Literally the day after I was cleared to drive after having my baby I went looking at daycares. I looked at 3 different places.
Daycare A – The Goddard School)
Pros:
– Good location – A few minutes away from our house. Convenient for both of us to take or pick him up
– Good staff – they were knowledgeable & friendly. Anyone could tell how much they love the kids
– Fun atmosphere. All of the classrooms were decorated with kid crafts
– good security with 2 sets of doors to get in & each family’s had 4 digit unique code to open the second set of doors
Cons:
– Crowded facility- in the infant class there were 16 babies. This seemed like too many to me. With germs spreading like wildfire at daycares I wanted my baby to be around as few kids as possible. The infant room also seemed extremely small given the 16 kids, as well as all of the other rooms were maxed out.
– Franchised own – with being a franchise their is a greater risk of the daycare being sold versus a company owning it. With a franchise it would depend a lot on how good that particular owner was. The director that we spoke with had only great things to say of this owner; however, he had owned another daycare else & sold it previously. So I would be concerned that if it were sold that the new owner wouldn’t be as good.
Daycare B -Legacy Academy)
Pros:
– Excellent Great location – both my husband & I would definitely be able to take or pick him up
– We know 2 Families that send their kids there & are happy with it
Cons:
– Bad online reviews
– Lack of Security – one set of doors that anyone could walk through
– Unprofessional staff – the 2 people in the infant room when I was touring didn’t seem to even like babies. Granted the main teacher wasn’t there that day though.There was one poor baby crying for attention at one of the staff’s feet & had I not been touring the daycare, I seriously doubt she would have picked him up. Also, the director that gave us the tour didn’t know very many details & I believe she had been there for awhile.
– Franchised own – according to the bad online reviews the owner that purchased it 5 years ago is only interested in money. Again being a franchise it is super dependent on the individual owner.
Daycare C)
Pros:
– Wonderful facility (they even have a water park for the preschoolers)
– Very nice staff- I could tell that the infant teacher really cared for the babies
– Seemed very focused on education
– Excellent security with finger print identification & bulletproof glass windows
– Owned by a private company, so not dependent on an individual owner
– We know 1 family that sent their kids & were happy with it
Cons:
– Location is not the best. It would take me a round trip of an hour to take him and then another hour to pick him up
Based on these Pros & Cons I rated them as follows:
Daycare C – Best
Daycare A – The Goddard School – Good
Daycare B – Legacy Academy – Worst
Now on the to the money part…….
Daycare C is $16,404/yr
The Goddard School is $13,520/yr
Legacy Academy is $12,021/yr
Given the differences between the daycares we went with Daycare C, which I deemed as the best but most expensive option. I was actually surprised that Legacy Academy wasn’t cheaper, because it didn’t seem to be up to par to be $1.5K behind The Goddard School. With Daycare C I truly believe that we are getting what we are paying for. I didn’t mention this in the Pros as I believe that all 3 daycares do this but included in the cost are diapers, wipes, & ointments, which makes the $16.4K a year easier to swallow. Since this is where my baby is spending the majority of his time during the work week, I definitely wanted him to have the best and out of these 3 I’m glad we went with Daycare C 🙂
TheRealMoneyBoss
A couple of weeks ago (July 2018) we took a trip to the Georgia Aquarium in the heart of Atlanta. It was surprising at how much the entire day (or really just 3.5 hours) cost. Here is the break down of what we spent for 4 adults, 1 toddler, and 1 baby at the Georgia Aquarium.
