The Search For A Good Daycare

2 years, 3 months & 1 week old.....

Today is Ethan's last day at the current daycare. I can't wait to pick him up and bid farewell to the place. We have been searching for a daycare in our vicinity for the past 2 months. I have called about 10 daycare/preschool and visited 5 of them. Since we have no friends and relatives sending their kids to a daycare in that area, we have no one to refer to. I tried to search for it on the net but the information provided was not helpful at all. Most of the websites just give a list of taska/tadika and the contact details. What we need to know is definitely more than that.

First of all, we need to know if they accept kids of 2 years old. Some of them are actually quite reluctant to take 2 year-old kids and it's even worse if they are not fully potty-trained, like Ethan. There are so many other things to consider such as:

• Location
  
• Opening hours: I work from 8a.m.-5p.m. and most of the centres open at 8a.m., which is a no go for me.
  
• Set-up and facilities
• Education system: There are so many in the markets now but the one I came across are Montessori, Q-dees and Fungate. Montessori is very famous now. The other two are developed by locals. I heard a lot of good things about these 3 systems but it actually depends on how it is being implemented.
• Years of experience
• Teacher:student ratio
• Fees: There are so many types of fees (monthly fee, book fees, material fees, insurance, registration, uniform, bed rental, concert and so many more).
  

Before we found a suitable daycare, we have already informed the current one that August will be last month for Ethan. After interviewing four of them, we still could not make up our mind. Then I passed by one, which I happen to see almost everyday (only the back of the house as it's in a gated community) but never notice that it's a taska because all I could see is its purple colour external wall. By then, I was really desperate so I thought, this colourful building might be one of them. So, one fine night when we were going home, I asked hubby to turn around and check out the tiny piece of brochure on the wall at the back of this building. I was ecstatic to find out they do offer daycare service. We called them, made an appointment and interviewed the principal. Thank goodness, all our requirements are met.

This place was set up 2 years ago but the principal has more than 15 years of experience in running a kindy. She owns another kindy, which is very nearby and her mum owns a kindy too. Other things I found out are:

• They are using the Montessori system. The principal is one of the teachers too.
  
• Classrooms are fairly big compared to the other centres.
  
• Teacher:student ratio for Ethan's group is around 1: 6-8 (I can't remember clearly).
  
• Only 7 students stay there after class, including Ethan.
  
• After class, they will take their shower and lunch and at around 1.30 p.m., they will take their nap in a separate room. This is the only place where there is a separate room for the kids to nap. What the rest do is they will clear up the tables and chairs in the classroom and lay the stacking bed/mattress on the floor for the kids to sleep.
• They allow me to send Ethan at 7.40 a.m and I can pick him up before 7p.m, which I won't. The latest I will pick him up is 6.30p.m. but normally it's 5.30p.m.
• Location is perfect as it's less than 5 minutes drive from our place.
• Their fees are the cheapest compared to the rest we interviewed. The monthly fee is only RM500, not inclusive of other fees but not much.
  

I really hope that we have made a right choice this time and pray hard that they will at least maintain the current standard. I don't fancy another round of surveys for daycare.