This is why I do not offer before and after school care ~ society does not value the service at all and expect us to suddenly take a cut in pay to offer this service to them .... honestly the before and after school programs that offer this service have a 1:15 ratio and charge the SAME or MORE than $15 a day in some communities .... they typically do not provide food and take place in a gym and so forth where kids just 'run around' for a couple of hours entertaining themselves with very little program expense for the organizations offering it?

I always wonder why home childcare providers sell themselves short when we offer a smaller ratio with a consistent adult and a homemade snack option and so forth .... we offer a premium service to clients and should be able to charge a premium service but yet our fees are consistently and substantially lower than 'centres' because it is assumed that they offer better service :roll:

The child is still taking up a 'space' in my program and ratio and well I prefer to have a full time child and get full time fees than to have to drag my self and the rest of my crew back and forth to the school in all sorts of weather in order to collect the school age children all for the privilege of earning less money ... yup sign me up

Unless you have to make that 'trek' anyway to get your own kids weigh doing this carefully cause lots of providers 'start' and than 1 month into winter regret it! Also if there is a demand for this service in your area than make sure you charge a FAIR wage to yourself considering the amount of PITA factor this service requires so that when it is -40 and storming outside and you are having to dress up your other daycare children and trek to the school you are not making that walk thinking 'crap why I am doing all this for a measly $15 a day it hardly seems worth it'