Looking for a nursery for the twins

We are going to visit a nursery this morning. The twins are entitled to their free hours from next January and that time will be here soon. i know you need to ook well ahead if you want certain days in popular nurseries.

Without their free hours it will cost about £18 per hour to send two of them to nursery, such a lot of money! So i am doing my reseach. Some will charge exrta if you are late collecting them. I'm always late so that's not good for me. Some offer discount for siblings, that is good.

I was very happy with the nursery my oldest child went to, it was Fledglings in Ramsgate. I like these details:
1.they were only given water to drink because juice is bad for teeth
2.the children had times in different rooms through the day, as well as an outside play area there is a big hall
3.they went out for walks
4. they had their own packed lunch which i provided, what ever he did not eat would come home to me in the box so I would know. The nursery could provide lunch but I like to know what he is eating.

Some nurseries are awful. When research for my older son I went to see one in Thanet (not in Ramsgate) which was so awful that I had many sleepless nights feeling sorry for the children who were there.

The owner looked like a witch, that was sign number one! The youngest children (under 18 months) had to stay in one small room ALL DAY. They didn't go in the garden, out for walks, or even play in a different room. They did go to a dining room for lunch. The witch told me it was too much upheaval to take the little one to the gardens but the bigger ones did get out to play.

She told me she couldn't trust her staff to take them out for walks in pushchair because they could be smoking and on the phones to their boy friends. She told me the youngest children couldn't have books in their room because they would get ruined. Can you imagine leaving your toddler in such a unstimulating environment all day. What about in the care of a witch with bad attitude. in fact, it must be pretty awful to work there too!

From a web search I can see that there is still childcare at the sme address but it appears to have been taken over in 2004. Lets hope changes for the better. Perhaps Hansel and Gretel stayed at the nursery and pushed the witch into her own oven.