Choosing a Daycare

1. Registered, and clean record, with the state's dept of health and human services. (and a business license is preferred)
2. Provider qualifications (CPR certified, previous experience).
3. Cleanliness, setup of the facility

1. personality of the caregiver- do I like them?
2. environment- cleanliness, niceness of the home
3. curriculum- what you plan to teach them

I do infant/toddler childcare from my home also.

What makes it a great place is I truly LOVE these children. I have a safe environment, age appropriate toys and I get down and play with them. I have a teaching degree and I think that makes people feel good about the initial choice, but with the risk of sounding cheesy, I adore being on the floor and playing, singing, and loving these kiddos.

My top three factors were:
- Price range (unfortunately for me the top centers where above what we could afford)
- reliability (this was the reason I chose a larger center over a home daycare provider I also liked - but she did not have a backup plan)
- accreditation/curriculum (I went to the NAYEC website and went down their list until I found a center with an open spot, for a home daycare provider I would look at credentials - and I would want to see a degree (at least 2 years) in addition to references)

If you disregard price range, I also looked at staff/child ration and I would never place my child in a daycare with roaming pets (unless they are secured in a different area) or one that lets them watch ANY TV (actually I would not want to see a TV in the room used for daycare). You won'y believe how many people advertise their services with a "I also have a full collection of "Baby Einstein" for your child to enjoy"... those I skipped right over.
As for cleanliness - that is expected, as well as age appropriate toys - but that has not really been an issue for any place that I have checked out...
Good luck!

It's hard to limit it to 3.

1. licensed, length of time open, and violations (what kind, important to me or not)
2. cleanliness, play area and activities for the kids
3. do my kids like it? what is there reaction? what is my gut feeling?

I had a job change and could not longer take them to they daycare by my old work and had to make a change. We visited/researched several and then visited the final list again. We picked a daycare that wasn't our first choice because they had longer hours that would help with our commute. The kids seemed ok but not nearly as happy as their old daycare. My 3 year old just wasn't happy in the morning. Both he and I had a hard time communitcating with the morning teacher. In the 1st mo my now 17 mo old had 3 bad diaper rashes. My son went backwards on potty training and was having 3-4 accidents a week only in the morning. We made the decision to switch to the one we/they really liked. They've been there 3 months now and have been very happy since the day they started. There are a lot more activities/toys at the current one and the atmosphere is nurturing and happy. The teachers have all been there for 4+ years. The other daycare had all newer people 1 1/2 years or less. The owner was offended when I asked why such turn over. For me that was a red flag for choosing it, part of the reason they are no longer there.

Curriculum is also very important but so is food. I don't know how many of you moms eat spam, I haven't had it since I was a kid. Anyway, if I'm paying $1600 a month for 2 kids they should get something better than spam and they should get whole milk. My daughter started refusing it at home and when I asked they told me they buy 1% or 2%, depending on what they buy that week at the store! I'm ok with that for my 3 yr old but not my 1 year old! They need whole milk.

Since it is illegal for someone to watch children in their home without being licensed as a child care provider I think that is a given. It's called the "Child Care Licensing Act" or the "Child Care Facilities Licensing Act" and is federal law.

Display your license in an obvious place, your parent center/bulletin board area, plus your most recent inspection sheets. I had pictures of the kids on sheets like a scrapbook pages in cute layouts put up on the walls, with signed permission slips on file of course.

I think the atmosphere of the home is key. We were trying to pick a home provider for my grandkids and this one lady was just opening, her home was spotless, tons of toys that were age appropriate, a whole room just for play, another room with cots and space for naps, she seemed to be a smiling friendly person. There was just something that didn't feel right. It ended up she never got anyone after about 6 months and took down her sign. I felt so bad for her but I just could not put my finger on what was wrong. I have over 10 years in child care, center style, so I should be able to pinpoint it but can't.

I don't know what it is about a place that makes someone choose it over another but my opinion is that it may be the presense of other children. When I had just got my license I had several parents come in and when they saw I didn't have any kids yet they couldn't get out of there fast enough. I finally called some friends and my daughter and "Borrowed" their kids. I opened in April and by the first of May I had about 10 kids full time of various ages. By the end of the schoool year in May I had about 25 and had 2 teachers hired. By the end of Summer I had over 50 kids enrolled and 4 teachers. I stayed at 50+ the whole time I has this center. The laughing, playing, happy children being nurtured, loved, and being busy doing something active really makes a difference to me.

Don't forget the outside atmosphere either. I had an old boat sunk in the yard and the kids would climb all over it, play sharks in the water, it was occasionaly base in a game of tag, outdoor centers are eye catching too, especially art areas. You can make the hanging easels out of plywood and us e a good paint and "S" hooks. They hang on the fence and angle out at the bottom. We had wood beams in the yard and old tires half buried, up and down not flat on the ground, and the kids had an obstacle course they could jump from one are to another on and get exercise. So many things that look like the kids have things to do can make a difference. Go on a tour of centers around your town, what makes them enticing to you?

For me it was absolutely a must that my provider be registered with the state so that I know they are being regulated and inspected yearly (at least in texas dont know how it works there). I had to be very clean as both my kids put just about anything in their mouths. Having a set schedule for every day was a huge deal for me to as both of my children thrive on schedules. Cost is important but most parents are going to be willing to a pay a little more for a better quality of care.

Our decisions were very much based upon the feeling we got when we went to look at the facilities - cleanliness, organization, ratio of children's ages, etc.

We chose not to do in-home Day Care when we were expecting our second child. We'd actually hoped to have space at one facility (in-home), but she'd filled it with another family, so we went with a traditional facility.

We were uncomfortable with many of the set-ups at the in-home facilities we visited and preferred the structure of a facility instead.

Hope that helps.