Guide to Starting an In Home Daycare (part 2)

Last Updated on February 1, 2020 by Brie

This week was like a walk back in time down daycare lane. Based on that maybe you already gathered that we went back to visit our old baby sitter. For reasons I cannot disclose we won’t be going back there. We were simply stopping by to chat as an old friend. (And to pick up our tax slip from last year.) It was really good to get to catch up with her on life and to just chat in general. A while back I wrote up a guide on how to go about starting an in home daycare. It was kind of like my business model. I decided to do a part two to the in-home daycare guide after all of our recent daycare related activities. I had touched on three major parts when looking into starting up an in home daycare. YOU can read my original guide to starting an in home daycare here!

Fun Add On’s

I had looked into fun add on’s to make the day care more appealing to parents and kids. These sorts of add on’s included things like creating a designated day care space with adorable play room, having separate sleeping areas, and having a preschool curriculum. Just to name a few. I still believe that all of my add on’s from my previous post were valid additions, BUT here I want to give you a few more.

Add on recommendations:

• A fenced in playground (I have seen facilities that don’t have one) so that the children do no wander. You can also shop for awesome outdoor play houses here!
• Get the Bright Wheel App (it’s free for 20 kids or less) to stay connected with parents and give them daycare updates or collect tuition online!
• Reasonable rates and plenty of advanced notice of rate changes. Our daycare facility is changing rates soon, which is a major bummer and I feel like they are becoming more and more unreasonable!
• Relaxing music in the background. With so many kids running around I feel like things could get stressful and out of hand FAST so having relaxing music in the background would be a bonus.
• Get a cricut if you can because you can make so many cute things for your facility and for gifts for the kids birthdays, valentines, and Christmas (which you will be getting trust me)! I have this cricut bundle and really love it!

“Requirements” to think of:

These next one’s aren’t really add on’s but important things to consider when launching a daycare! I have had my daughter in 3 separate in home facilities and one daycare facility. Along with these experiences I also toured a handful of other in-home facilities and called around to more daycare facilities (in home and larger settings) than I would like to think about. I have been able to observe and hear about what is working and what is not.

Useful Supplies:

• One thing that I have observed that works is to have someone bring by pizza every now and then to make the day FUN!
• Get a box of rubber gloves and some plastic Walmart bags. Kids have accidents in their daycare ages (even the 4’s and 5’s.) You can use the gloves to clean up poop stained cloths and tie them up in a plastic bag for the parents to deal with later.
• Have LIDS on all cups even for the kids that don’t need them. This way the younger children won’t spill all the drinks if the knock over the table. I have seen daycare providers use these cups before and they seem to work pretty well. OR you can have the parents bring in drinks/cups.

• PREPARE for long days, many of these providers drink coffee, tea, and wear leggings and comfy cloths. If you wear a pair of stylish leggings with a plain colored top you’ll have a more fun look for the little kids! I noticed many sitters dress in “fun” cloths. Here we have some AWESOME options for you!

• Get active with the kids, dance parties, yoga, Simon says are all great exercise since there are no breaks during the day in this line of work.
• GET COTS for nap time. While in my previous post I had wanted a designated sleeping area, every facility worth its salt I have been to has cots they stack in the corner rather than best that stay put. That way they can use all the available space for playing and learning when the kids are awake. It also makes the facility fell bigger, which is a plus if you are running an in-home daycare out of a small space. You can get a set of six cots from Walmart for only $135 here. or you can get them on Amazon here for $124.

Dealing directly with the customer:

• Watch who you let into the space, this is important because if you get people mad at you it can put the children in danger. There was one lady whom my daughter no longer stays with who had some run in’s with some nasty threatening letters about this or that. So, neighbors and friends should have a clean background and you should be VERY familiar with them before letting them into the facility while it is open for business.
• WATCH you numbers and it is OK to say NO to more kids. This is something that many providers won’t do, one more kid means more money BUT the consequences of an unlicensed facility keeping too many kids OR a licensed facility going over their numbers are not good. From what I have observed they involve fines, court, and can even hold jail time. It is not worth that!
• KEEP good record of payments from parents so you can give them the receipt at the end of the year. I have seen it both ways, some facilities give out receipts every time you pay and some facilities give them out once a year as an end of the year statement (I personally like the latter option.)
• One thing that I have seen that works is having a good group of kids that fit together. It is idea to keep kids that are around the same age so they grow together, get potty trained together, eat the same food levels together, etc. If not all of the kids being around the same age, then maybe have two at each level, so 2 four year olds, 2 three year olds, you get the picture.
• Have a good relationship with the parents of the kids you keep, this always makes it easier.

Basic Starter Kit:

Just for my readers I have pulled together a basic starter kit for an inhome daycare with tons of the supplies you will need to get going! I have custom picked all the items to fit into a fun rainbow theme too! You can shop all these supplies from my clickable amazon picks list!

Final words of advice:

• ENJOY what you do. This is so important. It will make your days go more smoothly, it will make your life and the lives of the kids you watch better. They can sense your emotions, even the little kids can. They can tell if a situation is off so, try to make everything as good as possible. You are running a business after all.

These are some tips I have gained over the years of observing daycare facilities. I was inspired to write this post after our recent visit to our old daycare to pick up the tax stub. It was enlightening, and fun all at the same time! I learned a lot of the good and the bad on this visit, without even intending to as I went in. It is nice to know that this would be a legitimate root if I am not able to score a job right out of college.

Thanks for stopping by today and be sure to read my original guide to starting an in home daycare here! Let me know in the comments below if you have any additional tips for running an in home daycare.

Brie