Does anyone do home daycare?

[GreatScot]

I did quite some time ago and I may start again when we move into our house.

I want to know how many children you watch and what types of activities you do? I'm torn between watching sweet and cuddly babies or pre-school kids who I can actually teach.

[GoatFucker]

I'll sticky this for a bit, so that it doesn't get burried in the next page.

I don't do home daycare, but hopefully someone will come along who does and help you out.

[4forme]

I am going be starting in 8 weeks. I will be watching a friends new baby. She is only a month now and I watched her Saturday noght. All she did was scream the entire time. I felt so bad for her, she had a tummy-ache. My ds is only 4 weeks older than her adn he has never screamed like she did. My dh said he hopes she grows out of that or there is no way I could handle the two of them alone. I don't think I could handle more than 2 preschool age kids at once. I prefer babies.


But to answer your question, I prefer babies but if you want great activities you can get workbooks at WalMart for almost any age and there is a website called www.LEARNINGPAGES.com that has awesome handwriting sheets. There are also tons of activity/ craft books out there. If you need titles let me know and I'll go thru my stash and get them for you. (I taught pre-k so I have a good bit for that age group).

[4forme]

Sorry it is www.learningpage.com
I put an s on there by accident. :mad

[Turbo]

Not sure how much help I'll be but here's my experience:

I have kept my niece 3-4 days a week since she was 5 weeks old (she will be one on July 8th). My DD is 22 months older than her so it is almost like they are siblings.

My niece was the world's easiest baby (quite a contrast to my high-needs DD) so it was soooo easy to watch her. It was literally a pleasure and I felt guilty for getting paid. Once she started crawling it has been a lot more challenging, but still a joy. I think it would be fun to have a child my DD's age so they could occupy each other but having a younger child has worked out fine. However, if my niece hadn't been such an easy baby, I personally would have had a hard time with a high-needs toddler as well as a high-needs infant.

As far as activities, since I only have one extra child and I'm related to her (so I have a lot more latitude in taking her places, etc), we just take her along on whatever playdates, park activities, mom's club things, etc that we are doing.

Like I said, I'm probably not much help because my situation is so different from a typical home daycare. Honestly, my niece is really just like my second daughter when she is here and because I am super, super close to both her parents, I have an amazing amount of latitude and am out of the house just as much as if I wasn't doing daycare.

Good luck with your new venture! :)

[beachbum]

I am getting ready to the middle of August. My mom has been doing it for over 25 years so I have been around home day care all of my life.

Here I will be only allowed to keep six children and that is including my own children. So I will only be allow to keep three children. As for the ages the State has already decided that for me. We are only allowed to keep one child under 12 months. Depending on the age group the activities are different. The state also requires us to have a set schedule with different activities listed that are age appropriate for the children you are keeping. Being a Education major I will try to provide educational, fun learning toys and activities. As for price it depends on the area you are living in. The going rate for here is between $80 to $150. Yes, there are actually some home daycare providers charging $150 per week per child. I don't know how anyone could afford the $150 a week but they do. I will be charging $100.

[ConnersMom]

I have never posted here before, I just joined the other day, but I saw this thread and had to post.

I have been doing dc for almost 2 yrs now. I take infants and pre-schoolers, but only one infant at a time. I would not be able to hand more than that. I have one 5 yr old, two 4 yr olds, one 3 yr old and a 6month old. The 5 yr old and 3 yr old are my children.

Theres not much I can do with my infant. I try to give her alot of floor time and the older kids love her and are always playing with her. She gets so much attention...LOL. My 5 yr old and one 4 yr old were in pre-k in the morning this shchool yr, and the ohter 4 yr old goes to a special education pre-school in the afternoon. So theres not much I could do with them all at once. Now that shcool is out, I ordered a pre-school lesson plan and curriculum from http://www.mothergoosetime.com/welcome.cfm . It hasnt arrived yet, so I can say how good or bad it is, but it sounds pretty good.

Most of our activites included painting, playdough...craft ideas I found on the net or in magizines. With my 3 yr old and one 4 yr old, I found printouts on the net and we made an ABC book and did a letter and color of the week. We would have something red for morning snack a few times a week while we were working on that color and the letter A(like and apple for a snack when it was red week and we were just starting the alphabet)...and keep doing things like that with each letter and color. We just did basic colors so we repeated colors alot, or skipped a week here and there with colors.

I try to teach them as much as I can, but sometimes all they want to do is play together. Which is fine by me, the infant takes up alot of my time. Now that it is nice out, we are outdoors alot and they just love that! We often go on walks in the morning and find pine cones or funny shaped leaves and then we come back here and count them and sort them. I just try to keep it as educational as much as I can for them.

Nikki

[BonMomof3]

I have been doing daycare since January I have 3 children ages 10,7, and 3 and my daycare babies are Brandon he will be 1 July 10th and Mirenna who will be 1 on Thanksgiving. It is pretty easy now I have them both on the same nap schedule and thats wonderful. I do have some stressful days when they both are screaming and nothing I do makes them feel any better. I will be watching 3 more school age children in Aug in the evenings. I am open 7 days a week. I find that with being flexible I make more money this way. I do however take vacations and I take off holidays and get paid for it. If the babies are sick and stayhome with mom or dad I still get paid. I charge 100.00 dollars a week for Brandon and only have him Monday thru Friday. With Mirenna I have her all week my schedule is 7 days on 3off 7 days on 4 off her Mom works at a Prision and her dad is a State Trooper I make 150.00 for her. I love it and love being home with my children as welol.:hello