Ingrid has been in the same daycare since day one, a place we have been totally happy with, with very few reservations. (Cost and teacher turnover — but they were new on day one, so it was kind of expected — are the big ones.) This week, however, she transitioned up to a new room, for 2-3 year olds, and I’ve suddenly started Exploring Our Options. The incidents that bugged me are incidents of privilege, really. A teacher who was playing a book on tape, and turning the pages of the corresponding book, while staring blankly at the children (and not at ALL acknowledging me as I picked up Ingrid…) but, I figure, we all have bad days, who knows, maybe she’s in the throes of a miscarriage or her boyfriend just called with his herpes test results or she really, really has to fart and can’t do it just now. These things happen. The second was today, when I arrived and found Ing’s class in two rows, in a dark classroom, watching fucking Wonderpets. I only know it was Wonderpets because I lingered long enough to get some data to figure it out, but DUDE, I pay a hefty sum to assure that there is no TV. And these kiddos were chiming in on some call and response chant that ends with “TEAMWORK!” (“and also with you…”) that, okay, maybe the other kids have cable and hot, hot Wonderpets action at home, but we don’t, thankyouverymuch. Ingrid was sitting in a teacher’s lap, I can almost guarantee because she didn’t give a shit about Wonderpets and wanted to be hitting the bookshelf just to her left, or one of the cool toy stations. It. Bugged. Me. And I totally get that it’s not like “they murdered rabbits for satan!” level of daycare unpleasantness, but… it’s my kid, it bugged.

Based on incident 1, I made some calls this week to see what’s out there. The options open up when a kiddo hits 2.5, so I toured a Montessori and a preschool-kindergarten today to see what was out there for options. The Montessori was okay, but left me feeling kind of meh, and had hours that were just on the outside of convenient for us. (Ingrid goes 8-4:15 most days, and this one closes at 4:30, but I kind of like having the option to run an errand or have Dave pick her up once a week.) The second place, though, I fell in LOVE with.

It’s in this crazy gorgeous spooky old building overlooking the city, that opened in 1835 as an orphanage. It’s been a preschool for many, many years (I’m not even sure how long, I should’ve asked) but, a long time, anyway. The director is this affable 75 year old retired school principal, who was the first principal of our neighborhood school (he oversaw construction!) and clearly loves children. The teachers have all been there for years — there is very little turnover, unlike the current place, where it seems like one of the three teachers is always changing. He met me with a little simple picture book to bring home to Ingrid, and we talked in the school’s library. (Not a huge thing, but that there is dedicated library space, with quality children’s books — I’m discerning — won me over.) He talked about the staff, the building, the fees, the hours, the programming, all of it, and I am just in LOOOOVE. Ing has to be 2.5 and potty trained before she can start there, but I am really leaning towards making the jump. To help, I want to list the pros and cons, and maybe some of you more experienced readers out there can help me out:

Pros:

• Better ratios for Ingrid, I think. Current daycare is 19 kids with 3 teachers, this would be 8 kids with 1 teacher, in two separate classroom areas. No doors, I don’t think, just sort of across a hall area with each other.
• Less expensive, by $25/week
• Tuition includes snacks and lunches
• Field trips (I saw pics of the state park we just camped at, some from the children’s museum, and they had just been to the bird sanctuary and were going to a fish hatchery next week.)
• Great playground. The playstructure is commercial (as opposed to a bunch of little tikes plastic crap)
• EVEN BETTER, the fenced area surrounds the entire property, and the kids are encouraged to play in the woods behind the building. Teachers are up there with walkie talkies to supervise, but that this kind of “dangerous” play is facilitated sings to my little “Last Child in the Woods” heart…
• We can get two weeks of vacation, in that two weeks that Ing doesn’t attend we only pay half price for those weeks. It’s a little thing, but a really cool little thing. (Current daycare, we pay monthly, no matter what.)
• Still very close to our house. Dave can still do dropoff; instead of a straight line of home-daycare-work, it might be more like a checkmark.
• Close to the Y, so I can easily go to the Y after work and do pickup and not have it eat a lot of time.
• Hours are 6:30-5:30, very similar to current daycare’s. (Better, if we were ever people who were awake AND needing childcare at 6:30…)
• Warm. The staff and director and kids just seemed very calm and warm and like a good place to be, you know?
• Really cool building. I got tours of all three floors, and knowing some of its history, it was just totally amazing to imagine it as an orphanage. GORGEOUS city views (it’s just below the standpipe, which is my favorite landmark ever, of course.) It’s older than the current daycare, for sure, and has that old-building-smell, but it’s laid out well.

Cons:

• It would be another transition, and away from several kids that Ing has been with for the last two years. Not sure how much that would matter to a 2.5 year old. (But, the director said they get quite a few folks from our center, so maybe some of those friends would defect, too?)
• No infant care, so if Hypothetical #2 was conceived and arrived perfectly on an ideal schedule, we’d be looking at 3 options: 1) taking 2 kids to 2 childcare centers, 2) looking for a home caregiver that could watch Ing around public Pre-K and take care of infant at home 3) move Ing to a center that is infant-preK. Of course, it took a year of TTC to get Ingrid, so she could also end up going to K when we need infant care again.
• Can’t start til 2.5 and potty trained, so I suddenly feel like I have to PT in 4 months or else.

That’s the skinny. I just clicked with this place, so much, and plan to take Ingrid for a visit in a few months to see how SHE clicks in there, but the vibe was overwhelmingly positive. I totally have a crush on it.

I do plan to talk to the director of our current center about the concerns from this week, just to make her aware, but I do now kind of wish I could just sign her up for the new school rightnow. Sigh.