Reply to "Education Center" versus Daycare for an Infant

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[quote=Anonymous]I'm due in June and will need child care in September for a 12 week old infant.  I still haven't decided if I want to go the daycare route or nanny share route but I know I need to make a decision very quickly.  If I go the day care route, I've looked at numerous day cares in my area (Columbia Heights, Petworth, 16th St Heights) based on many of the reviews and feedback on DCUM and the day care spreadsheet that is posted and I've narrowed it down (I think) to two very different options.  While I've pointed out 2 specific places, I'm assuming the pros and cons will be similar for these types of day cares in the area.
[b]
1. Licensed Home Daycare (Little Praudde, CoHi)[/b]
A few pros/differentiators:
- 3 blocks from home (I work from my home office); I can easily walk there
- Good reviews/feedback
- Kids all play together
- Looks like they are having a lot of fun and the care givers seem nice and involved with the kids
- Decently priced - ~$400/week - $1733/month

A few cons:
- No formal learning curriculum; seems more play-based
- Day care takes everyone, including the infants, outside the daycare and to the park many blocks away (this makes me a little nervous being a FTM)
- No English spoken at all it seems (I'm not sure if this is good or bad). I will be doing my best to teach my child at home, of course, but will it be detrimental if they cannot help teach my child to read, learn colors, shapes, days, months, etc in English?
- BYO food (when they are older) and diapers - only a con compared to the other ($$$) place below

[b]2. Larger Education Center Day Care (Bright Start Child Care, Petworth)[/b]
A few pros:
- Very nice, new, clean center
- Child can continue there through preschool
- Separate infant room with both English and Spanish speakers
- An actual "curriculum" for infants - (i.e. It's Blue Week - they have the babies touch, taste, see, etc blue items)
- They provide healthy snacks and diapers
- Kids stay on site for play time on their own playground
- A webcam in the room for parents to check in and see the infants
- An app where they enter EVERYTHING your kids does throughout the day and you get emails/alerts
- Have things like parent/teacher conferences

A few cons:
- Driving a mile versus walking a few blocks
- About $450 MORE per month - when you add in all the fees, etc - so around $2200/month

So, as you can see, I'm impressed by what the Larger Education Center Day Care offers but, being a FTM, I'm not sure which of these "pros" are really that important.  And, the biggest question is, is it really worth $450 PER MONTH MORE??

Any thoughts or experience with these different types of day cares?
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