Child-Care Centre - When to send? Which?

My twins are now in a child-care centre near our place, just about 5-10 mins walk. They have been there since June 2007 when they are about two and a half years old. It was not an easy task initially for us to find our ideal childcare. And we are also contemplating on which age to send them.

We went "hunting" for a child-care centre since they were about 16 months old, two months before the minimum required age for entry. As we have sort of decided that the child-care centre should be near our home, we started visiting those whom we think are nearer to our needs and requirments.

There were some interesting finds :
1. The classifications - Toddlers(18mths - 2 yrs), N1 (2-3 yrs old), N2(3-4 yrs old) , K1(4-5 yrs old), K2 (5-6 yrs old)
2. The Approach/focus - montessori, multiple intellgences, graduates teachers etc
3. "Hidden fees" - Registration, Insurance coverage, 1-mth deposit, uniform, mattress, mattress cover.

The pros we saw : kids are more independent, tends to speak earlier, social interaction.
The cons we saw : Less than ideal teachers, curriculum; toddlers group looked rather helpless

We ended up having one conclusion - the child-care centre is a place with some form of custodian care when you are at work, regardless how premier they claimed. To quote my husband bluntly,"It's a dumping ground".

After seeing how helpless the toddlers group are, we decided that the more ideal age will be 2 years old or above when they are able to convey their basic needs to the adults. And as to which centre - it's harder to decide, but we finally opted for one which placed more positive parent-teacher relationship and teachers' development, which is the current child-care centre that the twins are at.

So far so good, we are satisfied, though not the most ideal and I bet there'll never be.