Running a Summertime Home Child Care Business

It is extremely challenging to run a child care business year round. If you have often thought about opening your own child care business but are afraid to commit to year-long care, maybe you should consider opening a child care business for the summer months only. This article looks at the pros and cons of this option, as well as possible scenarios for what this summer child care business may look like.
If you have your own school age children that you are home with during the summer, running a summer home child care can be a great way to make some money and entertain your own children at the same time. There is a huge demand for summer time care for school age children whose parents still have to work over the summer. These kids aren’t old enough to stay home alone, but they aren’t toddlers either who need constant monitoring and care. They are usually a lot of fun and very creative. Most kids of this age love to be outside and active. But they also enjoy quieting down with a movie or maybe even doing some reading on their own. They can pretty much take care of themselves when it comes to basic care (bathroom, eating, drinks, etc.). Parents are usually willing to pay well for keeping their kids safe and entertained. Nothing is worse than bored kids, because they get into trouble. Plus parents appreciate the convenience offered by a home daycare and the quality of care offered. This is a way to allow you to earn that extra money while not having to commit to caring for other children year round.
There are some negatives to this though. First, you really do need to have a license to operate a home child care. Getting a license can be a pain, but it covers you in case of problems. The older children that you would be caring for may not require as much monitoring, but they do require a different kind of attention. Older children tend to get into arguments more frequently about how things should be done. You may be playing referee a lot! Also, they have developed an attitude by this age, and it may show through! You will need to be very firm and fair with your rules. Be firm from the beginning and you will make things far easier on yourself and the children you care for. Since these children are older, they tend to eat more. You can either charge a little more per day to compensate for meal costs, or you can ask parents to send meals for their children. Personally, I find the first option to be easier. They will also need to keep hydrated in the hot weather. So you will be dishing out a lot of water! Finally, you will need to be able to keep these kids entertained. Most kids this age don’t entertain themselves very well. Either they are constantly whining about being bored or else they are making unhealthy choices about how to spend their time. You will have to be very creative to keep the boredom and lethargy at bay! The other thing to consider is that you will not have the freedom to go on vacation or even take day trips with your family. If you are committing to caring for other children for the summer, you really need to make yourself available to these families for the whole summer. But it doesn’t have to be boring! See below for how to have a great summer!
OK, so you’ve decided that operating a summertime childcare is right for you. How do you set it up? Well, if you haven’t already obtained your child care license, that is your first step. Call your local licensing bureau or a local community college to find out how to get started. Once you have your license, you will want to designate some areas of your home for your business. You probably don’t want the kids wandering into all areas of your home, so decide where they can be and set up those areas to be conducive to children. I recommend setting up a reading area with comfy pillows or bean bags and plenty of books at all reading levels. Have a craft area where they can color, make things out of yarn or Popsicle sticks, cut, glue, and maybe even paint. Set up a dress up clothes area where they can dress up and pretend to be whomever they choose. Also set up an area with basic toys such as cars, dolls, blocks, animals, etc. Finally, set up a game corner with lots of different board games and card games. Despite the warm weather, you are going to have times where you are indoors, and the children need to have lots of choices of appropriate activities. You will also need to have an outdoor play area for the kids. Ideally this would include swings, a slide, climbing equipment, a sandbox, and some room to play sports. Obviously you may not be able to include all of these areas. You absolutely need an area for sports though. These older kids love to organize games of kickball, dodge ball, baseball, etc. and they need room to do this.
Once you have your child care business arranged, you are ready to plan a schedule for the summer. I highly recommend planning your schedule ahead of time. That way you can make sure you are ready for everything, and parents can look at your schedule to see if it will meet their child’s needs. What should your schedule include? The answer is A LOT! The more activities you plan, the easier your summer will be. Having said this, don’t schedule every minute of every day! Children also need the opportunity to choose activities for themselves! My recommendation is to try to plan at least three scheduled activities a week. They do not all have to be field trips! As a matter of fact, unless you have a large car with a lot of seat belts, you may not be able to take field trips at all! I do recommend field trips if you can get help transporting the kids. My suggestions are to go to the zoo, a museum, historical buildings, fishing, hiking, to the park, etc. I don’t recommend taking them to an amusement park or to the pool unless you have at least a couple of other adults along to help you keep an eye on everyone. Let parents know about field trips well in advance. Some of them may want to take some time off and come along. Of course, if a parent comes along you wouldn’t be able to charge the parent for that day of childcare! Another consideration for field trips is lunch and snacks. You will either need to pack a lunch for each child as well as some snacks, or you will have to ask parents to send money for lunch. Going out to eat can be fun but tricky. Ordering for seven or eight kids is a chore. Also, some parents may not have the extra money for meals. You will need to get permission slips for each child for the trip and you will need to bring along emergency contact information as well. You will also probably need to bring along sunscreen and water bottles for everyone.
Besides field trips, there are a lot of other fun activities to do at your house. You can plan special craft activities, cooking activities, theme days, party days, treasure hunts, game days, etc. As I said, planning about 3 activities a week should be enough. For craft activities, come up with crafts that the kids won’t think of on their own. Make sure you have the right supplies! Consider painting rocks for pets, making God’s Eyes, building bird houses, building a maze, or other fun activities. For cooking activities, you will want to choose recipes that will allow all of the kids to get involved. Consider allowing the kids to help you make lunch. They can plan the menu and help with the preparation and cooking. Invest in a good children’s cookbook to give you more ideas. Theme days are great fun. Choose a theme for the day such as sports day or beach day and plan activities around those themes. For sports day make some fun relays and ball games. Encourage good sportsmanship in all you do. For beach day fill a small wading pool. Lay out beach towels, beach balls, and water toys and enjoy a day in the sun and surf. Be creative! For party days, find reasons to celebrate! Do any of the children you care for have birthdays during the summer? Plan a birthday party! You can have a 4th of July bash! Look at the calendar and find obscure days to celebrate! Treasure hunts are great fun! Make a map and have the kids work together to find clues to lead them to the treasure. For game days, have each child bring in a favorite game and spend time learning to play each game. Planning fun activities doesn’t have to be costly. Use things you have laying around, or ask for donations from parents.
I highly recommend planning some quiet time into each day as well. Whether or not they realize it, these kids need some down time. Require them to do some reading each day. Have them write their letters or some sentences. Let them look at picture books. Play a movie. Put on some quiet music and have them draw pictures. You only need about an hour of quiet time a day. All of this combined can make for a great summer!
Running a summertime child care can be profitable and rewarding. Do some planning now to avoid problems later on. Spend some time coming up with fun activities, and you and the children you care for can have a great summer!

Child Care and Summertime

Hello Everyone! Sorry I have been out of touch for awhile! I am back now and you can once again expect regular posts. An issue that is on a lot of people's minds right now, is child care in the summertime. There are several issues that face both parents and child care providers when faced with summertime. Let's look at the parent issues first.

Parents either have their children in care year round, have them in care only during the school year, or have them in care only during school vacations. Parents that have school age children who are now out of school for the summertime (or soon will be!) face the unique challenge of what to do with their kids over the summer. Kids under the age of about 12 or 13 shouldn't be left alone all day every day during the summer while parents work. But it can be difficult to find care for the children over the summer. Many churches and daycare centers offer special summer programs that are made for a little bit older children and include frequent field trips and outdoor activities. These are great for many families, but they can also be very costly. Because these programs include at least weekly field trips, they usually run families at least $300 per month for one child. Sometimes parents can find a home daycare that has summertime openings. These are usually less costly options but many times they aren't as activity packed either.

For child care providers this provides a unique opportunity to make some extra money over the summer. You can establish a child care that will provide summertime care for school age children with lots of fun activities at a reasonable cost. For more ideas on what to include in such a situation, see my new article on ezinearticles.com entitled Running a Summertime Home Childcare.

There are two dilemmas that childcare providers face during the summer months. The first is what to do with the extra kids you inherit during the summer months. More than likely you have your own school age children that are home during the summer. This adds extra children into your count. You also may have children that you normally have for before and after school care that suddenly need part or full time care during the summer. Again, your number ratio is affected by these kids. So, what do you do? First, I would contact your licensing bureau and explain your situation. Most bureaus are understanding about these situations and will either grant you leniency on your numbers for the summer months or will have some suggestions on how to handle the situation. Also, you can speak with the parents and let them know about your dilemma. Some parents may be able to alter their summer work schedule to help you out. The second dilemma you face is what to do to keep all of those kids active over the summer. Summer care needs to look a little different than care during the rest of the year. Plan outdoor time at least twice a day. Schedule some extra fun activities. Plan a couple of field trips. Again, for a more complete list see the article referenced above.

All in all summertime offers unique opportunities for child care providers to broadent their horizons and expand their business. Take advantage of it! For some fun ways to spend your time, see the list of my favorite child care products above this posting! Happy summer!

Conducting Parent Interviews is Essential for Child Care Providers

As a child care provider you will spend your day caring for other people’s children. This may sound ideal, since you get to send them home to their parents at the end of each day. However, many new providers are so eager to bring in new families that they don’t take the time to do proper interviews before signing on new clients. This can lead to a multitude of problems down the road that can be avoided with a sit down interview prior to contract signing and a trial period with each new family.
It may surprise you to find out that many parents searching for care for their children don’t request an interview before placing their children in care. There are a few reasons why this may happen. First, in some areas child care services are very scarce and parents are willing to take almost anything that comes along so that they can work and provide for their family. They assume that if other people are bringing their children to the provider for care then the provider must be fine. Secondly, parents are sometimes in a huge hurry to find child care for their children because they are starting a new job or because other child care arrangements are no longer available. So again, they take the first opening they find. Third, parents may know other families that bring their children to that particular facility and are happy there, so they assume that their children will be happy there as well. This is a case of a family choosing a provider based solely on reputation. Throughout my nine years of being a child care provider, I had several instances in which parents called up and were ready to bring their children without ever visiting my home or meeting me! Since this does happen, it is the responsibility of the provider to insist on an interview before agreeing to provide care for a family.
Why is an interview so important? There are several reasons. First, you don’t know this family and they don’t know you. The parents may sound wonderful on the phone, but you may meet them and find out that your phone impression was way off base. As the old adage says, first impressions mean a lot. You need to physically SEE these people before you agree to care for their children. Remember, you may spend the majority of your day with their children, but you will have to deal with the parents at least twice a day as well. Also, you absolutely must meet the children before you agree to care for them. Surprisingly, you can often get an accurate read on a child’s behavior and temperament in that first interview. Some children may arrive and be shy and quiet, but after a few minutes they will start to interact with other children and you should be able to get a good read on their behavior. It is true that some personalities clash, and you need to make sure that you can get along with the children you care for. One word of caution: even if you do know a family from the community, you still should meet with them formally as a child care provider before agreeing to care for their children. You never know what you may learn about a family in an interview. The second reason that an interview is necessary is to show your facility to the family. You need to make sure that they are ok with the way you have your facility set up before they bring their children to you. Third, you need to conduct an interview to review your contract and other required forms with the family. Your contract is your guide book on how your facility is run. You should sit down and discuss each contract item with the parents and also discuss each other required document so that there are no surprises. Legally, it is extremely important that you fully explain each document to make sure that parents understand what they are signing. Just like any other signed document, your child care contract and supporting paperwork are legally binding documents once they are signed. An interview can help to ensure that this is a good child care match for everyone.
So, how do you conduct an interview? It doesn’t have to be anything fancy or formal. I used to think that interviews with new families should be done after daycare hours. If that is the only time it will work, fine. However, I now feel that it is best to have the interviews during the day when you have other children present, whether your own or someone else’s. Choose a time of your work day when the children will be occupied and not need too much of your attention. Avoid meal or snack times, craft times, and nap time. You want a time when the new children can play and interact with the other children and you can observe while talking to the parents. I also recommend that you ask both parents to attend the interview if both parents will be involved in drop off and pick up. That way there are no surprises. I usually start the interview with a tour of the facility- the entire facility. That means that even if there are areas of your home that will never be used for child care, you still should show these areas to the parents. You want them to feel comfortable that your entire home is a safe, clean, and nurturing environment for their children. Specifically point out features in the areas used for child care, such as the eating area, the bathroom, nap areas, etc. Once the tour is over, take a few minutes to get the new children started playing with the others and sit down nearby with the parents. Start by going over the contract, since this is what brings out and answers the most questions. Discuss rates, hours of operation, schedules, meals, drop off and pick up, everything! Also review all other forms. Check to see if they have questions. Make sure you ask them about their typical drop off and pick up times so you can make sure they fit with your schedule. Also, be sure to provide the parents with a form to fill out about their child. Include areas for sleep habits, food or other allergies, medications needed, previous daycare experiences, fears, likes and dislikes, anything you need to know about this child to provide the best quality care. I would recommend spending at least 30 minutes talking with the parents while observing the kids playing. If you see behavior issues in this time, discuss them right away. If the parents are ready to sign the documents when you are done talking and you also think this would be a good match, make sure you reiterate that all children are accepted into care on a two (or four) week trial basis. That means that if either party is unhappy with the arrangement in that time they can cancel immediately without penalty. This gives everyone a little breathing room.
Being a child care provider is the ultimate in customer service positions. You spend long hours each day dealing with children and the people who care the most about them, their parents. You need to conduct an initial interview for the sake of everyone involved. Better to be safe than sorry!

Tax Tip Number Two

It is time for tax tip number two! My tax tip for this week is about how to report daycare totals to parents. You are required by law to furnish each family with a report that shows how much they paid you in child care expenses for a year. You also need to supply each family with your legal name, your business name if you have one, your address, your phone number, and your tax ID number or social security number, whichever you are using. The easiest way I have found to do this is to provide each family with a W-10. This is an IRS form that you can download from the website www.irs.gov. Once you get onto the website, use the search function and type in w-10. It will only pull up one option. Click on the W-10 and download it. Then you can print it out. This form is used to supply your information to your families. However, it does not include a place to put the amount paid to you. What I did was to modify the form. This form does not have to be filed with a family's taxes, so it is ok if it is not an original form and it is ok to change the format. I looked at the form W-10 and made my own version using my word processing program. I made sure my version contained all of the information required on the original form. Then, instead of including the lengthy directions included at the bottom of the original form, I created a section that listed the name of the family I was supplying the form to, the children's names, the family's address and phone number, the amount charged to them for daycare that year, and the amount they paid for daycare that year. Then I printed out multiple copies of my new form and filled one out for each family. Don't forget to provide these forms to the families of ALL of the children you cared for in that year, including families that may have left you earlier in the year. Refer to your receipt book to make sure you include all families and to calculate totals. I always included a short letter with each form letting the parents know what the form was and that they did not need to file the actual form with their taxes. Rather they should keep it with a copy of their taxes to reference in the future if needed. My parents loved receiving an official form that contained all of the information they needed for their taxes!

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! My name is Eileen Michalczyk. I am the mother of four gifted children, a former elementary school teacher, and a former home daycare owner. I currently run a successful marketing business from my home. I have a wealth of knowledge to share with you on how to run a successful home daycare. I personally opened my home childcare business in 1998 and just closed my doors in the summer of 2007. Home daycare allowed me to be at home with my own children while still making an income. It can be a great profession if you structure it correctly and carefully and remember that you are in charge! Keep coming back to visit as new content will be added regularly, and look for my web-published articles. Links will be available for them soon! I also have an e-book in the works that will be a complete guide to running a successful home childcare and will come with a complete kit of the forms you will need to get started. Check back on this blog in the next few weeks for a date of publication. Best of luck!

Eileen Michalczyk