5 Kids every day

[Spixie33]

Hi everyone....just wanting some input from other DCproviders who do 5 kids every day.

I started 3 years ago and told myself I would not be one of these FULL daycares. I admired that they were able to make a great living but I figured I should stick to 3 kids per day and that would be a comfortable income for me and my sanity.

Well, with time and word-of-mouth...people contacted me asking me to take on their little ones and since it was word-of-mouth I was inclined to say yes and the money started to sound good.

Well....now i have been doing 5 kids a day for a couple of months and am dying. Help. How do you full daycares do it?

I feel like I don't get to spend much one on one with anyone or to work on skills like puzzles with them or teaching as much and sometimes I wonder by Thursday or every week whether they are bored of coming to daycare and seeing the same toys, etc. I feel like I should entertain them somehow. They seem to be happy to come Mon-wed and play with the toys they missed during the weekend but then the end of teh week gets tough.

And doing lunch clean ups and crafts is so much harder with a larger group. I am not sure what I was thinking.

I figured that it would be pretty much the same as doing 4 kids but each child really makes a difference.

How do you keep the full timers interested every day? I don't necessarily want to do crafts every day just to keep them interested.

[apples and bananas]

Yes, great thread! I'm the same. I have 4 2 days a week and 3 for the remainder of the week, but come fall I'll be 5 every day. Eek! I"m nervous.

Anxious to hear everyones responses.

[playfelt]

I do more group activities than crafts so that I can include everyone. Take a look at the age mix you have and decide just what it is you need to "teach" and then find a way to do it in play so that it happens naturally and isn't an isolated lesson time you need to do. Making a puzzle isn't the skill to be learned - it is manual dexterity so there are many ways to learn the skill. That means having some days with puzzles and some days they are turning the pages of a book or putting sticks into small slits etc.

Get over the notion that being a good daycare provider means being in the child's face all day long. They need supervision and care and interaction but need to have the freedom to learn according to their own interests. You choose the toys and activities to be out and they choose what to play with. It sounds like the middle of the week is a good day to switch out some of the toys and to feature something else.

If you are finding that the children aren't able to freely choose what to play with then the skill to be taught is how to play and how to choose activities and how to entertain themselves. It could be that you have children that are used to having an adult control their time.

[Crayola kiddies]

Hey spixie .....I have 5 dcks everyday plus my own child. I find the days go by so fast....my arrivals are from 6:55 to 7:30 ...they all go into their chairs and eat till about 8 or 815. then they play till 9:15 and we get dressed and go outside till 10:30 (if the weather is good, otherwise we just stay inside) once we come in we clean the play room and lunch is from 11:15 to 12:00 then its diapers, stories, and nap till 3. then its diapers and snack and free play till they go home and im closed at 4:30. I have 4 free standing pantries I bought at Canadian tire and they have doors on them I arranged all my toys in there and I put child locks on them and each day I open a different cupboard. my form of toy rotation!!!!! plus I also have different things like tents and tunnels, bins of dinasaurs, race car ramps, ect that only come out periodically so on the days we cant go outside I bring out a toy that we haven't used in awhile. I rarely do crafts but they love to color and I have a chalk board on my wall. my guys favourite is duplo. I find if you have four why not five? over Christmas I had only two for most of the days and I was so bored ...I was wishing I had closed cause I didn't see the point.

[crafty]

I have 4 daycare kids plus my own 2 so that's 6. What playfelt suggest is good. I do group activities as well. Every month I have a theme or two but it does not mean we do crafts related to the theme everyday. I have movie day, special activities during the month here and there related to them theme and I rotate the toys and the kids never seem really bored about them and they have learned that I can not be there with them ALL the time. They play really well together. They often make races, play restaurant or babies, hide and seek and invent their own games. They can also choose to color, do puzzles or play d'ho.

As for group activities we do dancing, songs, books, we make our weekly menu together, little scientific experiments, craft 2-3 times a week and this winter I tried folding laundry. ( I was just so tired of being stuck inside I wanted to find new ways to entertain them ) So I prepared laundry during naptime and we would ''fold' our cloths and bibs we used for the week. It did not get folded but they LOVED it haha.

You do not need to be with them teaching them ALL the time. During free play sit down with one of them and learn colors with Legos, do a puzzle with another child, play dress up with another the next day. Put down the youngest 30 minutes before the older ones at nap time and play bored games for 15-20 minutes. They really don't need to be stimulated by an adult all the time.

[cfred]

I always strive to have a full house and, until just now, have. I should be full again in the summer. As mentioned earlier, you don't have to teach them all the time. There's nothing wrong with getting your one on one in during free play. That actually presents awesome learning opportunities! We have bi weekly themes and do daily crafts surrounding those. In addition, we do story and song circles which use up enough time to read 3 books and do a few songs. I tend to do the same stories over and over for a while and add in actions for as much of the stories as I can - the kids love to participate! That's why I do the same stories for a period of time. The kids have time to learn the actions and begin to anticipate what's coming next. Rotating toys is excellent and I rotate mine every couple of months or so.

One thing we do a few times every week, which the kids LOVE is just dance. I'll turn on some of my music (not children's music) and we all have at it. The Magnetic Fields is the most popular band at the moment and my littlest baby girl just goes crazy for "Ugliest Guy on the Lower East Side". It's really hysterical and I love doing this with them, especially in the nasty weather we've been having. It lets them get some of their sillies out. Often, we'll get into a big 'cuddle puddle' or 'tickle pile' which is always fun too. I just find the days fill up and go fast, so I'm always happy to have a full house :D

[FSD]

Ladies...this is an awesome thread!! I'm soon going to have 5 everyday, plus my own, and have been thinking how in the world am I going to handle it!! :) Some really great ideas! Gives me faith! lol

[Momof4]

Oh no Spixie, you're scaring me! I have always had a part-time family or two in care and starting in May of this year it will be the first time in over 5 years in business that I will have 5 full-time, all day every day chilcren and I'm afraid, very afraid! :eek:

[daycaremom9]

I started out doing drop-offs & pick-ups, so I had kids from 1 year to 12 years. For the last year I have only accepted ages 1-5 and no transportation to school or preschool. So anything after that is simple. The younger kids(1-3) do a craft 2-3 times per week which we do in the morning. I have them each do their craft with me, (one at a time)and I only have1-2 non-nappers so we do quiet activities like worksheets,crafts, reading or games during nap time. I will sometimes separate the younger ones from the older ones. My daycare is set up so that I can watch both groups at the same time. We have circle time 3 times per week and that is geared towards the majority whether it be the younger or older group. We also go out everyday as long as it isn't too miserable! I also limit myself to 5 children. I find that's quite a manageable number. But I found that when I had extreme age differences, that's what made it awful.

[Spixie33]

Thanks for the feedback guys.
I don't mean that I spend all day teaching with the kids when I have 3 here but I would have time during free time to give each child 10 minutes to do the shape sorter, puzzles to practise motor skills, pom pom sorting by colours etc.....

I find that now I have 5 I am busy even during free play and don't have 2 minutes even for each child. I plan to do something or flash cards with different age groups based on their level and then free play time I am chasing after a dck because they have a runny nose or hurt themselves or something always seems to come in the way now where I don't get a moment to even sit while they free play.

I used to have 3 kids and then the PTers would make it 4 a couple of days a week. I also thought that one more or going for the full 5 wouldn't be much of a stretch -- but it is.

some days I have 4 in diapers and then it is even more insane. Then the other days I have only 3 in diapers and 2 potty trained.

I hope this gets better somehow because these days I feel like I am so busy and the days pass so fast that I am missing giving each child a few minutes of quality time or hugs like I used to.

Then I feel guilty and like a failure because I feel like the quality of care the group was getting with less kids was better than what they get out from me now. I am more like a chicken with her head cut off running from one kids' needs to another and from one meal to another and transitions.

[Momof4]

You are definitely NOT a failure, maybe you are doing way too much? I don't plan different things for the different age groups, I use the flash cards, finger puppets, feltboard games, etc. for the entire group and expect the babies to learn a wee bit each time as the months pass until finally they will be able to participate also. Same for crafts, the older children can do most of their own crafting and I do hand over hand glueing, stickers, etc with the babies but they do their own colouring and painting but I have them paint one at a time so I can monitor closely while the others play.

Here's an example. When I sing twinkle, twinkle little star to the group I open and close my hands for twinkling and today my 12 month old baby girl who has been with me less than a month started doing it. I was blown away. Repetition works, even with babies.

[sunnydays]

Maybe with time you will get used to the new rythm and it will get easier. It IS busy with 5 full-time, I agree. I have 6 because my own daughter is home too and sometimes 7 when my son is home from JK. Sometimes I feel like all I do is clean, change diapers (I have 5 in diapers), resolve disputes,etc. But I always try to pace myself and remind myself that it is more important to sit down and have some cuddles and quality time than to do that craft we had planned. I do art time, but it is very simple so that we can all do it together, or I give the older kids one thing and give the younger ones crayon and paper or stickers. I do pom poms with the whole group at the table...the 1 year olds absolutely love putting pom poms into wipes boxes and dumping them out...the older kids can make patters, sort, count, etc, but also love the wipes boxes. When one kid loses interest, I let them go off and play...but I am lucky in that I have a set-up that allows me to do that. I think in general I find it fine...only when it's time to get ready to go outside I find it a bit crazy getting 7 kids into snowsuits (thank goodness three of them can do it without help!).

[Wonderwiper]

Hi! Please don't ever feel like a failure.....your kids are happy and having fun!!! They are learning all the time, even if you are not sitting down with them individually!

I have 1 3 year old, 2 1 year olds, 1 11 month old plus my own 3 year old and 10 month old. Another will be coming when she turns 1 in July. So I will have 7...the oldest being 3. I do lots of reading, singing and dancing. Most of our time is free play, inside or out. I am always on the floor counting cars, sorting blocks, building towers etc. Always time for cuddles and tickles.

[mlle.coccinelle]

I have 2 most of the time, sometimes I have 3 but today I had 4 plus my son.... and I had SO much fun! I feel like I am less tired, the day went by SO quickly and of course my house is messy... but I'll just clean up tonight :) tomorrow we are back to 2... and I think it will be a longgg day!