Spanish Child Care Toronto

[candiceogrady]

Hello fellow APers,

I am moving home to Toronto from New York and am about to take that giant step of going back to work after over 2 years at home with my daughter Violet. We are searching for an AP-style child care environment. Any suggestions? And also any programs or activities in Spanish. She already understands quite a bit, and we are hoping to encourage her fluency.

Looking forward to meeting some of you soon!
Candice

[JessieBird]

Hi Candice and welcome "home"!

I don't know anything about Toronto in particular so didn't respond to your post but now that I see that no one has any ideas for you I thought I'd jump in and ask if you've looked into Montessori schools in Toronto. In my area, the Montessori daycares and schools have a lot of staff whose maternal language is Spanish. Where my son goes, the first language spoken/taught is French, then Spanish, then English. It was the same at two other Montessori daycares that I visited. I have no idea if this is a coincidence or if it is typical of Montessori programs (I really should ask - duh!). If you do pursue that route, you can find lots of good info in the Montessori forum here on MDC, including one particularly good thread that is active right now. I think it is titled "what's the difference between montessori and other daycare" or something close to that. I find most aspects of the philosophy to be very compatible with AP but some are quite contrary. Thankfully there is variation from one Montessori to the next so I was able to find exactly what I was looking for and it has worked out really well for us.

Good luck with your move and your return to work!

[candiceogrady]

Thanks for the reply Jessica. I will certainly look into it. I was surprised that no one in Toronto responded. I understand that the Spanish-speaking community in the city is expanding rapidly. I will let you know what I find once I am settled there.

Take care and thanks again for taking the time to write,
Candcie

[JessieBird]

Good luck finding just what you're looking for, Candice. Since I last posted, my DS has his official first word, agua!!! Took us a while to figure it out since we've been on high alert for any babbling that sounded remotely French or English and kind of forgot that he's learning Spanish too.