First day at DAY CARE!

This past Friday was an interesting day.  It was Mike’s first day at daycare! 

The whole daycare adventure actually began about 6 months before Mike was born.  We started with a map that had every licensed daycare facility in Knoxville.  We checked websites, checked state licensing boards, check complaint records, and checked for facilities with the highest state ratings.  We cut the list down down from nearly 100 to a couple of dozen.

Next came the phone calls, who would have openings, checking the curriculum, asked a handful of basic questions and got the list down to 6.

Next came the visits, talking to the directors, meeting with teachers, asking a LOT of questions about everything you can think of, toured the facilities, observed the teachers, observed the students, made surprise visits, and ended up getting the list down to 3.

Then we ranked the three (just in case something fell through at the last minute!).  We made the required $25 deposit at our preferred location (called the Nannies in case you are in the Knoxville area).  And then Mike was born.

After he was born, we confirmed that The Nannies would still have a place available.  We attended their “new parent orientation”.  We filled at all kinds of paperwork (a media release form?  Yep – we filled it out…).  We met with Mike’s teacher (several times), showed her the casts and his brace to make sure they were ok with it all.  Everything was good to go!

Now it’s time for Mike’s first day.  You can imagine that we were a little anxious about the whole thing.  But everyone at The Nannies has gone out of there way over the last several weeks to make us feel a part of the family.  And once Mike got back to his room, you could tell that he was going to be just fine simply by the way he was looking around the room.  So sure – we were anxious.  But we were also pretty certain that it was all going to work out just fine. 

And when we went to pick Mike up, he was just as happy as when we left.  All of that work so that we would select the best daycare was all worth it.  Here’s hoping that the next 5 years will be just as happy and that they will have him prepared to be the smartest kid in his kindergarten class!