“Put your child on a waiting list for daycare when you first pee on the stick” advises Michelle, parent of 9 month old Christopher. She’s not exaggerating. Much as some Toronto mothers register their infants for schools like Jackman years in advance, if you want a good daycare, you want to be thinking about it as early as possible, not when your mat leave runs out.
Getting over the hurdle
Playing children by e
Michelle lives in the Yonge/St. Clair area and began frantically investigating daycare options when her son was six months old. She found out that the waiting list for Mothercraft , a posh high quality child care program run out of the local Robertson House, is about a year or two…not to mention expensive, at approximately $1500 per month per child. Not to be daunted, she kept calling around (it is recommended to call your childcare centres of choice every three weeks, waiting list or no waiting list, no matter what the staff say, because the 'waiting lists' aren’t actually set in stone – nepotism, name-dropping, sweet talking, etc are all valid strategies to show how much you really really really want to get in.
We asked Michelle whether she got Christopher in and she replied, “So, when I was calling around, our second choice had an opening. So after some hard deliberation done over the course of the next day, we took the spot at Playworks Preschool [1375 Yonge St ( Yonge / St. Clair ) (416) 967-6484]. It has slightly old-feeling facilities, kinda tired feeling compared to Mothercraft. But, we got two good recommendations from parents whose kids go/went there. The people seem really wonderful, which is the most important thing. The price is slightly lower than Mothercraft. $1350 a month for infants under 18months. These are the only two in our immediate area that will take infants under 18 months. There are a few that are a little drive away (ie. in Forest Hill). There are a few others also right near us that will take kids over 18 months, like the one attached to Deer Park School.”
Other Toronto daycare options from free to bank-breaking:
WeeWatch: This is a home care organization that is regulated and checked (frequently) by someone from WeeWatch (WeeWatch takes a percentage of what you pay). A person can have up to 5 kids in their home (including their own), with no more than two children being under 2 years old and no more than three under 3 years old. The price is approximately $1200-$1300 a month
Childcare Finder: You can use the 'childcare locator' and see any particular area and all the options there, color coded by age group
Ontario Early Years Centres: have free, full-day programming, open play, and workshops for kids and their caregivers
Co-operative Daycares are found throughout Toronto. One west-end example is Dandelion; it’s made up of families who work cooperatively to build a nurturing, creative, playful environment for tots with quality, home-like care. Democratically run by parents and staff, each family is responsible for a ‘duty day’ every six weeks (frequency applies if the child is enrolled in the day care 2 days per week). The parent would act as a caregiver alongside an ECE worker and provide food for the 6 children and two grownups. Dandelion accepts children from about 16 months to 4 years and the cost for a day’s care is $46.
