The opportunity to play and learn with other children is something both home daycares and centers offer that nanny care can't. But unlike centers, which tend to group kids by age, home daycares usually have mixed-age groups, which more closely mirrors most families and may help your child learn to feel comfortable around older kids.
Though daycare centers, no matter how child-friendly and welcoming, can sometimes seem institutional, home daycare can be the next best thing to your own home. If you're lucky enough to find a good home care provider in your neighborhood, so much the better? Your child will feel even more at home.

Plus, a home daycare is often the least expensive childcare option next to relative care. While some home daycare providers charge as much as centers that are not the norm.

From a practical viewpoint, home care also offers a few things centers can't. A home daycare may be more flexible about pickup and drop-off times and less likely than a center to charge you for every minute you're late. Home daycares also tend to close for fewer holidays than most centers, so you may not have to scramble for last-minute backup care as often.

Finally, most home daycare providers are moms themselves, so you know you're leaving your child with someone familiar with the basics of baby and child care and who probably has a healthy dose of the mothering instinct. Of course, you and your provider may differ on some childrearing issues, but as long as you find someone with whom you share basic care philosophies, the "mom" factor can be a definite advantage.