My interview process is very different from yours so this is a good question for us to think about. I make sure they have read my website which answers the basic questions about my daycare and is full of pictures so they have a feeling of how I operate and how my rooms look.

I welcome people in my front door and as we go room to room I tell them that I have the main floor half bath that is handy for toilet training, that we eat and craft at the dining room table, that I have a full kitchen and can see through to the living room which is also my toyroom. Then we go into my living room and make ourselves comfortable. That's my entire main floor since I'm in an apartment in a big old house. I also have an upstairs but I don't use it for daycare so I don't show it during the interview. But I do have a storage room up there full of daycare toys so I mention how I rotate the toys monthly so the children have a great variety of things all the time.

I start out by asking the parents questions about themselves and their child and let the conversation flow naturally. I ask questions and take notes as they tell me things about where they live and work and how the children nap and eat and if they don't volunteer these things in the first half hour then I ask about them. I'm watching very carefully to see how the parents interact with their child, clingy, over-protective, casual, etc. It gives me a big clue about their parenting style and I ask questions about that and discipline ideas for when their child gets older.

I give them my resume as I tell them about myself and my past and why I started my daycare. I point out that my current and past clients are listed at the bottom of my resume and they are welcome to call any of them to ask questions about me and my daycare. I always tell the parents that we are a team and we have to work together to achieve consistency for the health and happiness of their child and that I will always follow their lead but group care is much different than home.

I don't get out my contract until the last 15 minutes or so of the meeting and quickly go over the major points then tell them that I will email all of it to them so they can read it entirely at their leisure at home and write back to ask any questions they may think of as they read through the contract and medical form. I never give out paper any more.

Then when I email the contract I have an opportunity to thank them for their visit to my home and tell them that it was great to meet them and anything that I may have forgotten to mention that I feel is very relevant to their family.