Kindercare
 

"Vijay" wrote in message ...

Does anyone have any experiences with Kindercare centers in Schaumburg
Illinois? My wife and I are currently expecting our first born and are
looking for day care options in this area. Any feedback would be useful and
appreciated.

Although Kindercares may vary tremendously and my kid was much older,
I had a very bad experience with our local Kindercare. I needed only
three weeks of part-time childcare one summer. My kid was enrolled in
a mornings-only gifted student summer program, and I guess they expect
that gifted kids don't have parents who are employed. I could get her
dropped off at the local Kindercare though, after the program was
over, and it was one of the few places that would take her just for a
few weeks and just in the afternoons.

The supervision for the elementary school aged kids was awful. My
child was bullied by older children and was miserable. The adult in
charge barely spoke English and basically did nothing to prevent it.
We finally made an arrangement where she instead volunteered in the
baby room in the afternoons rather than be with the kids her age,
since they were doing a mini-Lord of the Flies with the elementary
school kids.

Based on this experience, I would look very closely at the level of
supervision and care my infant would be receiving at Kindercare. A
much better situation, I think, would be at a home day care. My
younger daughter was in one of these for about a year or so as a baby
and did very well. Under the state licencing, there was a toddler, and
then three or four older kids in the woman's home. She had a nursery
and age-appropriate play room for the kids. She was great with the
kids, and my daughter thrived.

Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky

Kindercare
 

Claire Petersky said:

"Vijay" wrote in message
...

Does anyone have any experiences with Kindercare centers in Schaumburg
Illinois? My wife and I are currently expecting our first born and are
looking for day care options in this area. Any feedback would be useful and
appreciated.

Although Kindercares may vary tremendously and my kid was much older,
I had a very bad experience with our local Kindercare.

We used Kindercare (in a different state) from about 8 months
until 3 years old. They kept a ratio of 3:1 most of the time,
but could call in a floater if some task was taking somebody's
full attention. That's a feature you won't find in many home
care settings.

The caregivers seemed to honestly love the kids and their jobs.
We would sometimes run into some of them years later, and they
remembered our child.

I've been back since, shopping for temporary care for our now
older child, and wasn't impressed by their supervision of the
bigger kids, or by the structured activities.

Kindercare
 

We used Kindercare (in a different state) from about 8 months
until 3 years old. They kept a ratio of 3:1 most of the time,
but could call in a floater if some task was taking somebody's
full attention. That's a feature you won't find in many home
care settings.

This was our experience at a kindercare-type agency as well. I agree that
school-age care in these settings (we tried it briefly when Henry was 9) is not
good at all. But for babies I think group/agency daycare is good, even (for
me) better because of the ratio, the supervision, and the available backup. If
a sole caregiver becomes ill or is just tired in the home setting, there may be
no back-up and the kids may suffer that day. With older kids, no biggie. But
so much can go wrong with infant care -- I liked the reassurance that there was
a full team on hand.

YMMV, and all day care settings vary widely -- check them out and get
references. Stop by when they aren't expecting you. Spend time there before
you decide. But good daycare is just that - -good, even great. We had a
wonderful experience and still exchange holiday cards with several of the
caregivers.

-Dawn
Mom to Henry, 11

Kindercare
 

Thank you for the feedback Claire. Very helpful! We will definitely check
that any daycare center has English speaking helpers.

Kindercare
 

"Vijay" wrote in message ...
Thank you for the feedback Claire. Very helpful! We will definitely check
that any daycare center has English speaking helpers.

And Vijay, more to the point, check what their attitude is to the
kids? Especially if your youngster will be very young at the start of
daycare, and unable to communicate happiness or unhappiness to you.

I have no experience of Kindercare, but I'm a bit chary of chains -- I
don't know about their hiring process, and whether the person in
charge of the kids really likes kids and knows how to handle them.

When mine were young, I had them at small family-owned places, where
the owner was on the spot and was the person who hired (and fired)
staff. That way, if I checked a place out at the start, I could be
reasonably sure that it would stay that way as long as the philosophy
did not change.

I avoided any place where the principal/owner permitted
teachers/carers to shout at kids. I also avoided any place where kids
were allowed to tease or bully other kids.

IMO, there's no substitute for spending an hour or two on the premises
and observing any place where you intend to put your child.

Rupa

Kindercare
 

"Rupa Bose" wrote in message
om...
"Vijay" wrote in message
...
Thank you for the feedback Claire. Very helpful! We will definitely
check
that any daycare center has English speaking helpers.

And Vijay, more to the point, check what their attitude is to the
kids? Especially if your youngster will be very young at the start of
daycare, and unable to communicate happiness or unhappiness to you.

I have no experience of Kindercare, but I'm a bit chary of chains -- I
don't know about their hiring process, and whether the person in
charge of the kids really likes kids and knows how to handle them.

When mine were young, I had them at small family-owned places, where
the owner was on the spot and was the person who hired (and fired)
staff. That way, if I checked a place out at the start, I could be
reasonably sure that it would stay that way as long as the philosophy
did not change.

I avoided any place where the principal/owner permitted
teachers/carers to shout at kids. I also avoided any place where kids
were allowed to tease or bully other kids.

IMO, there's no substitute for spending an hour or two on the premises
and observing any place where you intend to put your child.

I interviewed at several Kindercares back when I was doing child care, and
in general, they weren't places I wanted to work for exactly the above
reasons-most of the employees did not seem child centered, and the interview
discussion focused much more on hours, dates, times, cleaning schedules,
etc-and little on philosophy of education, what you do with the children,
how you handle situations, etc. The centers which I liked better (Usually
either NAEYC certified or working towards it) were very child focused, so
much so that the technical stuff was left for the very end, and sometimes I
would have to actually ask about it to get it stated

If you can get it, you want an NAEYC certified center-no two ways about it.
The only chain I've ever seen which was NAEYC certified is Bright Horizons,
and they're a subcontractor for companies which want to have a corporate
daycare but want someone else to do the management (The one I'm familiar
with is at the FedEx corporate HQ).

In addition (and I hate to say this), I'd tend to stay away from the ones
which advertise boldly that they accept whatever the subsidized daycare
program is in your area. Centers which do tend to be very minimal (not too
surprising-the subsidies are miniscule) and have high staff turnover because
the pay and benefits are poor. Staff training tends to be very low-only the
minimum required for licensure. The centers which are mostly private pay
(and which may do their own subsidy program via a sliding-scale payment if
they're non-profit) tend to be better overall.
In general, non-profit centers have been better places for children than
for-profit ones.

Rupa

Kindercare
 

Rupa Bose wrote:

I have no experience of Kindercare, but I'm a bit chary of chains -- I
don't know about their hiring process, and whether the person in
charge of the kids really likes kids and knows how to handle them.

I don't think whether it's a chain matters one whit.
The daycare is going to be as good as the director and staff
are at that particular place. Sometimes there's a realtionship
if there are systemic factors at work (e.g., if the corporate
pay scales are too low, then they're not likely to attract
the best people), but otherwise, you just evaluate a chain
the same way you would a local daycare.

Best wishes,
Ericka

Kindercare
 

Ericka Kammerer wrote in message ...
Rupa Bose wrote:

I have no experience of Kindercare, but I'm a bit chary of chains -- I
don't know about their hiring process, and whether the person in
charge of the kids really likes kids and knows how to handle them.

I don't think whether it's a chain matters one whit.
The daycare is going to be as good as the director and staff
are at that particular place. Sometimes there's a realtionship
if there are systemic factors at work (e.g., if the corporate
pay scales are too low, then they're not likely to attract
the best people), but otherwise, you just evaluate a chain
the same way you would a local daycare.

I guess the rerason I felt that it did make a difference was for
several related reasons:

1. Who has the right to hire/fire the staff, and what criteria do they
use?
2. Is this person on-site?
3. Why is this person doing daycare?
4. How is this person evaluated?

If the owner (or franchisee) is in the business because they enjoy
kids and have a philosophy about how to manage them, then I assume
that they will look for staff who also enjoy kids and whose attitudes
are consistent with that philosophy.

If it's a chain where the manager or franchisee must follow a lot of
guidelines and rules, and where remuneration standards are set by the
organization, then these ideas may be difficult to implement.

Of course there are owner-managers who are greedy and bad employers.
But it shows up pretty quickly in their daycares, and are therefore
easy to avoid.

Rupa

Kindercare
 

Rupa Bose wrote:

Ericka Kammerer wrote in message ...

I don't think whether it's a chain matters one whit.
The daycare is going to be as good as the director and staff
are at that particular place. Sometimes there's a realtionship
if there are systemic factors at work (e.g., if the corporate
pay scales are too low, then they're not likely to attract
the best people), but otherwise, you just evaluate a chain
the same way you would a local daycare.

I guess the rerason I felt that it did make a difference was for
several related reasons:

1. Who has the right to hire/fire the staff, and what criteria do they
use?
2. Is this person on-site?
3. Why is this person doing daycare?
4. How is this person evaluated?

If the owner (or franchisee) is in the business because they enjoy
kids and have a philosophy about how to manage them, then I assume
that they will look for staff who also enjoy kids and whose attitudes
are consistent with that philosophy.

If it's a chain where the manager or franchisee must follow a lot of
guidelines and rules, and where remuneration standards are set by the
organization, then these ideas may be difficult to implement.

Of course there are owner-managers who are greedy and bad employers.
But it shows up pretty quickly in their daycares, and are therefore
easy to avoid.

Right--that's why I said you'd evaluate a chain the
same as a local provider. A good director is likely to run
a good daycare unless the systemic issues I mentioned tie
her hands somehow. When it comes to evaluating employees,
a chain may actually have a *better* system in place because
they may be able to draw on corporate resources to do
background checks and such that smaller organizations
may do less of (though I would expect *everyone* to do
at least minimal background checks). That's not to say
that I think chain daycares are generally fabulous. I
think there are probably a lot of poor directors and I
think a lot of them probably do have systemic issues like
low pay scales. But I wouldn't rule anyone out in advance
just for being a chain. It's certainly *possible* that
there's a great director there making things work well
one way or another.

Best wishes,
Ericka