Home set-up

eeek, I am finally so excited now that we have an opening date and are starting to get the house ready!!

so first project is getting the house ready. We live in a side split. Right now the upstairs has 3 bedrooms and a bath, next level is living room, dining room, kitchen, next level is our playroom with sliding doors going to the backyard, bathroom and front porch, down some more stairs to the lower level and there is a laundry room and what will be a family room, down again to the basement.
We are organzing the house now and redoing the family room which will be our room, not the daycares, the main floor playroom my kids have now will be the daycare room (which my kids are fine with).

so really we just have a small living room type room for the daycare and that is it. they can eat in the kitchen, sleepin the bedrooms and on special movie days we can go downstairs to the family rooom. Do people have more elaborate set-ups? use more of thier house? I figure betweem meals, snacks, diaper, outdoor time, naps and circle time there really isnt a whole lot of time for just free play and the one room will be good enough. what do you think?

how much of your house is for daycare? what is the size of the room/space? does anyone have pics of thier daycare set up?

thanks! i'm thinking i will have a ton of questions in the next month or 2!

I have a separated area for my setting in the main floor. I have divided the main floor with gates to separate my family and daycare areas. It is a rectangular area. One section is for play and toys are accessible to children and the other is for eating and crafts. Potties and change area are on the other side of the gates. So when changing diapers or helping with the potty still can see my kids. I think there is plenty of space for them to stretch about. I do not have an idea of the square footage. In the second floor I have a room for napping. So, I can watch TV and be a little noisy if I needed to when kids are sleeping.

My daycare area is the main floor of my townhouse. That was just the most practical area to do it with easy access to a bathroom, the kitchen and the back yard. The living room/dining room rectangular combo is pretty much the whole shebang. It's not huge (as you can imagine in a townhouse) - maybe 20x12? Not too sure. I have a large Ikea tv cabinet from many moons ago that is home to our puzzle centre, our daycare fish Murray, stuffed animals. It has large rolling drawers underneath housing on one side, our dress up clothes and on the other, our diaper station. I just lay a change pad on the floor to change the children as I'm not keen on change tables. The diapers are colour coded and my wipes, creams and first aid kit are in a basket with them for easy access. Another Ikea shelf (the one with coloured bins that looks like stairs) has blocks, train set, puppets, cars, etc. Dramatic play is beside that (a baby centre this month). Craft shelf to the back with child sized table and stools in the corner, then big people chairs, then reading area with book shelf, over stuffed pillows and an elephant and lady blow up air element chairs from Ikea (I love Ikea for daycare stuff!!!).

That's it....got all that in a teeny space and people seem to like it. I'm sure your place will be fabulous! You're at a really fun part right now. Enjoy!

I have a few pictures on my website. If you look at the one that has the window with the vinyl stickees on it that is our main floor playroom and is our diningroom (11x13") so it gives you an idea of just how much stuff and learning activities you can pack into a space. It works just fine for all five kids and especially because I usually have at least one infant that naps in the mornings so it out of the way so to speak. This is also the room the older kids nap in but babies are in bedrooms in playpens. We use the table here as a play surface. For crafts we have a table in the kitchen next door and I will set up the older kids there with stuff sometimes and keep the toddlers in playroom but mostly they all play together. I don't think this room would be big enough for school age kids cause their bodies just need more room.

www.sharonshomedaycare.yolasite.com

I LOVE my setup.:D Not just because its practical, but because I still have my family space, which is so important. First I have a small playroom on the main level, which is used mostly for mealtimes, arts and crafts, and has simple things like books and puzzles and a few toys that get rotated every week. Also I've put gates around it so that the kids remain in that space and don't start terrorizing the rest of the house.:rolleyes: And then my whole basement is a playroom complete with playhouse, slide, kitchen and oodles of toys, this is where we go for free play.

I remember when I was doing this in my two bedroom apartment and the whole apartment was dedicated to the daycare...it was not so enjoyable to have to share our space with the daycare. But now my dining room, living room and bedrooms are daycare- free. It's the best. Thanks for letting me brag about my setup ;)

I've posted pictures of my daycare set up in my albums...feel free to take a look:). It's all self contained in the lowest level of my home.

My whole basement is dedicated to daycare..so I'd guess about 1000 square feet divided into one huge playroom, bedroom and washroom. We have a large storage/ furnace room that is closed off.I love having everything in one spot and not having anything daycare related upstairs!!!!!

I am the same as Wonderwiper, but before August when we moved here, I had a side split exactly like the one mentioned by the OP. I used the lower level (not basement) family room as my playroom and had to bring them up and down to the kitchen for eating/art. It worked okay, but felt a bit cramped in winter when we were inside a lot. I really do notice a huge difference now that I have a huge space for them to play in. Less fighting, they can get more exercise even when we are stuck inside and best of all, I get to come upstairs at the end of the day and get away from work :) But, your set-up can definitely work. I think it's great that you will be on the same level as the kitchen...that will make things a lot easier for you as you will be able to do arts and crafts and the babies can play in the playroom (assuming you can see from one to the other). Plus you will be able to clean up your kitchen while they play if you have an open concept set-up. I think it is important to leave lots of time for free-play...I think they do most of their learning that way.

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Originally Posted by Dreamalittledream

I've posted pictures of my daycare set up in my albums...feel free to take a look:). It's all self contained in the lowest level of my home.

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Where are the albums located? I looked in your profile but didn't see them. I never knew we had that option to post pics etc.

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Originally Posted by torontokids

Where are the albums located? I looked in your profile but didn't see them. I never knew we had that option to post pics etc.

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So sorry! I too tried to view them without signing in and can't see any (only when I'm logged in). I've made sure my setting are set to public viewing, they are...weird?! I've emailed admin. to solve the mystery.

I live in a large apartment so my living room is also the playroom/sleeproom and my dining room is also our creating room. I have 1/2 bath and an entrance hall where I post all the children's artwork and have their coat pegs and space for their backpacks. So at the end of the day I want my space back with all the toys and daycare equipment in a corner, a closet and a cupboard wtih doors and on Friday I take down the booster chairs to take my dining room back for the weekend.

Whatever you decide to do, don't let daycare take over your home. That happened to me for a while until I rearranged and became organized and more efficient. That comes with time and practice.