S/o daycare. Link an awesome center in your city.

[ijack]

Oct 11, 2012 8:40:45 GMT -5 @barefootbarista said:

free Starbucks, raised bed gardens, water troughs, salon haircuts, yoga, Spanish, and so much more.

315/week for infants, 295/week toddlers.

Too bad it is on the other side of town

www.providenceprepschool.com/index.htm

WHAT? dude, that is so cheap.

[MamaMaui24]

Oct 11, 2012 8:40:45 GMT -5 @barefootbarista said:

free Starbucks, raised bed gardens, water troughs, salon haircuts, yoga, Spanish, and so much more.

315/week for infants, 295/week toddlers.

Too bad it is on the other side of town

www.providenceprepschool.com/index.htm

That is very reasonable! I want to go there.

[biscoffcookies]

Oct 11, 2012 8:40:45 GMT -5 @barefootbarista said:

free Starbucks, raised bed gardens, water troughs, salon haircuts, yoga, Spanish, and so much more.

315/week for infants, 295/week toddlers.

Too bad it is on the other side of town

www.providenceprepschool.com/index.htm

I am dying of jealousy here. I pay significantly more than that and get none of those perks.

[CloudBee]

Oct 11, 2012 8:40:45 GMT -5 @barefootbarista said:

free Starbucks, raised bed gardens, water troughs, salon haircuts, yoga, Spanish, and so much more.

315/week for infants, 295/week toddlers.

Too bad it is on the other side of town

www.providenceprepschool.com/index.htm

I want to move!

"Healing Heaven" for when your child is not well. You can still take them to daycare!

The price is amazing. I can't believe how reasonably priced it is considering Charlotte's professional workforce.

[karinothing]

This place is freaken awesome. If we lived out in the burbs I totally would have sent DS there. You have to look at the pictures under campus. Including the water park! It is very neat.

www.beantreelearning.com/

We personally use Bright Horizons which I LOVE. www.brighthorizons.com/

[Deleted]

I'm not linking my center for privacy reasons since it is not a chain, but it is the top center in my town. They focus on the multiple intelligences, and learning is play based (no homework). They focus on a different language every month, they learn about other cultures (see previous posts about Rosh Hashana, lol, I definitely was premature in my rants), outdoor playground, indoor gym (soccer, yoga, gymnastics), they perform plays, learn on computers, have music classes.

I'm very happy. We decided the perks outweigh the lack of Jewish learning. We'll send DD to Sunday school when she is old enough for that.

No haircuts, but occasionally they have Dunkin Donuts for the parents. lol.

We pay $310/week, which is average here for a center. Its an additional $17/week if you want them to provide lunch.

[everam01]

Oct 11, 2012 8:40:45 GMT -5 @barefootbarista said:

free Starbucks, raised bed gardens, water troughs, salon haircuts, yoga, Spanish, and so much more.

315/week for infants, 295/week toddlers.

Too bad it is on the other side of town

www.providenceprepschool.com/index.htm

Holy cow. Does it have a crazy wait list? I have friends who are TTC and live in Charlotte and I will definitely link this!

[cjeanette]

I have decided there are no awesome daycare centers in my city. At least not my little corner of it.

[everam01]

We also don't have any awesome daycare centers. Our is one of the best and has zero of the perks listed above.

[karinothing]

Oct 11, 2012 9:47:50 GMT -5 @barefootbarista said:

There are many Broght Horizons in Charlotte as well, some close to my house.

My dilemma is I need a center with a 6:30 start time-H is often travelling and I have to be at school at 7.

Yeah, the 7am start time is annoying.

[pugz]

yeah CJ I agree, nothing that sweet here in KC.

[Deleted]

There is absolutely nothing in our area with a spa breastfeed retreat or that kind of level. People in our area hire nannys if they have that kind of disposable income.

[greekypie]

Oct 11, 2012 8:59:53 GMT -5 MamaMaui24 said:

Oct 11, 2012 8:40:45 GMT -5 @barefootbarista said:

free Starbucks, raised bed gardens, water troughs, salon haircuts, yoga, Spanish, and so much more.

315/week for infants, 295/week toddlers.

Too bad it is on the other side of town

www.providenceprepschool.com/index.htm

me too!

That is very reasonable! I want to go there.

[water*drop]

There are no awesome centers here, but I still love ours, containment devices and all. They do sign language and Spanish with all of the kids, and they have a Spanish immersion program, but those are the only "perks." Oh, actually they have a really big perk - they let us take the summer off and hold our spot for us for $50 instead of making us pay for the summer like many of the centers in the area - but that's not the same kind of perk as free Starbucks.

[bunch]

That's mega expensive for clt though, right? Isn't providence also the super fancy high school?

I don't know much about centers around here, but I think they range from 100-200/wk

[UnderProtest]

Oct 11, 2012 8:40:45 GMT -5 @barefootbarista said:

free Starbucks, raised bed gardens, water troughs, salon haircuts, yoga, Spanish, and so much more.

315/week for infants, 295/week toddlers.

Too bad it is on the other side of town

www.providenceprepschool.com/index.htm

Why did I think you lived just north of there?

[pugz]

I agree people with the means here hire nannies. $1100 fee for the nanny agency to find someone for you.

[egishere]

Wow! That day care is amazing! I would definitely cough up the extra money to send my kids there if we had something like that.

[Deleted]

Oh cool, Bright Horizons is on our list! I didn't know it was a national chain. They don't list their prices so I have to call them. Glad to hear so many of you like it.

[biscoffcookies]

Oct 11, 2012 10:34:42 GMT -5 @notquiteblushing said:

Oh cool, Bright Horizons is on our list! I didn't know it was a national chain. They don't list their prices so I have to call them. Glad to hear so many of you like it.

Prices can vary dramatically even among BH in the same city. We send DD to a BH and pay just over $1600 a month. The BH a few blocks from my work charges $2100 a month. Other BH here charge somewhere in between. So if you have several BH near you that you would consider, call them all for individual prices!

[Deleted]

Oct 11, 2012 10:36:24 GMT -5 @cookiemonster03 said:

A nanny for 2 for 50 hrs/week (not under the table) would run us significantly more than the $2500/mo we pay in daycare.

I do wish our DC had free coffee though!

Yeah where I live, a nanny is $15-25 an hour, plus payment of taxes. DD is at daycare for 10 hours a day. (and then we hire a babysitter to watch her another 2 hours 2 days a week). Thats about $40K a year before taxes at $15 an hour. And most nannies I saw on care.com were in the $20/hr range. Plus I'd also have to pay for preschool even with a nanny.

2 at my daycare is about $30K with the sibling discount. I would need 3 kids to probably break even with a nanny, and only start saving if I had 4.

Judging by the cars in the parking lot, I think plenty of the families there are well off. My Rav4 is a beater compared to the cars there.

[sarabi]

Closest thing to the OP. It's a chain, but there aren't a ton of locations. The kids rotate through learning centers throughout the day once they reach 18 months. Math Lab, Kitchen(where the kids learn to help cook), Reading Corner, Computers, tennis courts, water parks. Menu consists of meals inspired by fancy hotels. The one near me was $1600/mo for infant care including diapers.

cremedelacreme.com/welcome_creme_de_la_creme.html

[carolinagirl831]

Oct 11, 2012 8:40:45 GMT -5 @barefootbarista said:

free Starbucks, raised bed gardens, water troughs, salon haircuts, yoga, Spanish, and so much more.

315/week for infants, 295/week toddlers.

Too bad it is on the other side of town

www.providenceprepschool.com/index.htm

Wow this is so awesome! too bad I live in Huntersville area!

[h]

Oct 11, 2012 11:05:00 GMT -5 sarabi said:

Closest thing to the OP. It's a chain, but there aren't a ton of locations. The kids rotate through learning centers throughout the day once they reach 18 months. Math Lab, Kitchen(where the kids learn to help cook), Reading Corner, Computers, tennis courts, water parks. Menu consists of meals inspired by fancy hotels. The one near me was $1600/mo for infant care including diapers.

cremedelacreme.com/welcome_creme_de_la_creme.html

When I first glanced at this post, my eyes read it as the kids rotating through Meth Lab. I was like--gosh, that sounds worse than containment devices!

[Deleted]

Oct 11, 2012 11:23:48 GMT -5 h said:

Oct 11, 2012 11:05:00 GMT -5 sarabi said:

Closest thing to the OP. It's a chain, but there aren't a ton of locations. The kids rotate through learning centers throughout the day once they reach 18 months. Math Lab, Kitchen(where the kids learn to help cook), Reading Corner, Computers, tennis courts, water parks. Menu consists of meals inspired by fancy hotels. The one near me was $1600/mo for infant care including diapers.

cremedelacreme.com/welcome_creme_de_la_creme.html

When I first glanced at this post, my eyes read it as the kids rotating through Meth Lab. I was like--gosh, that sounds worse than containment devices!

me too!

[Redpoppy]

Less than our Kindercare in MA was with none of the extras.

[liveintheville]

Oct 11, 2012 11:39:06 GMT -5 Redpoppy said:

Less than our Kindercare in MA was with none of the extras.

We used to use the Cambridge Kindercare. Loved them. Crazy expensive, though.

[h]

Oct 11, 2012 12:35:17 GMT -5 jenny1980 said:

Oct 11, 2012 10:34:42 GMT -5 @notquiteblushing said:

Oh cool, Bright Horizons is on our list! I didn't know it was a national chain. They don't list their prices so I have to call them. Glad to hear so many of you like it.

Since it is a chain, it really varies by location.

Locally, I have some friends who ADORE their BH center but I also have a good friend whose infant son was literally left alone in the baby room because the teacher forgot he was napping and LEFT FOR THE DAY. He was in there by himself for an hour and no one knew where to find him when his mom came to pick him up.

That is horrifying!

I think it does vary tremendously by location. We have used a local Bright Horizons for back-up care in the past when our regular day care was closed for Jewish holidays (you can register then pay by the day for drop off care). It is totally fine for a back up, but I don't love it. My older son liked the preschool class a lot, but the baby room felt really chaotic to me--every time I picked up or dropped off like half the babies were crying, and the teachers never seemed to be doing anything but changing diapers.

We used to use an NAEYC center affiliated with a local synagogue. We liked it a lot. It was primarily a play-based daycare, but they did have an appropriate curriculum in the older classes. They also offered theater, dance, Spanish, PE, etc. and had Shabbat services on Fridays.

Both my kids are in Montessori now, but they didn't start it until they were older.

[dcrunnergirl]

Oct 11, 2012 11:05:00 GMT -5 sarabi said:

Closest thing to the OP. It's a chain, but there aren't a ton of locations. The kids rotate through learning centers throughout the day once they reach 18 months. Math Lab, Kitchen(where the kids learn to help cook), Reading Corner, Computers, tennis courts, water parks. Menu consists of meals inspired by fancy hotels. The one near me was $1600/mo for infant care including diapers.

cremedelacreme.com/welcome_creme_de_la_creme.html

I had no idea such large fancy places for daycare existed. I knew about BH, Kindercare, Goddard, etc. but these other places are crazy.

[DarcyLongfellow]

Honestly, I'm pretty sure my city has nothing even close to that. There aren't even really that many daycares compared to how many kids there are in my area. If I had gone back to work, there was ONE daycare near my house and one near my work (30 minutes away).

All of my friends who work use nannies, and my friends are definitely not rich! A full time nanny, including her taxes etc. (so, not under the table) runs between $10 and $12 an hour here. Which is a lot of money for 40 hours a week, but the hourly charge doesn't go up for multiple kids.