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Hi there !
I have a question for you all that have your daycare in the basement. When the parents come in, do you have them come down and have a space they can get their kids undressed/dressed and put away boots, bags shoes or do you use a spot on the main level at the entrance ? In any case can you explain your setup ?
I am reorganizing how I function with the ins and outs but I'm not sure exactly what I prefer doing.
Thanks for your help.
Do u have an entrance off ur basement that they use? Or do they use the main front doors? In My friends daycare...her parents come in and out the main front door. She has cubbies there. She has a small bin of toys and books in the living rm. when they come in they play there till everyone arrives then then go down stairs for the day and come up around pick up time and the kids play or watch tv in the living rm till they are picked up
I have parents drop off at the main door foyer, Hang coats/jackets up, put shoes on the shoe cubby and I walk their child downstairs into our daycare.
My main door comes right into my personal kitchen. They have hooks and cubbies up there for their stuff. My basement and stairs are carpeted so I wouldn't want their boots on that.
I do almost the exact same as babydom 's friend! The odd parent comes down every now and than (if they're late drop off or early pickup) but all of mine have pretty much the same drop off and pick up times so I am usually upstairs for that to make it a bit quicker and easier on the parents. I know I hate taking my winter boots off lol
I have an intercom system where parents press a buzzer outside my garage and I open it using my remote opener. Parents bring kids in through mudroom where they leave coats and shoes etc. I just wait downstairs for parents to bring kids down.....I LOVE IT!!! At the end of the day they ring, come down and get their child and take them up to get dressed and go.
My daycare is now my main house but it was in the basement when I was working at full capacity. Parents came in the front door, leaving shoes on a mat there.
Kids came down fully dressed parents handed them over and left...I helped them undress. For pick up we were typically outside but on bad weather days they came down and either dressed their child (or I already had them dressed) and they went up to get their shoes before leaving.
This helped for going out to play...I had the kids contained in the daycare while we all dressed, versus them being able to wander the house while I tried to get them all dressed at the main floor door.
Personally I prefer they do the majority of the dressing in the daycare. Many parents have little control over their children and I don't want parents to be trying to sweet talk their sweet little snowflakes into getting dressed while the child plays the chase me game.
When you come in my back door I have a landing and daycare bathroom then 2 steps up into my kitchen and 10 steps down to the basement. I have a baby gate to the entrance upstairs so it is sectioned off. My parents just walk in - kids take off shoes at the top of the stairs. They then come down the stairs to the basement where I have hooks for everything. The parents then undress their child and then they go.
I have a separate entrance from my garage into my basement so the parents never enter "my house" they come straight into the daycare
Thanks everyone . They will use my main front door. I just don't like that the stairs are so close while they are getting undressed but there is enough space to store everything up there. I also don't want to ask parents to take off their shoes to come down the stairs and everything. I think it makes things just longer for them. Thanks for your comments. I think I'll have the parents undress the kids upstairs and join them to take the kids down. I'll install a coat rack and a shoe matt and a storage bench and it should be fine. Because I have 3 kids of my own anyways I wont have many families coming in and out at the same time which helps with the logistics haha.
It's been interesting reading the responses on this thread. To be honest, it never occurred to me to have parents come downstairs to dress/undress the child.
I have a small main entrance with a shoe rack and a few hooks, but the majority of the kids gear (coats, backpacks, etc.) is stored downstairs. Parents drop off their child, take off their shoes and then I take them downstairs and finish undressing them. For pick-ups, the children will usually already be dressed by the time the parents pick them up, so they just have to come upstairs and put on their shoes and go. Makes drop-offs/pick-ups relatively quick and easy for parents and there's less traffic on the stairs or in the daycare area itself.
Another thing that had me worried is that sometimes the kids don't want to leave and then the parents will let them play. I'm okay telling the child it's time to go but if I can avoid it ... haha. It's true that I also want to avoid traffic in the stairs. I hate them. They are safe and all that but they go down for a long time and I just think someone could fall.