Question about older children

[bright sparks]

If you have found someone who is willing to pay full fee for a before and after child who is beyond the age who counts in your numbers and you even have someone to do the school bus runs...I would say you have hit the jackpot!! As long as the girl is well-behaved, I would jump on it! And since she is paying a full spot, but not there most of the day, I would not ask her to provide snacks. You can feed her and still make a profit. Maybe you can get her involved in helping with the little ones, reading to them, putting on puppet shows for them, etc if she seems to like little kids. It all depends on her personality, but with the right kid, she could actually be a help and someone to talk to as well. I would go for it!

Maybe it would serve you well to spend a little bit of initial time coming up with an independent program for her, and include her in the planning of it too. If she has a bad attitude one day it will likely be out of boredom so doing this initial planning to prevent this and have options readily available for when she is board, it may prevent problems arising. I would also make it clear to her from the start what your role is and your expectations are for each other. I know this may be something some providers would do in front of the parents but depending on the child, I may be inclined to do this 1 on 1 with the older child. Here are some ideas...

Have a space where she can have access to a computer to do homework and research homework related things...that is if you are comfortable with this. It would include setting ground rules for use and consequences if rules are not followed. If not then at least a space for her to sit and do homework.

Upon chatting with her and finding out her interests, have a basket of "boredom busters" for her to dig into if she needs some alone time, or finds it a bit boring to be playing with the little ones. Include crafts materials, printable worksheets in a duotang, or even some kind of puzzle books etc etc. Making these things complex would mean she can work on them ongoing over the course of days or weeks, emphasizing independence though so she will need little or no support from you.

Give her some responsibilities if she is a "mother hen" kind of girl. She can prep snacks or plan an activity to do one day a week and lead the group in it. It's not about slave labour lol, but these are important skills for her to develop which will in turn result in helping you.

I think the main times you will encounter bad attitude is if she hates being at your place so while you don't necessarily want to have to entertain her, you need to give her some opportunities to do things that are age appropriate to her and engaging and fun things that she will want to do and make being at your place a pleasant and positive experience.