Hello from Stoney Creek!

I would like to introduce myself on this forum. My name is Sarah and I provide Home Daycare in Stoney Creek. I have one child who is 1 1/2 years old and have been with my high school sweetheart for 12 years (married for 5). I am new to this business (started last fall) and found these forums VERY helpful when setting up my daycare. I have LOTS of resources and I look forward to sharing all of them with you on here.

This forum is such a great idea to get to know everyone that advertises their daycare and to get to know some of the parents as well.

I have recently become a member of ASCY (Affiliated Services for Children and Youth) in Hamilton and have found their library and resources to be VERY helpful with the day-to-day curriculum for the kids. Trying to find creative activities and crafts to do with the kids use to be very time consuming and now they have made it such a breeze with all the resources at you disposal. I would recommend ANYONE in the area to take advantage of their membership.

See you around.
Sarah

Welcome! I am a daycare provider in Cambridge and a mother of 2 girls. I have been providing daycare for 7 years.

Hello Sarah,

I am Nicole :) I have been providing home daycare for 14+ years. My children are almost 13 and 15 yrs old :( I am not really looking forward to having 2 teens! My extended kiddies are 13 months, 23 months, 28 months, and 3 1/2 yrs old.

I married my high school sweetheart too and we have been together for a long time! Oh my, I am way too young to be married over 16 yrs and have two teens, lol. I was actually talking about thqt at play group this morning, that I am within 6 yrs either way of my daycare families who all have little ones, yet I never felt like I had my girls at a young age.

Thanks for introducing yourselves ladies. Your Website's and Daycare's are VERY organized and well thought out.

It's nice to meet some other ladies that have been doing this for a while. As I am just starting out my first year...I need all the help i can get :)

Hi Sarah A,
I'm just starting out too. My daycare is still being built and I open in May. Can't wait! I'm in Ottawa. I'd be happy to share resources with you. Welcome!

A

Hello Sarah A!

Welcome to the forum! I'm in Kemptville, ON (just south of Ottawa). I've had my daycare since last year, and have been working in daycare centers, nursery schools, and as a nanny in the past. If in need of resources, I'm sure I could find quite a bit!

Take care,

Thanks for introducing yourselves.

I guess I just feel a little overwhelmed at times because I want to be the best Daycare Provider I can be but I don't have much tools right now to teach the kids. I have borrowed a few books from a Childcare Library we have in our area, which have been super helpful, but there are soooo many ideas I don't know what to start with (re; themes, activities, crafts, education)

Is there something you did in the beginning that helped you get started? a book you read?

Any ideas would be so helpful.

If you are just starting out don't be too hard on yourself and don't make more work for yourself than necessary. If you look around you will realize you have a lot more to work with than you think. Any storybook can be read to the children. Yes some are better literature than others but they are looking at the pictures and learning the concepts regardless of the quality of writing. In many areas it is infants coming into care where many caregivers start so for the first few months you may be dealing with one year olds that still nap in the morning. Save recyclables to make your own resources to save money. Save the lids from frozen juice. They can be stacked, made into a row, counted, cut a slit in the plastic lid of a large coffee can and they become coins for a bank. I would plan for things that don't involve a lot of paper to start just in case you end up with only little ones. Then as they grow you can add the other activities. Remember that it is through general play and not so much teacher led activities that young children explore and learn and discover such as the big block should go on the bottom first. When manipulating toys they are working on wrist and finger action that will later enable writing. If you look on the CCPRN website they have a handout entitled setting up your house for daycare that might have some info in it about getting started in play. To start it is more important to make sure you have the safety done, taken care of plans for sleeping, eating, changing, etc. The play will come on its own to start and later become more involved as you feel more comfortable. Remember you have learning to do too and that means sorting out all the schedules so each one gets their needs met. Do not be hard on yourself and don't think that if you don't have tons of resources, pictures on the walls, and a wealth of resource books that you aren't doing a good job. For now take care of the physical setup of your home and then when you start children into care let us know the ages and we can share some ideas of what they might like to do. For toys the basics of blocks, a couple dolls, a few cars, a puzzle, paper and crayons, any of the Fisherprice type playsets such as garage will get you started. Toddlers are not preschoolers and I don't do abstract things like calendar with them. We sing a lot of songs, read a lot of books and they love the feltboard and pocket chart which is what we use for most of our lessons but not till over 18 months and they can stay long enough to listen.

When I first started out I was fortunate to have my sisters help. She was an ECE who did home daycare for 10+ years. When I was on maternity leave with my first child, I considering doing home daycare. I took that year to job shadow my sister and help in her home daycare. This allowed me the opportunity to see if being a daycare provider was something that I wanted to do or could handle. She also taught me all the basics that’s that I needed to know for running a home daycare. I spent a lot of time beforehand preparing my handbook and contract. I researched many different sites online regarding daycare policies and procedures. I also ordered “Daycare Start-up” packages either online or through resource centers. I even took an online Early Childhood Education course (not accredited), and Family Child Care Training course just so that I could have some educational training.

My mother and I found many great toys and equipment at garage sales for very cheap. I also came across many great finds (such as boxes of children’s books and other toys) that people left on the curb. There are many teaching resources available online for free. You don’t need much else beside the basic toys (i.e. blocks, puzzles, dolls, lego, books), and equipment (playpens, high chairs, stroller), everything else can be provided by the daycare parents. You will quickly build your resources over the years as you buy specific items for your own children.

Hello Everyone!
I just signed up for this forum. It looks to be quite interesting. I have reopened my home daycare after 8 years of not having one. When my 3rd child was born in 1997 my husband and I decided to open a daycare which had been a dream of mine every since I could remember. I ran it for 6 years and then we moved to Ontario. My youngest was then starting school so I decided to reenter the corporate work force. It was good for a while but then the stress of meetings,deadlines , long hours etc made me decide to go back to what I loved. Long hours are involved in home daycare too but it is of your own choosing and you are at home doing what you love.
Right now I have an adorable one year old full time. I met with another client last Friday who seemed all set to sign up with me but she has some issues with my policies/contract. How much should I bend with my contract? We can really use the extra income now. I have advertised quite a bit.....on Kijji, on this web site, on parentrelief. com, flyers and I have put the word out through friends and neighbours. Is there anything I am missing?

Hi Kim,
Welcome to the forum! What issues is she having with your contract, etc? Are your rates similar to other child care providers in your area? Maybe if you give us some more info we can help you out. :)

Hi,

My rates are similar to other providers in my area. The parents do not like that they would have to pay for the days the child(ren) are not in my care when the child is supposed to be in my care. For example when they are sick or the dad has a day off and wants to spend it with his child. Also the fact that payment is expected when they go on vacation if that time is not the same as when I close my daycare when I go on vacation. The parents are on a tight budget, she works full time, he goes to school and works part time. The other daycare they are considering does not have this policy and she is also charging $10.00 less. This other daycare also has alot of children and the mom is having issues with that.
Am I being too strict? We have set up another meeting this weekend to discuss these points.

Not too strict at all. Not everyone will work and you need to stay strong and perhaps wait for the right family to come along. GL.

Thanks for the advise and encouragement. I'll let you know what happens.

Parents need to be educated that because we are limited to five children that they are paying for a space in my daycare and it isn't about what days they choose to come or not come.

There are also concerns here for the other daycare. Make sure you have a copy of the DNA children limits to give her as it sounds like the reason the other daycare is charging so little is because they may be making it up with extra children which is illegal so she runs the risk of having her daycare closed immediately as soon as the ministry finds out.

Well I got the kids (baby is full time, big sister is part-time). Everyone is happy...the parents are happy and I am happy. The dad was the hold out. He came by with the baby to meet my husband and I and he really liked what he saw. They really want a nurturing home daycare with no more than 4 or 5 kids. Apparently the other day care is licensed and she is supposed to have helpers.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kim

Apparently the other day care is licensed and she is supposed to have helpers.

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Where do you live Kim?

I live in Kitchener

Ok so how is that possible if you can't license a home daycare in Ontario as such. Is she attempting to turn it into a daycare centre and being zoned for such. That is the only way she could do it with helpers in a single home.