How To Start A Daycare

A Day In The Life Of A Childcare Provider

Are you interested in learning more about how to start a daycare?

Then you’ll love this educational glimpse into a day in the life of a childcare provider.  After all, it’s important to know what kind of a job you’ll be getting into if you’re going to be committing to taking care of other people’s children every day.

You might be wondering about how to start a daycare so that you can bring in extra money to your family budget each month, or so that you can provide a full-time income for your family.  If you want to stay home with your kids, running a daycare might have seemed like the only option available to you.

I’m Joy Anderson and 3 years ago, I was in the same boat as you!  I needed to provide a full-time income for my family, but desperately wanted to stay home with my kids.  I thought about learning about how to start a daycare because I thought starting a daycare was my only option!

So as you continue reading, you’ll learn what your daily life will be like if you choose to start a daycare, but you’ll also learn what your daily life could be like if you choose to start a… PRESCHOOL instead!  What’s a preschool?  It’s where you teach preschool classes in your home to children ages 3-5 for just a few hours each day.

TEACH PRESCHOOL - NOT DAYCARE!

Three years ago, after I did my own research about how to start a daycare, I decided to start a preschool instead, and my preschool business has absolutely blessed my life!  I hope this short article will help you decide if you want to continue down the (dark and dreary) how to start a daycare path, or if you’d like to know more about how to start a preschool instead.

So without further ado, let’s dive right in and explore what a typical day is like after you’ve learned how to start a daycare and you’re now running a daycare from your home!

“When I start a daycare, how many hours will I be working?”

When you’re thinking about starting a daycare, this is one of the most important questions you need to find the answer to!  While you’re trying to sign up parents into your daycare, you might believe that every family you sign up will drop off their kids on the dot at 9 a.m. and pick them up promptly at 5 p.m.  Now I don’t know what world you live in, but in the world I live in, it’s rare that anyone’s job schedule is 9-5.  Lots of parents work night shifts, and some have errands to run after work.  And any working parent still has to commute to work, which means they will be dropping off their children much earlier than that, and picking up their children much later than that.

You’ll quickly realize that if you’re going to learn how to start a daycare, in order to sign up kids and get paid, you need to accommodate OTHER PEOPLE’S schedule.  After all, if you say your hours are 8 am – 6 pm, and a potential family says they need you at 7 a.m., what are you going to do?  Here they are, saying they’ll pay you if you just change your schedule by an hour.  So of course you’ll say “Okay.”  And the next family that wants to sign up will need you to watch their kiddos until 7 p.m. because the mom doesn’t get off work until then.  So of course you’ll say “Okay.”  And before you know it, your hours will have gotten so out of control that you end up being at the mercy of your paying parents!  And if you say no to them, they’ll stop paying you, and you’ll end up being so afraid of losing your paying parents that you’ll say “Okay” anytime they need to drop off their children earlier, or pick them up later.  So in truth, when you’re learning about how to start a daycare, the only answer to this question is that if you want to get paid, you’ll work the hours that your paying parents want you to work. Which means putting in long, 12+ hour days, and sometimes even nights or weekends!

And now, knowing that, do you still want to learn how to start a daycare?

Remember how I mentioned that I started a preschool though?  My hours are a whole lot different – I only teach for 5 hours a day (9-11:30 a.m.) and (12-2:30 p.m.) and you can bet that I will NEVER bend to anyone else’s requests to watch a child earlier or later.

CLICK HERE to learn more about how to start a preschool instead of learning about how to start a daycare!  I created a special video for you, so Visit Me Now!  ;-)

“When I start a daycare, what will I do all day long?”

It’s up to you of course, but I’ll tell you this: bored children are cranky children who end up misbehaving!  So unless you want to deal with fussy children all day long fighting with each other, when you’re learning about how to start a daycare you’ll also have to set up a daily schedule full of activities for the children.  Have you ever tried to plan out every hour of every day? For weeks and weeks, and months and months!?!  It’s exhausting!  But these daycare kids will need a structured schedule and they’ll also need to be played with, cared for, and taught.  So you’ll end up searching the internet for hours each day trying to come up with new activities and things to teach them.  And if you think your own kids misbehave, just wait until you get a bunch of kids in your house who don’t have the same rules at their house as you do.  Kids will be jumping on the couch, hitting each other, using language that you don’t want your kids to hear, and acting out for your attention.

And now, knowing that, do you still want to learn how to start a daycare?

If you’re beginning to question whether or not you should continue to learn about how to start a daycare, let me tell you more about what you do all day if you decide to start a preschool instead.  Of course during a preschool class, your preschoolers will need structure as well, but the benefit here is that it’s only for 2.5 hours!  You can use pre-made lesson plans to teach the kids so there’s only about 5 minutes of prep time, and the kids always behave better at preschool than they do at home!

Click Here to learn more about how to start a preschool instead of learning about how to start a daycare.

“When I start a daycare, what will my children do?”

Um, get neglected?  Starting a daycare is truly the biggest oxymoron in the world: You start a daycare to spend time with your kids, but inevitably when you take care of OTHER people’s kids ALL DAY LONG, there’s very little energy for you to spend time with your own kids!  And considering the fact that the daycare kids have paying parents, you have to keep those kids happy or they’ll go home complaining to their mom and dad that they don’t like you, and then the parents will take their kids out of your daycare!  That should make you think twice about wanting to learn about how to start a daycare!

How will your children like their toys being played with, broken, and mishandled?  Do you think they’ll act out if your attention is now divided by some other kid they don’t even know?  You betcha – they’ll act out for YOUR attention!  And if you have older children who are at school during the day, they’ll start to regret the daycare for the fact that when they come home, their home is being taken over by the daycare!  They’ve been away from you all day so when they come home, all they want is you!  Yet what they get is quite the opposite: they get a frazzled, snappy, “I can’t help you right now because I’m taking care of so-and-so over here.”

And now, knowing that, do you still want to learn how to start a daycare?

On the flipside, one of the biggest benefits to starting a preschool instead of a daycare is that you get paid to spend QUALITY time with your kids!  And honestly, which child wouldn’t love to have their mom actually PLAY with them for 2.5 hours every day by singing, dancing, reading stories, doing arts and crafts and teaching them fun ideas about the world?  And, preschool is only held during school times anyways, so when your older children come home from school, preschool is already over!

Click Here to learn more about how to start a preschool instead of learning about how to start a daycare.

“When I start a daycare, when do I get time for myself, my kids, and my husband?”

In truth, you don’t!  And if this doesn’t make you reconsider your decision to learn about how to start a daycare, I don’t know what will!  I know so many daycare providers who are so exhausted from taking care of other people’s children every day that they get completely burnt out by the time the last daycare kid is picked up.  All they really want to do is go upstairs and lock the door to their bedroom so they can have some peace and quiet! But you’ll still have to cook dinner, clean up the house, get your kids ready for bed, and try to squeeze a minute or two of quality time in with each kid while gritting your teeth because you’re so doggone tired and just want one minute to yourself!  But when that’s all done, you can forget about watching a movie, reading a book, or spending time with your husband.  Because after a day like you’ve just had, you have to go to bed early, because in the morning, you have to get up early and do it all over again!

And now, knowing that, do you still want to learn how to start a daycare?

If there’s one thing I cherish most, it’s my sanity.  And I KNOW that I can’t watch other people’s children for 12+ hours every day and still have enough energy to share my love with the people that I care most about.  Instead, while I teach preschool for just a few hours each day, I’m actually giving my children true quality time and playing with them.  That way, when preschool is over, they feel completely loved and they’re fine with playing by themselves for a little bit, giving me an hour or two to enjoy a little bit of “Me Time.”  And I never get burnt out, so I have plenty of energy for my other kids and my husband too!

Click Here to learn more about how to start a preschool instead of learning about how to start a daycare.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this fun guide, and I look forward to teaching you lots more as you explore your options for making money at home.  Remember, starting a daycare is definitely an option to make money and stay home with your kids, but it is not your only option!  You can continue to learn how to start a daycare, or you can start a preschool instead and save your sanity along the way!

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