Basement daycare

[Inspired by Reggio]

My main playroom is in my basement and does not have a walk out to outside or a place to put in a kitchen and I would not be willing to give up my personal 'craft area' down there to put in a kitchen because that is the place that I escape to to recharge my battery

So we have no choice but to come upstairs to get ready for outside time as the children's cubbies are on my main floor and we come up to eat lunches and snacks because there is just not room for a full kitchen down there where I could do 'meal prep, the actually cooking, and clean up' from meals and for me to have to do the meal prep and cooking BEFORE children get here or having to bring the food and dishes and so forth up and downstairs for heating and so forth three times a day to wash up and so forth would be way more of a PITA IMO than having the children come up and down the stairs and be able to do prep and cooking and clean up in my fully equipped kitchen that is just more spacious and comfortable while they are engaged at the table and keeping it all within my 'work hours' ... plus I admit I am a bit of anal clean freak and I would not want 'food mess' anywhere near my play area for them it is just easier to keep that contained to the actual kitchen.

I have a very bad back myself so have empathy with having to carry children up and downstairs ~ the first thing we master when a newbie arrives to my program is the STAIRS ... my 10 month old is already able to crawl up the stairs and just needs assistance with coming back down them backwards crawl style ... all my other kids are all stair independent because well we get lots of practice

[Mamma_Mia]

the first thing we master when a newbie arrives to my program is the STAIRS ... my 10 month old is already able to crawl up the stairs and just needs assistance with coming back down them backwards crawl style ... all my other kids are all stair independent because well we get lots of practice

Yup I too encourage them 'doing' the stairs with me there. I can't carry them.....actually I'd rather NOT.