New at this

[Mikki]

Hi Everyone. I am Michelle and a presently am working full time. I have a 2 yr old and a 3 yr old that is in JK full time. I am going to be ending my employement at the end of the year and I want to stay home with my daughter and take in 2-3 other children. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Sandbox Sally]

Welcome to the forum Mikki. My advice would be to start advertising now, and to read all the boards here at daycarebear, as there is a lot of valuable advice here.

[Play and Learn]

Welcome to the forum Michelle - read up on the past and present posts (threads)! Hopefully most will answer your questions, if not, ask away!

[KingstonMom]

Welcome to the forum! Its very addictive on here fyi!!
Advice? treat this new adventure as a career change, and treat it as your new full time job. Of course it is technically when you quit work full time, but make sure that parents know that you are serious and that this will be a BUSINESS you will be running. Dont allow them to walk all over you, and you MUST start this attitude from the get go otherwise you are stuck in arrangements you may not be happy with.
I absolutley LOVE staying home with my son, and I am expecting my second any day now.
I feel so lucky to be with them day in and day out, and they are the luckiest kids to have their mommy around!! Sooo worth it!

[Dreamalittledream]

Hello Michelle! I just did the same as you are doing. I too have a 2 year-old (& 6 year-old) and chose to stay home. I opened my home daycare 6 months ago after being in the (outside) workforce for 25+ years. Where to start...as everyone else said; a lot of great forums/posts to read through. I've learned so much from the wonderful folks on here. First, I have to say I am really happy I decided to do this. Advice I wish I knew then: Don't go crazy buying toys (you really don't need huge amounts, also, once the word gets out you may,like me, have friends who have lots of things they want to clear out of their home), be prepared that your 2 year-old may have a hard time adjusting/sharing you, your home, toys etc. (my 2 year-old has been the worst behaved child during open hours; an angel otherwise) and just like with parenting, you will be successful if you have clear expectations (contract) & consequences...be consistent always and interview the parents as well; trust your gut if the child does not feel like a good fit...it will save you alot of heartache/stress down the road. Please feel free to message me if you have any questions

[Cadillac]

My advice would be to start putting a program together now. so when parents come for interview you have program ideas to show them and are prepped for when you begin. Planning is often the most time-consuming part of running a daycare so it'll really help the transition. If you need some ideas you can visit my web page www.wix.com/flexfun/flexfuncare. I post my activity schedule for the parents so you can find a lot of different games to try there. Its different every week so you could really build a great database of activities and crafts.