Tips and advice about starting a home daycare

My name is Melissa and I am 25 years old. I am thinking about starting up a daycare in my home. I love being around children and feel like I have the necessary skills and knowledge to provide a safe and loving environment to care for children.

I have lots of previous experience working with children with behavioral and developmental needs. Some of my experience includes working in both a nursery and preschool class room at church; I also did a student High school co-op placement in a kindergarten classroom. In high school I took all the parenting courses as well as went to post secondary school for Social Service Worker. I have current training in first aid and CPR.

Basically, I am looking for any tips and advice about starting a home daycare. I look forward to any and all advice and networking with you.

Thank you for your time and efforts,
Melissa

Trying to find a childcare support group in your area would be a good way to start. Asking around to other caregivers might be a good way to find a support group or do a google search for your city and childcare support and see what comes up. Do not be surprised if you find it hard to get clients at first since you don't have children of your own. It might be hard to convince families that this is your career of choice and not just something you are doing to fill in till something better comes along. Don't be discouraged just be prepared for that kind of an attitude. If you have no child related stuff in terms fo toys and equipment you might find working with a licensed agency would be better since they will provide some of the needed equipment and talk you through the process.

I am currently in the process of information gathering to become more familiar with what sorts of people I would like to work with and what sort of things that I would need. I have a few friends who already run their own homeday cares and have offered some great support and advice. I also have nieces and nephews so have a lot of children stuff and essentionals. I am really hesitant to contact an agency because I have heard that once you contact an agency they will take a portion of your fees per child. Now let me make myself clear, I am not thinking about opening a day care because of the money but I still need to be able to survive.

I find that play groups and local parks are a great way to meet other caregivers for informal chit chat and information sharing :)

I don't know if this is area dependend (I am in Ontario): When I was with an agency, the agency received $XX amount of $ per day and then paid me $XX amount of dollars, in general they received $5 more per day than I did. But every 3 months I received PEG which was equivelent to what I made in one week, roughly and they helped with providing some arts and craft supplies. When I moved to Ottawa I found some agencies paid more for my education than others. I also found I could make more per day without going through an agency, for example right now, I am making almost $10 more per day per child than if I was with an agency. It does add up quickly.

With that being said there are many advantages and disadvantages to working with an agency and some caregivers love it while others don't. For me, the biggest advantage to working with an agency especially in the beginning is they help you find children, but generally agencies have a contract that you can't keep your agency children if you leave the agency. As an experienced caregiver (been doing home daycare for over 14 years) I find working through an agency very restricting.

Most people are in home daycare because of their love for children but most of need the income to make ends meet. In my perfect world, I would be rich and volunteering in a childcare centre when I wanted vs working 5 days a week ;) Reality is so different and as much as I love children it is my chosen profession.

My advice is actually quite simple, determine what you would like from your daycare and develop an awesome contract and forms. As your business adapts and grows so will your contract. I find a good contract is the backbone of a good daycare. IMO.

Thanks Tot-Time for all the great information.

Hi, I'm in London, Ontario as well, and I highly recommend the OEYC on Maitland St. @ York St., they have classes for new HDCP's. They have many classes and opportunities to advertise your daycare and can help you immensely. We have a great support system here in our city with our own HDCP network with social and professional development and I feel so fortunate to be a part of this network.

Momof4: When I was living in London we had a group that met regularly in a church on Oxford I think it was or at least it was the Oxford bus I used to take to get there. The leader was Joyce Larsh and she was wonderful. It was called the London In Home Childcare Providers Network. Now mind you this was 1994-2000 that we lived in London.

I think what surprised me most about this business was the business. Being great with the kids is only half of it. The other half is being a good business person adn dealing wiht clients. The best advice I can give is to have policies and a contract in place.

A good and often overlooked idea is to contact local church day cares. Since most daycares have long waiting lists, you may be able to offer your new service as an alternative they might give people calling, that they have to turn away for lack of space.

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Originally Posted by Mekkers

My name is Melissa and I am 25 years old. I am thinking about starting up a daycare in my home. I love being around children and feel like I have the necessary skills and knowledge to provide a safe and loving environment to care for children.

I have lots of previous experience working with children with behavioral and developmental needs. Some of my experience includes working in both a nursery and preschool class room at church; I also did a student High school co-op placement in a kindergarten classroom. In high school I took all the parenting courses as well as went to post secondary school for Social Service Worker. I have current training in first aid and CPR.

Basically, I am looking for any tips and advice about starting a home daycare. I look forward to any and all advice and networking with you.

Thank you for your time and efforts,
Melissa

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Great tips buddy , you shared on this forum.

Thanks a lot for sharing.

Regards
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