Will be opening in Toronto, need input...

[Sarah]

Hello,

Will be opening bilingual home daycare in Toronto (beaches) in august.

I've been reading this forum for a few days, and it seems like members are from Ottawa or BC. Anybody from TO???

I would like to know if it's long before filling our spots, if someone knows if TO requires a permission or not?

One last thing, I know in Ontario I can have 5 kids, NOT including my own. But could I have 5 permanent non school kids AND also have like 2-3 school age kids before, at luch and after school?

Thanks for your help!

Sarah

[Play and Learn]

I would like to know if it's long before filling our spots, if someone knows if TO requires a permission or not?

What do you mean by this?

By Ontario law, we're allowed to have 5 children under the age of 10 years, not including your own.

It all depends on the hours you keep. Consider this: Say I have 5 children - not school age. Say 2 of them are within the hours of 9-4. And then I have 2 b/a school kids - I can have them in the a.m. when they get on the bus at 8:25, and then get them off the bus at 4:10 p.m. Therefore my numbers are still ok. Does that make sense?

[Sarah]

Then you could also have 5 kids from 9 to 4 along with 5 school age kids before and after school ??? (but they couldn't come from lunch right?)

I would like to know if it's long before filling our spots in Toronto?
If someone knows if Toronto requires a permission from the city or not? I know I don't have to get certification if Home daycare, but do I have to notify the city???

[Judy Trickett]

You can't have anymore that FIVE kids (not including your own) at the SAME time. Not even if they are b/a school kids that are there for just a little while.

BTW....once the child is OLDER than 10 they don't count in your numbers.

So, NO, you can not have 5 kids there who are toddlers, infants, whatever AND have b/a schoolers. Not at the same time!

[Emilys4Guppies]

Do you mean, 'how long will it take to fill my spots?' I've always heard that it can take up to 1.5 years to fill 5 spots. It took me 6 months to find my first child but was much faster for the rest.

You cannot have more than 5 children under the age of 10, not including your own children. Therefore, if you have 5 two year olds then you cannot have school age children in the home at the same time. You can have more than 5 clients...but they cannot overlap. For example, at one point I had 7 clients. However, 3 were part time and I as a result I never had more than 5 at once (not including my own).

ETA: No, you do not have to notify the city.

[Sarah]

Thanks to you all!

Oh my god 6 months to 1.5 years!!!!!!!!!!! I will never be able to survive financially........ 2 to 4 months without kids would be the max I could survive for! Than I would need at least two

How am I going to do this?

Nobody FROM toronto who could tell me how it is there???

[sunnydays]

I am not in Toronto, but Ottawa, but I just opened my daycare in March and I filled all three spots I wanted to fill within about 2 months and have had lots of people I turned away. I started before my mat leave ended to avoid having no income in case it did take awhile. If you are on mat leave, I would highly recommend starting interviews at least 2-3 months before it will end if possbile. It all depends on supply and demand in your area...plus lots of advertising. I made a website, business cards, told everyone I knew, posted on Kijiji every day as well as Daycare Bear and some other sites.

[Sandbox Sally]

Hi again Sarah, I think we "spoke" last evening. I just started doing home daycare in Toronto, and just wanted to let you know that the majority of people looking for child care on both craigslist and kijiji in Toronto are in the east end. I know this, because I am in the west!

I don't think you'll have to wait months. That's just my opinion, but I bet I'm right!

[Sarah]

I'll be in the beaches area! And yes I'm the one that wrote you a private message last night

Kangaroomama, I would love to have a website, but I have no clue how to make one!! For the business cards, you are right. Easy and cheap to make. I will, and will hand them out when I get to my new place.

Kijiji and craigslist I will also do (thanks)

Now the thing with advertising months in advance is that I'm in QC right now. I already signed the lease, but moving only mi-june. My husband sayd I should advertise right now and interview by phone. You guys think that would work?

Thank you all for your input....really appreciated!

[Play and Learn]

Don't wait till the last minute to advertise. Your husband is right to say that. You could also do email interviews - you can find out a lot about a person by the way they write, and give out information (more so than a telephone interview)!

For a website - I know a lot of us use freewebs.com (I do). It's super easy to use. Just make sure you choose the right fonts, colours, etc. to get people on board. You will find that using a free web, that people aren't going to be finding your website because you haven't paid for a domain name. If you do choose to go the route to pay for a domain name (which you can do with webs.com or vistaprint.ca - both easy websites to use), please be sure you update it...

Advertise in the libraries, schools, grocery stores, etc.