use home based daycare (for infants) what are you charged (where they are located) and why did you go with home based as opposed to a corporate facility. And are there any big gripes about home based daycare that have you thinking of looking to change to a corporate facility.

I have been calling around and I have found prices anywhere from $160 week to $250 a week (that is a big difference - of course I cast a big net from Sterling to Leesburg).

Thanks

 

We use a home based daycare over by my wife's work in Fairfax. We looked at the corporate based...the home based corporate type (infanttodler.com---where it's a corporate network of home based provider that are registered and all that..)
We wouldn't have it any other way. The lady is great...loves our daughter to bits. As an infant--i'm not sure what the big corporate types can offer since all the baby needs is attention, love, food, and diaper changes. You'll usually get a more personal touch at a home based daycare too. We pay $40/day...and we don't pay for days that she doesn't go (with corporates---you pay monthly rates and don't get credit if you take a week vacation or your baby is sick for a few days). Not to mention---our friends who had their babies in big facilities always had issues with their children picking up sicknesses from other kids. Our daughter has been sick TWICE in 2 1/2 years.

If you find a good one around here, please pass along the info--b/c my wife may not work in Fairfax forever...

 

Many corporate centers have a ratio (which is state maintained) of 1 teacher for 3 or 4 infants. Our corporate center had 2 "teachers", 1 assistant, and 8 babies. We paid about $250/week. We loved the center our children were in. The infant teachers had 0% turnaround. You may not be able to find that everywhere though. I liked a corporate center better because there was more oversight. The center was open and the infant room was next to the toddler room (separated by a knee wall), but there was always supervision. The center director told us that the school's interior walls were designed so that a director/teacher could sit at the main desk and look straight across the entire school and see into every classroom. The oversight made me comfortable. The teachers made me comfortable. It was good experience all around for our family.

The sicknesses sucked, but at least now that my kids are entering preschool/public school they have not been sick as much (except for the regular colds that go around). Our eldest child picked up a lot of bugs as an infant/toddler/2 year old, but by the time he was in preschool his immune system was awesome. Same with the other kids (we had 3 start as infants/toddlers).

You'll have to tour both types of facilities to see which one you feel the most comfortable with. We started off touring home based daycares thinking that was the way we wanted to go, but ended up in a corporate facility because we felt our kids would receive more attention. It's different for everyone.

 

We have our 3 1/2 y.o. son at a home based day care here in Ashburn. It was important for me to have a provider that was licensed and the county does regular visits of the home. The county website lists licensed providers among other things http://www.dss.virginia.gov/text/facility/search/licensed.cgi
It seems that most home providers charge around 200-250 for fulltime.

 

kids immune systems need practice! =) our kids have been in daycare a month and have gotten lots of things, but hopefully it won't last long and they get all of the sickness out of the way early! =)