If you are just starting out don't be too hard on yourself and don't make more work for yourself than necessary. If you look around you will realize you have a lot more to work with than you think. Any storybook can be read to the children. Yes some are better literature than others but they are looking at the pictures and learning the concepts regardless of the quality of writing. In many areas it is infants coming into care where many caregivers start so for the first few months you may be dealing with one year olds that still nap in the morning. Save recyclables to make your own resources to save money. Save the lids from frozen juice. They can be stacked, made into a row, counted, cut a slit in the plastic lid of a large coffee can and they become coins for a bank. I would plan for things that don't involve a lot of paper to start just in case you end up with only little ones. Then as they grow you can add the other activities. Remember that it is through general play and not so much teacher led activities that young children explore and learn and discover such as the big block should go on the bottom first. When manipulating toys they are working on wrist and finger action that will later enable writing. If you look on the CCPRN website they have a handout entitled setting up your house for daycare that might have some info in it about getting started in play. To start it is more important to make sure you have the safety done, taken care of plans for sleeping, eating, changing, etc. The play will come on its own to start and later become more involved as you feel more comfortable. Remember you have learning to do too and that means sorting out all the schedules so each one gets their needs met. Do not be hard on yourself and don't think that if you don't have tons of resources, pictures on the walls, and a wealth of resource books that you aren't doing a good job. For now take care of the physical setup of your home and then when you start children into care let us know the ages and we can share some ideas of what they might like to do. For toys the basics of blocks, a couple dolls, a few cars, a puzzle, paper and crayons, any of the Fisherprice type playsets such as garage will get you started. Toddlers are not preschoolers and I don't do abstract things like calendar with them. We sing a lot of songs, read a lot of books and they love the feltboard and pocket chart which is what we use for most of our lessons but not till over 18 months and they can stay long enough to listen.