Parttime Daycare for 9mo baby

[kirstine]

We are moving to taipei/Tianmu in august - By then our baby girl will be 9mo, and she is already now starting to show signs of boredom just hanging out with me all day long... Ideally I need to find a daycare center where she can attend on part time and where there are other babies her age to play with and proffessional staff.

It seems most pre-schools in Taiwan are for +18m children - at least we have have not been able to find any places for younger babies.

Can anybody help - we are visiting taipei later this month and would like to check out some places?

Thanks
Kirstine

[Borogove]

Are you set on living in Tianmu? And do you need the daycare to be English-speaking? If not, we have friends who send their 9-month-old baby to a daycare that they love in the Yongkang St. area (which is downtown, so not close to Tianmu). It's a Mandarin-speaking daycare, and the baby's parents are both fluent Mandarin speakers, so I'm not sure how much English the staff speak. If you're interested, I can ask them for the contact info for the place.

[Just Jennifer]

Hi Kirstine, and welcome to Taiwanease!

You can look into a "bao mu"--usually retired nurses with licenses to offer in-home childcare. Some will take just one child, others have several children at a time. Very affordable and probably more like being at Grandma's house except in this case your baby would have the added benefit of a Chinese speaking caregiver.

There are a few Montessori schools that take kids at 18 months so if you decide to wait another 9 months, you'll have more options. Til then you can consider taking part in playgroups as well as enrichment classes like Baby Aqua, Baby Yoga, Kindermusik, My Gym/Gymboree. You'll have a great time with your baby and meet like-minded moms. There are also two very active playgroups--Taipei City Playgroup and Tianmu Playgroup. Follow the links I provided and request that you be added to either or both of those groups. The Taipei City group meets every Thursday morning and the Tianmu group announces meet-ups.

The Taipei City Playgroup also has a mailing list so if you prefer to get weekly playdate announcements direct to your email, you can send a blank email to cityplaygroup-subscribe@parentpages.net

[kirstine]

Thank you so much! We will discuss what to do, but your answers give me hope for a good start and a good time for me and my baby in Taipei... I will Think about the options - thanks again.
Regards from Kirstine

[meowster]

When I moved here in January, i was looking for daycare for my 1yr old. the only one that I found that accepts babies is Yi-Bao near ZhongCheng Park. IT is very clean and the place is bilingual (English in the AM and Chinese in the PM starting at 2yr old). For babies age 0 to 2, they just provide regular daycare service in Chinese but when I went there, the kids were having alot of fun. They are a little expensive but very caring staff. Hope this helps. And yes, it is true that you will not find other daycares unless you hire a in-home helper if your child is not at least 1.5yrs old. Some daycare can accept babies at 1.5yrs if your baby is compatible with the others in their group. You can negotiate with some of them if you do decide to put her in daycare at 1.5yrs. of course, knowing some chinese will be helpful.

[kirstine]

Thank you - Can you remember what the place near ZhongCheng park is called?

[meowster]

The daycare is called YI-bao. LET me look for the address and website for you but their site has some pictures only of the facility. Reply back tomorrow

[meowster]

sorry for such a late reply. I had overseas visitors. the phone number is 02-2836-4720 the chinese name of the daycare is called 怡寶托兒所. you can look up their website from google with the chinese name. good luck.

[duck]

sorry for such a late reply. I had overseas visitors. the phone number is 02-2836-4720 the chinese name of the daycare is called 怡寶托兒所. you can look up their website from google with the chinese name. good luck.

Yibao have just built a new facility for under 2s, so their 0-2 and their older kids are separated. The facility is bright & new & clean and has stroller parking. Their new location is about 5 minutes walk from their old location.

I take my kid there once a week but they have made it clear to me they prefer us to go more frequently.

They have different classes for different age groups, mine is in 1-2 years, think there is also 0-3 months, 3-6 months, then 6-12 month olds.

In their 2 year old class they have a little french boy, and they have said they've had other foreign kids in the past.

I think my kid enjoys going, he only really cries when I go pick him up!

Good luck

[Cnoedel]

Hi Kirstine,

I just posted a very similar question as we are in the same situation. I just need the day care center to be in Xinyi as we are planning to live there. My daughter is already now in a day care center and happy to spend most of her day with kids her age. I hope I will be able to find a similar place in Taiwan.

Good luck with your search and relocation! Maybe in the end we will meet in the day care center ;-)

Take care,
Claudia

[Just Jennifer]

Hi Kirstine,

I just posted a very similar question as we are in the same situation. I just need the day care center to be in Xinyi as we are planning to live there. My daughter is already now in a day care center and happy to spend most of her day with kids her age. I hope I will be able to find a similar place in Taiwan.

Good luck with your search and relocation! Maybe in the end we will meet in the day care center ;-)

Take care,
Claudia

Claudia, there are daycare centers downtown but the only ones I know of that are recommended are the few Montessori schools that take children as young as 18 months of age.

[Cnoedel]

Thanks for the info!

[kirstine]

Hi Claudia - I just wrote you - I think :) Hope the message gets to your mailbox...

[Cnoedel]

I got it, thanks :-)