Any Suggestions on Excellent Daycare Options in LakeView?

Hi M., my name is M. P., I'm a mother of a beautiful 5 year old boy who will start kindergarten in the fall and my second child (another boy) is due Aug. 16 ish. Ultrasound says Aug. 13 anyways I'm currently a scretary but I'm planning on staying home with the new little guy.

I'm not a licensed in home daycare, just going to be a stay at home mom. I'd be more than happy to care for your little one. Thought I'd mention it. Oh yeah, I'm in Rogers Park. Congrats too!

The Florence G Heller JCC (on Melrose near Broadway)has an excellent early childhood program and they have infant care. We're not Jewish but both of my kids started going to a JCC early childhood program in a different state when they were 8 weeks old. We were so happy that we found the Heller JCC program when we moved here. We're still so pleased that my son will continue in a JCC in our next city when we move this summer from Chicago. My daughter "graduated" from the junior K program at Heller and went on to an excellent private school where she is excelling. There is about a 50/50 mix of Jewish and non-Jewish families. The children do learn about Jewish ethics and values and celebrate Jewish Holidays. The hours are great for working parents and they offer many extra activies (T-ball, art, etc.) when the kids are older. Also kids eat a kosher-dairy diet; i.e. no meat. This was challenging at first but now my kids have terrific healthy eating habits because of it. They'd much prefer a bagel with cream cheese or pasta with marinara and some fruit over McDonald's chicken nuggets and fries any day! The J will feed pumped breast mild if you provide it by the way. Kids can go there until age 5 (through junior K) and they have an excellent summer camp as well. There is most likely a waiting list. You can look them up on the web and set up a meeting and tour. On the daycare vs. nanny issue...whatever works for you and your husband is the best. For us we were very uncomfortable leaving an infant with an unsupervised non-family member for a full working day. We are much more comfortable with having multiple care givers and other children to play with at day care. We also never have to worry about the nannu being late or not showing up. The down side is that your kids will definately get sick more often and you need to have back up care, and it's less conveniet to drop them off/pick up vs. someone coming to your house. I have friends who have had very succesful nanny/ au pair experiences and some that had horrible experiences that ended up switching to day care. It really boils down to what makes you most comfortable and finding a great nanny if that's your choice. There are many great resources to find excellent care givers. Networking with other moms to find a caregiver probably helps a lot. Best luck!

Hi Mega,

My DH and I just recently went through the same dilemma! We live in East Lakview and we were on several waiting lists while I was pregnant. My DS was born in December and I returned to work in early March. As no spots were open at the various centers, we had to go the nanny route. We put a post on craigslist and did a nanny share two days per week at another family's house (they had a 15 month old boy). The other 3 days I had a friend (also a nanny) look after him. The nannyshare worked really really well. We just finished this arrangement as we have been offered a FT spot at Concordia Avondale center.
If it was in our budget we would loved to have done the nannyshare on a FT schedule as it was really convenient for us (the other family lived 3 blocks from us), the nanny was very reliable, never late or off sick etc. and our DS received lots on 1-1 attention. Now that he is going to daycare, we are excited as he will be able to socialize with more kids but by the same token probably get sick more often!!

If you decide to go the nanny route, craigslist is a great source, as is Northside Parent's Network...

Good luck!
A.

wee care on pine grove and diversey is wonderful###-###-####
goodluck w your search!
V.