For those with children in daycare

[Big Country]

What features would you consider to be neccessary for a quality daycare facility?

 

What features are unneccessary as a deciding factor?

 

Any information you can share would be much appreciated.

 

 

Background on why I ask:

 

My wife is a semester away from completing her master's degree in education, and has been working in several of the local school districts for the last few years. With the potential of a lack of jobs and a desire to be able to spend as much time as possible with our son, plus the possibility of us having a second child win the next year or two, she is not sure that getting her own classroom is what she definitely wants.

 

She works very well with younger children, particularly the kindergarten and 1st grade level. She is thinking of looking into starting a daycare facility. While our house has the backyard to support outdoor activities for the children, it is no where near large enough to support having 5 or 6 kids, much less more than that if her mother and a close friend decide to be involved, which is a distinct possibility. While it would not be certified (still looking into procedures, req's etc.) as a preschool, she is wanting to provide some structured learning environments, especially in reading and language development skills, much like a preschool, but without the restrictive structure of the school system.

 

She is also considering specializing in providing daycare services for teacher's, one feature of which that teacher's value highly is that if they have the summer off and do not require child care during those months, they do not lose their spot at the facility. Also, if the clientele is solely teachers on a traditional schedule, it would mean my wife would have that time off as well, though, to maintain some income, she could offer some pre-K activities for the summer time.

 

I'm just really looking into every aspect of this, and looking for all of the input I possibly can from all of you out there. What sort of questions would you ask the facility, what features would be plusses, what would be a minus, what is a daily/weekly/monthly rate that you would pay.

 

Anything is appreciated as I help my wife explore this avenue.

[wiegie]

oh please, God, let Blitz see this thread

[Grits and Shins]

oh please, God, let Blitz see this thread

 

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I saw it ...

[wiegie]

I saw it ...

 

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And there we have it. After all the debates about God and Religion that we have seen take place in the tailgate over the years, we now have conclusive proof that there is a God (and that He listens to me).

[Grits and Shins]

And there we have it.  After all the debates about God and Religion that we have seen take place in the tailgate over the years, we now have conclusive proof that there is a God (and that He listens to me). 

 

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Except that I saw it before your plea to God.

[boat_hacked]

And there we have it. After all the debates about God and Religion that we have seen take place in the tailgate over the years, we now have conclusive proof that there is a God (and that He listens to me).

 

You sure it wasn't by Intelligent Design Blitz saw it??

[Big Country]

Let's stay on topic people.

[wiegie]

Except that I saw it before your plea to God.

 

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Yes, but your seeing it was outside of my event horizon and hence from my point of view, hadn't happened yet. Had I not prayed, God might have gone back in time and changed your actions such that you might not have looked at the link.

 

As to getting back on topic, one of my wife's friends runs a daycare and she also caters to teachers' children. She charges less than the market rate to care for such kids at least in part because dealing with teacher's children is easier than dealing with other the children of people from other professions (as you noted, she gets summers and holidays off--plus I think there are some other benefits such as the teachers know what it is like to have to deal with pain-in-the-ass parents and are usually not as like to be pain in the asses themselves).

 

Also, when writing up the daycare contract consider this:

 

Imagine for a moment that you are the manager of a day-care center. You have a clearly stated policy that children are supposed to be picked up by 4 p.m. But very often parents are late. The result: at day's end, you have some anxious children and at least one teacher who must wait around for the parents to arrive. What to do?

 

A pair of economists who heard of this dilemma -- it turned out to be a rather common one -- offered a solution: fine the tardy parents. Why, after all, should the day-care center take care of these kids for free?

 

The economists decided to test their solution by conducting a study of ten day-care centers in Haifa, Israel. The study lasted twenty weeks, but the fine was not introduced immediately. For the first four weeks, the economists simply kept track of the number of parents who came late; there were, on average, eight late pickups per week per day-care center. In the fifth week, the fine was enacted. It was announced that any parent arriving more than ten minutes late would pay $3 per child for each incident. The fee would be added to the parents' monthly bill, which was roughly $380.

 

After the fine was enacted, the number of late pickups promptly went ... up. Before long there were twenty late pickups per week, more than double the original average. The incentive had plainly backfired.

The reasoning behind the backfiring is that before the "late fee" was implemented parents would try not to be late since they felt guilty for making the teacher stay at work without being able to go home. But the "late fee" actually let parents stop feeling guilty since they were now paying something for being late--and since the $3 is so small they could stop feeling guilty at a very low cost. Hence they could come later more often.

[dmarc117]

i'd look into how much insurance would cost....

 

have to think that these daycares have to carry some pricey insurance

[Ursa Majoris]

Statement of the obvious, but make sure it's properly licensed and inspected.

[H8tank]

Chicken wire actually costs more than hogwire by the square yard.

[Skilly]

Say goodbye to your home as you know it: It will now look like a toys-r-us exploded inside your living room. And don't get upset when you find chees nips inside the dvd player.

 

Seriously, I would think hard about how having many kids inside your home all day long will affect your standard of living. Just my two cents. btw, I have incredible respect for day care providers, considering both of my kids went to daycare growing up. Props to you and your wife.

[Grits and Shins]

BC ... I had originally thought that you were seeking a daycare for your child and didn't really read your question, although I clearly have thoughts on the topic.

 

But it looks like you are asking about starting up your own daycare?

 

My wife ran a daycare out of our home for several years. We went down this path for several reasons:

 

1) My wife wasn't making very much money at her job and we couldn't really afford to pay to put another (2nd) child into daycare.

 

2) It was a way for my wife to continue to make and income AND for us to raise our own children.

 

Some of my thoughts about running a day care from your home:

 

1) Make the parents sign contracts. The contract you come up with is VERY important and you must give a lot of thought to what to include. You MUST have a contract so that expectations from both parties are fully spelled out. Most of the following items should be addressed in your contract.

 

2) Decide how you want to handle sick days, holidays and vacations for both your wife AND the clients and detail this in the contract. We required our clients to pay their weekly payment even if their child was out sick or they were on vacation. We allowed the parents a certain number of days per year (1 or 2 weeks I can't recall) where they would not have to pay as long as they notified us 2 weeks in advance. This was my wife's buisness and a stable income was required. You must specify that your wife gets the standard holidays off as well. The contract is for long term day care ... not for drop-ins.

 

3) Be very adamant that sick children MUST stay home. Allowing sick children in your daycare only spreads the sickness to the other kids and to your family and will set up a vicious cycle. Additionally if a child becomes sick while in your care require the parent to leave work and come get the child.

 

4) Be firm on the hours of operation. Parents will run hours late if you allow them to. You MUST have a late fee and you MUST enforce it or parents will take advantage. Specify hours of operation in the contract and specify the associated late fees. Late fees should be on an escalating scale ... so that the later they are the more they are required to pay. Having said that you should obviously allow some latitude for unforseen circumstances (assuming the parent calls).

 

5) Don't forget expense items like meals, snacks and diapers. We required that parents provide formula and diapers. We provided meals and snacks.

 

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. A couple more comments though. My wife loves children and has always loved children. However, often times after 10 hours of providing care for a home full of children she wanted some down time (away from children). This meant that she ended up having less one-on-one time with our own children than we had anticipated ... not at first, but after a year or more this began to happen. Additionally it got tiresome for me to come home and be relegated to our bedroom because the rest of the house was in use for the daycare.

[cliaz]

BC ... I had originally thought that you were seeking a daycare for your child and didn't really read your question, although I clearly have thoughts on the topic.

 

But it looks like you are asking about starting up your own daycare?

 

My wife ran a daycare out of our home for several years.  We went down this path for several reasons:

 

1) My wife wasn't making very much money at her job and we couldn't really afford to pay to put another (2nd) child into daycare.

 

2) It was a way for my wife to continue to make and income AND for us to raise our own children.

 

Some of my thoughts about running a day care from your home:

 

1)  Make the parents sign contracts.  The contract you come up with is VERY important and you must give a lot of thought to what to include.  You MUST have a contract so that expectations from both parties are fully spelled out.  Most of the following items should be addressed in your contract.

 

2)  Decide how you want to handle sick days, holidays and vacations for both your wife AND the clients and detail this in the contract.  We required our clients to pay their weekly payment even if their child was out sick or they were on vacation.  We allowed the parents a certain number of days per year (1 or 2 weeks I can't recall) where they would not have to pay as long as they notified us 2 weeks in advance.  This was my wife's buisness and a stable income was required.  You must specify that your wife gets the standard holidays off as well.  The contract is for long term day care ... not for drop-ins.

 

3)  Be very adamant that sick children MUST stay home.  Allowing sick children in your daycare only spreads the sickness to the other kids and to your family and will set up a vicious cycle.  Additionally if a child becomes sick while in your care require the parent to leave work and come get the child. 

 

4)  Be firm on the hours of operation.  Parents will run hours late if you allow them to.  You MUST have a late fee and you MUST enforce it or parents will take advantage.  Specify hours of operation in the contract and specify the associated late fees.  Late fees should be on an escalating scale ... so that the later they are the more they are required to pay.  Having said that you should obviously allow some latitude for unforseen circumstances (assuming the parent calls).

 

5) Don't forget expense items like meals, snacks and diapers.  We required that parents provide formula and diapers.  We provided meals and snacks.

 

That's all I can think of off the top of my head.  A couple more comments though.  My wife loves children and has always loved children.  However, often times after 10 hours of providing care for a home full of children she wanted some down time (away from children).  This meant that she ended up having less one-on-one time with our own children than we had anticipated ... not at first, but after a year or more this began to happen.  Additionally it got tiresome for me to come home and be relegated to our bedroom because the rest of the house was in use for the daycare.

 

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good info here. My wife has been thinking about doing this (being a school teacher and certified in early childhood development.) but i told her no. The insurance is $$. Plus i do not want to be held accountable if a child gets hurt.

[Czarina]

Doing day care for teachers would be excellent. Great way to market, since teachers often face 'losing their slot' when they don't want to use the daycare year round.

 

She should consider NOT taking babies at all. She'd have to cut way back on her numbers and it would severely limit what she can offer. The place I used to use was 3 and up (had to be potty trained).

 

Are there any community centers that offer mom & me type classes in your area? A friend of mine does very well offering story time and movement classes for toddler/preschooler aged kids, both through a local gym and community rec program.

 

How is she with birthday parties? This is a booming business in the area. Hire someone to bring the party to the house, type of thing. Music, movement, tumbling, something of that nature. Would require some weekend work, but for the preschool set, they frequently happen during weekdays.

 

As to daycare, she ought to check the licensing requirements. If you have just a couple kids, there's not usually a license requirement. My main features I would look for: good child to adult ratio, open, bright, clean playspaces. I visited too many in home daycares that were in people's basement back in the day.

[darin3]

Couple of things from my end of the Huddle Spectrum ...

 

First, insurance. I think this was mentioned already, but it would be a HUGH consideration.

 

Secondly, permitting. Not all cities allow day-care (even home-based) in residential zones. It would take some research to figure out if you're even allowed to do this. PM me for more info.

[Swampnuts]

I know people who have done newborn only daycare, taking babies less than a year old only. They only take one or two for extra money and they don't trash your house.

 

I couldn't imagine there's big money in this though.

[Czarina]

The center I used to use was a daycare/preschool/kindergarten that eventually expanded to summer camps, etc., too. It's a big money business for sure. Anyhow, they're currently asking $7/hour for daycare. I was when I heard that.

[tonorator]

there is no amount of money that is worth putting your house/family through this. adding a few extra kids seems to be an easy thing at first, but what you are really doing is combining the stress of several families into one. you will now get to live out the troubles of all families housing their children in your house. this will weaken your own family and make the $$$ seem like a drop in the bucket. don't sacrifice your kids, your family, and your time for what seems like a nice way to bring in a few extra bucks.

[Yukon Cornelius]

we sent our kid to a christian based day care for awile.... it has a good reputation and the kid loved it... they got a new pastor and then things fell apart... the pastors wife told my sone that he black jelly beans are youre sins so dont eat them??? then she told him that if our family didnt go to church we will all burn in hell.... yah he was gone the next day... and after a threat to go tot the paper we were refunded our money..

[Czarina]

Another thought -- when I did use homebased daycare for my first son, the woman who was taking care of him had a max of 3 children, but none of them were her own. I'm not sure how I'd feel about having the caregiver's child in the mix. Might be cause for attention issues, etc. Not saying this is true of your wife, but something to consider.

[Piranha]

Maybe off topic a little, but getting prepared for taxes, and realized

I have paid over $9,000 in daycare this year

 

 

[Savage Beatings]

We switched daycare providers this last year mostly on the issue of attentiveness. Out previosu provider would basically watch television all day. Our current provider watches the children all day... huge difference! Plus, and this is a bit more intangible, we can absolutely tell that our current provider sincerely and deeply loves children. That's really what sold us more than anything else.

[idahov]

Maybe off topic a little, but getting prepared for taxes, and realized

I have paid over $9,000 in daycare this year 

 

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Do you use flex spending or handle it at tax time with the credit? We'll use flex spending for the first time this year after just doing the credit. I'm a little nervous, but everyone says you come out way ahead.

[idahov]

To answer the original questions.

 

Having used in-home and dedicated daycare, my wife and I definately prefer the home based variety. Fewer kids, less sickness and we feel more attention. The person makes all the difference.

 

We look for a structured atmosphere, with preschool as an option. The contract is important with cost, how they handle sick kids, how they handle problem kids, cleanliness and business hours all critical. We interviewed several before decided on one.

 

What I like, is that this place will not tolerate problem kids. Any kid that displays violent behavior is gone. Secondly, you can't bring sick kids and are expected to get your children if they develop a fever or other problem. The house is kid friendly, although they have designated areas for the day care (basement, kitchen, naproom and backyard).

 

Nothing is better than having your kids home with a parent, but if you must these are a few things we look for. It sounds like you're right on track.