I think it would be fine to send out a message saying something along the lines of trying to keep fees down and keeping organic seasonally or when not cost prohibitive. Keeping as clean and green as you can!!!!
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I think it would be fine to send out a message saying something along the lines of trying to keep fees down and keeping organic seasonally or when not cost prohibitive. Keeping as clean and green as you can!!!!
I will look into collards. My 14 month old daughter is still dairy intolerant. When I use cheese I just divide up the meal for the daycare kids and then leave the dairy off ours but we pretty much do without dairy in the main meals for the most part. I still breastfeed to ensure she is meeting the protein/fats requirements. She is young enough that I can easily give her a different milk and yogurt than the others so the other kids get their dairy intake.Quote:
Originally Posted by bright sparks
Collards are super tasty and have more benefits than dairy not just calcium and all without the bad stuff.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee-Bee
Great....love the wording!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Wonderwiper
bright sparks - first of all I want to say I think it is great you feed your family and daycare kids all organic. I just wouldn't be doing it if it was costing me a pile of money.
The thing is those of us that don't aren't bad providers or bad people. Yes I do serve a lot of processed foods but there are a lot of fresh items as well (fruit/vegies). I am trying to change my ways but growing up my diet consisted of macaroni and ground beef most days. I myself have never tried a variety of different foods and would be considered a picky eater by most. I don't cook something I wouldn't myself eat and I don't even know what to do with majority of it (and if I try it usually turns into a disaster - just ask my husband lol). I am trying and thanks to pinterest have lots of ideas to choose from.
Good luck with cutting back on your expenses. Like I also suggested before this all turned into an organic food issue what about cutting back on crafts etc.
I actually responded to the comment about crafting. Due to my group being so nuts whenever I craft I only craft for themed holidays...I'm sure this will change shortly as they stop screaming constantly but even then I wont save any money as I have enough craft supplies stock piled to last me a good 5 years or more. I do sensory buckets and treasure baskets which I have had for years and don't cost anything and as I have a variety of them they are rotated and varied enough that I don't need to buy more stuff for them.Quote:
Originally Posted by mickyc
Of course you are not bad ppl but as a childcare providers it is our job to provide adequate nutrition. I find it frustrating because there is SO much info nowadays and so many recipes you can find online that there are just no excuses. As childcare providers we are held ( or should be) to a higher standard because we are SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHAT WE ARE DOING and serving healthy food just seems so basic to me as far as childcare goes...no matter what the parents are doing at home because I'm not sure why this is ever an acceptable excuse for anything anyways. I'm frustrated because too many times I've had interviews with parents who have nightmare stories of providers who serve a lot of junk and you can tell these parents are weary of choosing home daycare for this reason so it does affect all of us in the end by giving home daycares a bad name. We all know how easily the public can lump us together. Phew vent overQuote:
Originally Posted by mickyc
I agree. With planning it's not hard to feed the kids healthy meals at all. I don't have a set menu schedule right now, but I keep a white board by the door so that at drop off and pick up they can see what we are eating that day. The parents that I have care very much what their children are eating.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fun&care
The thing is - what you consider healthy and others consider healthy can be two different things. Today for example we had strawberries for morning snack. For lunch today we had perogies/sour cream with a tray of carrots/broccoli/celery with ranch to dip on the side. I make sure all kids have vegies. I have a bag of mini rice cakes for afternoon snack. It isn't like I feed them KD daily but I see nothing wrong with having KD on occasion (usually once a month).
Very much off topic but I made a "pizza" the other day using spaghetti squash as the crust. It was actually really delicious!! Just google "spaghetti squash pizza crust". It doesn't feel like you are missing out on anything to eat this instead of regular pizza.Quote:
Originally Posted by bright sparks
I agree with Micky C in a lot of different areas.
1.. While I understand Brights desire to serve healthy food, I do not advertise serving organic food..... But I make every effort to incorporate things like farm eggs, farmers market veggies, locally made foods, and or fruit truck produce when available and cost effective...Differen t providers do different things, and good on em, but at this time an all organic daycare does not work for me. I too have no problem serving KD, or hotdogs, esp. during the bbq season, or lets face it, when cashflow is a bit tight that week.
2. I make it very clear to parents not to expect a daily craft home, but rather to understand that the kids are having fun learning social skills, and life skills. When I talk to them they often tell me that their child will say things like..".Oh mom we have to respect each other's space", or "we walk we don't run. "
3. As far as vacation and what not, I do what's normal for my area, its as simple as that... I may test the waters a bit when I have been around a while, but for sure not within the first one or 2 years.
(have no idea where that space is coming from)
When I said healthy, I meant along these lines. I also do not advertise an organic menu. But I do my best. I occasionally serve KD and I have served hot dogs a few times, but for the most part I work hard to make sure that the kids are fed very well. I serve them the same foods that I would feed my own family, and the parents have always been happy with what I am serving.Quote:
Originally Posted by dodge__driver11
This may be a dumb question, but I don't know the answer and this seems like the right place to ask it. Everyone seems to agree that hot dogs are bad. No argument from me there, I haven't ever served these as a daycare food. If I was to buy the hot dogs that have ingredients that I recognize, and nothing weird and gross, are these as bad as no name hot dogs? It seems like when I read the ingredients on a package of walmart hot dogs, it seems so obvious that it is bad. But when I read a Maple Leaf package, all it says is "pork (or chicken), sea salt (i think?) and something about celery?
I want to be clear, this is for my own family, for camping or bbq nights, now that the weather is nice. I post my meals every day, and 2 of the 3 families read it, and they appreciate that the kids eat healthy here.
I serve foods along the lines of Jenn and dodge by the sounds of it. I give fruit at almost every meal and snack but I need to get better at serving veggies. My kids have always ate veggies in stews, soups, chilis, etc but I have only ever had one who liked them raw. I don't serve veggies with dip but may try serving it with hummus or something like that.
Superfun, I am not sure if hot dogs are ever really "healthy" but nothing beats a hot dog cooked over the bonfire....go on and splurge!! lol :) Crap food in moderation isn't the devil....IMO haha
Other ways to save money....
1. Do you supply the sunscreen? If you do, can you ask the parents to start or to at least pay for what you buy (I ask this because I just buy it out of pocket...well not really. I feel my fee covers it)
2. Do you buy/make gifts for special occasions? If you do, can you cut those out? (again, I ask because I do a lot of gifts and if I needed to save money this would be one of the first things I would cut out)
personally I see nothing wrong with serving hot dogs to daycare kids. I don't check labels either, I look at the cost. We only eat it once a month so I don't see the big deal.
If you want to eat hot dogs and serve them to your family then go for it. Sometimes I think people worry too much about this sort of stuff. Pick foods that have ingredients you recognize, try to incorporate lots of fruits and vegies and don't beat yourself up if you eat things that aren't so go like hot dogs!
My kids love raw veggies, and fresh fruit. (I trick em though lol) I serve my fruit with whipping cream (the thick cream that you whip, not the oil based product) and my veggies with humus or veggies dips/melted cream cheese....yummers.
I never used to read ingredients on everything. When my youngest daughter needed to be gluten free, the label reading started. And then the desire to not have to read labels led to me cutting out as much processed food as I could. And now when I read labels, I find it overwhelming how much non-food stuff is in my food. So now I read labels, cook from scratch (still learning though, my meals are pretty basic) but I still crave some of my old ways, like hot dogs when I'm lazy. haha
It is one thing to have a personal perspective different to another person but what is healthy and what isn't healthy is not opinion, it is backed up by research and fact. Processed foods like hot dogs and nuggets are unhealthy, that is fact. If another person doesn't agree that they are unhealthy, they are still unhealthy and that person is just wrong.Quote:
Originally Posted by mickyc
Have you heard people say that the cauliflower is the new kale? Last year everything was all about kale but this year its the cauli. I have seen so many recipes now for a cauliflower pizza crust!Quote:
Originally Posted by AmandaKDT
They all supply their own sunscreen and as I have said a couple of times we only make crafts around themes. This isn't a case of not being able to afford to run my daycare but simply that as the cost of running it goes up the expense is not passed on in any portion to the parents, it is coming out of my pocket, my earnings.Quote:
Originally Posted by 5 Little Monkeys
Culiflower bread is super!
I guess we will just agree to disagree. I could serve my kids fresh fish fried in a lb of organic butter - homemade and organic but still not healthy. Like I said it is all personal perspective and there is nothing wrong with moderation. Each to their own. Sorry, I enjoy my "unhealthy" food too much to jump on your organic bandwagon. Anyways, last time I am posting on this topic.Quote:
Originally Posted by bright sparks
Yes I read that about crafts but I asked about gifts. I do a lot of baking with the children and will often send it home, I make up goody bags for various holidays such as valentines, Easter, Halloween etc, I buy birthday and Christmas gifts for the children and I make up a family basket of gifts when a family leaves. The amount of money I spend on these will sometimes vary if my extra cash fund is low at the time.Quote:
Originally Posted by bright sparks
What specific costs have gone up that you are referring too? Knowing this will perhaps enable us to offer better suggestions. Some things go up in price but it won't always be up to the parents to pay for it if you know what I mean? For example, sometimes our cable/internet go up in price but I wouldn't necessarily raise my fees to cover that, instead I would decrease my package if I couldn't afford it anymore.
I'd like to try cauliflower pizza crust. Have you and did you like it? I've tried mashed cauliflower instead of potatoes but it wasn't my cup of tea lol. Luckily I don't eat potatoes much anywaysQuote:
Originally Posted by dodge__driver11
Interesting reading. I'm on the side of home cooking with all fresh foods, never will KD touch the lips of my dckids in my home when 2 cups of milk, 1 cup of macaroni cooked for several minutes and mixed with shredded cheese is healthy, easy and delicious - and sodium-free! I answered several pages ago that I'm a partially organic daycare so I agree with a lot of brightsparks' posts. We have hot dogs once or twice a year, but we have sausages a couple times a month. When my children were small I thought buying the chicken weiners were healthier until my son bit into one and had a chicken feather in his mouth. ALL the chicken parts are in there, yuck!
I run weekly themes and we only make one craft/week to match the theme I'm teaching. I throw away all the coloured & painted pages usually to give the parents a break. I've cut way down from all the crafting we did when I was new at this.
As far as sunscreen, I buy organic - Green Beaver and I collect $5 from each family in the spring to buy the sunscreen for the season, one bottle at a time so they don't send in 5 different bottles. I'm loving this system.
Well I'm a little late to the party here but I'll do my vest to just reply to the original question and not get into the debate of organic vs non..... It seems as though you have cut your costs as much as you can and the only thing left is the organic foods ..... I like the idea of a newsletter but I'm going to suggest that maybe you should ask the parents what they prefer .... Would they rather a $2/day increase to help with the rising food costs (I know this is not what you were originally looking for but its a start) or would they prefer you cut down on the organic foods .... Let them know you will go with the majority. If they choose to go with non organic products hopefully that will make it a little easier for you to adapt to as if will be what the parents want .... Just a though to maybe let you off the hook a bit Then a far as other utilities move your ac up a bit so it's not as cold in the house and in the winter drop your heat a bit and wear a sweater
I haven't heard that cauliflower is the new kale, though I am definitely behind on the kale thing. I made kale chips in the oven last week and didn't really like it. I don't know if I cooked them too long, but they had a bitter after taste that wasn't very pleasant. But I had raw kale mixed with other greens in a salad and that was good.Quote:
Originally Posted by bright sparks
I haven't tried cauliflower pizza crust, that is a new one. I have been making cauliflower mashed "potatoes" for a long time and recently made cauliflower "rice" with cilantro and lime juice that was really yummy. I will have to give the pizza crust a try, sounds interesting.
So the cost of utilities meaning gas, hydro and water. I'm not talking about things that are not related to daycare. Cable is not part of daycare expenses. Also the cost of gas (fuel) has gone up tremendously over the last few years during which time I haven't raises my rates. I hardly ever take my kids out in the minivan anymore although I specifically lease my 8 seater for work. My husband pays my cheques in now so I don't make that trip and I have managed to get my insurance down nearly 100 a month. Gas, hydro and water rates go up annually and I can't imagine that being any different in other provinces. Property tax goes up but obviously that isn't effected by my daycare but I use a hell of a lot more of the above three for business use even though I am very concious of what times I use my washer and lights being left on etc etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by 5 Little Monkeys
@momof4 yes hotdogs are just parts. I have had friends ask me if organic hotdogs are okay and my response is always to see if you don't mind eating organic bum holes hahaha. My 13 year old has now started asking what things are made out of and is being much more concious of the quality of food she puts inside her when she is eating food that someone else has provided her. She does a lot of camping so the bulk of that food is horrific. That being said she is still always polite it would always try and make plans ahead.of time otherwise if something was in front of her she would either eat it or leave it but would pull her face or complain about it if there wasn't another choice for her. Thankfully I raised her right on this area because I stood to my guns and don't run a restaurant in my house but at the same time if I know my kids don't like a certain thing, and especially for these types of reasons, I won't force them to eat it.
I'd be happy with the $2 a day. It was all I was going to raise my rates by anyway. I like your suggestions on talking to the parents....thanksQuote:
Originally Posted by Crayola kiddies