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I will be returning back to work in November 2014. I thought I had my daycare in order with a company called WEE WATCH, started interviews and immediately felt as though this was not a good fit for my son and myself.

I have had a few interviews both in Milton and Mississauga. Some licensed, some not. Some over capacity (!!?) and some that meet expectations of the Day Care Nurseries Act. I will also be touring Little Hands this week as well. Does anyone have a review on them?

Any advice is welcome from parents/opinions on day cares in milton/in-home vs centres?

Much appreciated

Send your son to a montessori - at least for your money, he will be learning stuff. We did with both are kids and my son is now in grade 2. When he started grade 1, he was worlds ahead of most of the other kids.

I'm not sure how easy it would be to get in for November, however ours goes to MCRC. He loves it and so do we!

Super friendly and organized staff. They do lots of hands on learning and outdoor time, all in a structured environment.

Yes most children who go to Montessori will be ahead of the rest of the children, for the first couple of years, then there is no difference. Studies have proven that they are all at the same level by the time they hit grade 3. If you want your child to be ahead of the other children you would need to keep them in Oxford after school instead of sports. Home daycare's can have the same long term effect on your child learning ability as a montessor school. Just pick a place that you feel comfortable with, mothers intuition is always best. It's a hard thing to do but once you go to a few different places you will know in your heart which places is best. Don't cut out all home daycare sometimes they are the better place for your child.

Reference to said studies?

And we are actually continuing the education with after school programs.

I can't find the study on it right now, I heard about it on news talk 1010. they had a discussion about it. But you don't really need a study just common sense.

Basically if you enroll your child in Montessori or Private school from baby to gr 12 then your child will mostly excel above other children in the public system. But if you have your child in Montessori school then drop them in the Public school system in Jk by grade 3 they will all be at the same level.

I seen it with my own child, and you will see it yourself. I did not put my child in Montessori school, I kept her home with me. When she started JK you could clearly see the kids that attended Montessori school, but by grade 3 you could not tell the difference between the kids who came from Montessori school and the children who have never been. My child who has not attended any Montessori or extra tutoring, is now at the at top of her class, but I am sure if you put her against a child who is still in private school you will see a difference.

If you want your child to be above you have to keep paying the piper. (private school baby to Gr12, then Harvard) There is a reason why you pay so much for it.
2 years on Montessori education is not going to make much of a difference in their life. But if you picked the place because you felt your child would get the best care, diaper changed, picked up when crying, hands and face wiped, time spend playing indoors and out, loved as much as they can be in a daycare setting. Then it is the perfect place, and worth every penny.

In reality there are very few smart people in this world. Your child can be more educated then rest, if you invest in their education, and guide them and push them at times. It is a continues effort and very expensive. If only we were rich, we would have more invested into our children's education

Little Hands had a couple of kids get out and walk down Thomson back in early 2013. I believe they upgraded their security after that but my son left at that time so I am not sure what it is like now.
MCRC is great for sure!!

We luv Peekaboo Maple !

You should be able to get into Maple or Escarpment locations.
They are very flexible if you are looking for PT. The live video feed is great too.

Good luck

Thank you all for your input - Little Hands did not have a good feel when I walked in. The tour was awkward, and some of the girls looked like they did not enjoy their job --- although nice enough to the children there.

MCRC I will have to take a look at - but I am CERTAIN they are full - as their programs always seem to have a wait list and I never get in.

I will most definitely take a look at Peekaboo - have heard good things about the Mississauga locations - but was always advised that not every location is the same.

if you're looking for private check these websites out

http://www.godaycare.com/daycare_in/ontario/milton
http://www.daycarebear.ca/ontario/milto ... -list.html

You'll have to go to a few of them to find the right fit for you but eventually you'll find one.

think we must have looked at least 15 before we settled on one.

I second this. We did 4.5 yrs at Peekaboo Maple - there are ups and downs with any place, but Peekaboo really cared, and always handled any minor issues we had with professionalism. The graduation they had was adorable, too.

Like S said, the cameras are great - they help with the transition (for the parent lol), and if you want to keep an eye on any issues that come up, you can actually talk to your kid at the end of the day, encourage them to behave like they know you're watching (show them the camera feeds at home one day), and that you want to be proud of them when you see them handle difficult situations. One day I picked up my little guy and he was so proud of himself... "Daddy, _____ was hitting me today and I did the right thing like you told me, did you see me, did you see me?" It was adorable, and good to know he was thinking about what I thought of his behaviour too ... 99.9% of the time you might not actually use the cameras, but just having them there is a great feature that most other places don't offer. Necessary? Not at all. Beneficial, Sure!

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I have to say that I disagree - not completely, but in part.

Montessori sets up kids mind in how to problem solve at an earlier age - I don't see that from my friends kids who didn't have the background. Not to say that it can't be learned earlier, but my whole point is that if you are going to pay for daycare, montessori is relatively the same price, why not send your kid somewhere they will learn?

Where did you get the part about kids not learning in daycare?

OP, we've had our 2 kids through Peekaboo - One at Escarpment Way and the other at Derry/Bronte. Had great experiences at both.

Never said they don't. I'm saying a school is a school. There's a curriculum. The day cares may very well have an educational component, and that's excellent if they do - but a home day care is highly unlikely to have that.

Our youngest is at Little Hands, we've had some great experiences there, enough positive that we sometimes have one of the daycare teachers there help babysit on evenings and weekends. They upgraded their security system a year back so now you have to use a security fob to get in.

We also used to have our oldest at Building Blocks on Bronte, it's been over a year now but the owners are great, and many of the staff were really 100% top notch, Ryan had lots of positive memories there but he was happy to transition to MCRC's in-school before/after care now that he's older so to avoid the transportation from daycare to school. Before full-day kindergarten all the transportation between daycare and schools was that extra complexity layer. I believe they also recently expanded or did some upgrades? At least the building space looks bigger now.

With daycares I'd look at the facilities, parent referrals as well as meet the daycare workers that would be directly responsible for your children.