Mothercraft?

[MonkeyMamma]

Has anyone provided home daycare through Mothercraft? I often see a lot about WeeWatch, but never Mothercraft. Experiences?

[BlueRose]

I am with both Mothercraft and The Children's Village in Ottawa. The agencies themselves are not bad, the requirements that the ministry puts on them to have you do on the other hand are starting to get ridicules.

Can only have 5 daycare children plus your own.
Can only have 2 under the age of 2, 3 under the age of 3 and five 5 years and under.

I have two boys of my own a 3 1/2 yr old and 13 month old.
my 13 month old counts as one of my under two
Both boys count as 5 and under
So I can only have 3 full time (5 and under) daycare kids and I can have 2 before and after school kids 6 yrs and up,
until my boys turn 6 years old.

right now I have a 3 yr old girl, a 10 yr old boy and a 23 month old in care. I have been getting a lot of requests for a spot for under 2. I do have one spot open, but I can not take a under 2 year old until March 14th when the 23 month old turns 2 years. I am missing out on business because of this.

You can not charge ANY fees to clients coming to you through an agency. If they are late, to bad.
Mothercraft will pay me a late fee of $4.65 over top of my daily fee when the client is late. But it doesn't matter if they are 20min late or 3 hours late, its a flat amount of $4.65. So you basally work the extra time for free.

The agencies are licensed NOT you. They just come in once a month to check on you. They do a safety check once every 3 months.

You need to get a letter from your doctor stating : you are mentally and physically capable of doing this job (they have a form for you to take to the doctors). You and everyone in living in the house needs to provide the dates you have been in immunized for the following: MMR, DPT, Tetanus Booster and you need to have a TB screening. Depending on the Doctor these can cost to get.

You and anyone 12years and older living in the house have to have a police check done. This costs between $15 and $51 dollars. If you need to be figure printed it will cost more. The police will tell you if you need to be figure printed or not.
You and anyone 12 years and older living in the house need to have a child's aid check done. The agencies give you the paper work to fill out and do the rest for you. this did not cost me anything.

they pay for your first aid courses.
they give you art supplies.
they offer free workshops
they help you out with problem clients
they help you find clients
they give you bonus checks every 3 months
they take care of all the money
You do not get paid when you are closed
you still are your own boss (to a point), you do not work for them

You get paid only once a month on the 15th for the month before


You get to interview the family's and decide if you want them in care or not.
The Children's Village comes along on the interviews, Mothercraft does not
The children's village will not let me have the clients sign my contract (I will be dropping them soon), Mothercraft lets me have clients sign my contract.

Pay
the children's Village
Full time $33.00/day/child
B&A S. $11.xx/day/child

Mothercraft
full time $30.03/day/child
B&A S. $10.79/day/child

each agency pays different amounts

Some agencies will let you go with more then one agencies some will not. Some will let you have private clients, some will not.

The best thing to do is when they are willing to meet with you to sit down with more then one agency (if you have more then one in your area) and interview them.
with the two I am with I only need to give a 2 week notice if I decide I don't want to stay with them.

I am hoping that by this September I can drop both agencies. The age restrictions are making it VERY hard to fill up. If you have any questions please feel free to PM me.