Do Your Research

We have been searching for a preschool-type situation for Lauren. She will still go to grandma and grandpa's house three days a week but we (especially I) think it's important for her to be around other adults, but mostly other kids, at least a couple of days a week. No one has watched her besides us and my in-laws and now that she's a year and a half old, I really think it's important for her to start learning to be more flexible, adaptable and comfortable with people outside the little family bubble we've created for her. Plus, she is crazy about other kids, including my nephew who she used to run away from (I will post pictures later of the two of them walking hand-in-hand over the weekend -- and Lauren was the one who grabbed hands first!) so I know she will have fun and I know it will be good for her development.

We've looked at three preschools and will visit one more next week. All have been fine and if I had to pick one, I'd go with the last one we visited, but I've got my hopes up for the one next week. It's one of those pricey places with a good reputation and an East Coast boarding school sounding name. I'm more afraid that it'll be too snooty for the likes of us, but we'll see.

Anyway, I was remembering way back when during my reporter days when I helped with a story on child care violations. I had to spend the day in Columbus in a file room going through hundreds and hundreds of child care center inspection reports. It occurred to me today that maybe these are now online -- and I was right. If you have a child in an Ohio child care center, preschool or private licensed caregiver's home, or are looking for care, go to this link (http://www.odjfs.state.oh.us/cdc/query.asp) to do a search by county, center name, city or ZIP code. I spent the better part of the afternoon reading all kinds of interesting (and some shocking) things. You can read about the area(s) a center is or was out of compliance and how it was corrected. I really think more parents should know that they have the right to this information, so please pass along the link.