Daycare

Business description

A home daycare is a business that supplies a caregiver to working parents' children. A home daycare provides more than just a babysitter for the kids, it offers a place for them to learn and play. Daycare workers teach, feed, and care for the children while the parents are at work.

Materials needed

A person who is interested in starting up their own home daycare needs to set aside much of their budget for supplies for the daycare. The materials that are needed to run a home daycare include (but are not limited to): toys, highchairs, nap mats, bedding, arts and craft supplies, disposable changing pads, food, eating utensils, sanitary garbage for diaper disposal, step stools for toilet and sinks, small tables and chairs, cleaning supplies, educational materials, school supplies, booster seats, portable cribs or play yards, food, outdoor toys for children, containers for toys and craft supplies, books, cd player, and children's cd's.

Space requirements

The amount of space to run a good home daycare will depend a lot on the number of children that a person decides to accept into their daycare. There is not necessarily a specific requirement for square footage per child at the daycare, but the children will need room to play, sleep, and eat.

Some people who run a home daycare choose to open their entire house to the children, while others like to keep certain rooms, or maybe the basement, for example, as the designated area for their home daycare. Whatever a person decides to do, they should make sure that there is enough room in the room or the house, for the children to learn, sleep, and play comfortably.

Time requirements

Running a home daycare is much more than just babysitting and therefore it also requires more of a time commitment. A person can choose to run a home daycare part-time or full-time. Part-time daycares may run only in the morning (for example, 7:00 am to 12:00 pm), or only in the afternoon (12:00 pm to 5:00 pm.) Full-time daycares will usually take the children before the parents go to work (so sometimes around 7:30 am) and will keep the children until the parents get off work (maybe around 5:00 or 5:30 pm.)

Income potential (scale of 1-5):3

Daycare providers average throughout the nation at about twenty thousand dollars per year.They can start as low as twelve thousand dollars per year.This number will vary depending on the number of children a home daycare takes, the reputation the day care maintains, and the economy in the area.Home daycares will generally serve as great methods of supplemental income.

Keys to success

There are several keys to a successful home daycare. Becoming licensed is an essential part of a successful home daycare. A home daycare must be licensed to even be in business. And following a home daycare safety checklist to ensure the children's safety is another key to a successful home daycare. Children need to be safe while they are in the care of the caregiver and following a safety checklist is a good way to ensure their safety.

Another key to a successful home daycare business is for the daycare worker to separate their home life and their work life. This can be difficult to do since their work life is in their home, but it is very helpful. A home daycare worker can separate home and work life by only using certain rooms in their house for the daycare, or having different toys for their children and the kids in their daycare.

Education is another key to a successful home daycare. Home daycare workers need to constantly be learning how they can better teach and care for the children in their daycare. There are many programs and classes offering in communities and online for home daycare workers.

Risks

The safety and health of the children are two of the biggest risks to a person when they run their own home daycare. There are many very important and strict guidelines that a person needs to follow when they run a home daycare. It is essential that safety risks are eliminated as much as possible around the home and outside the home if the children play outside. Most state agencies offer safety checklists for home daycares.

Probably the biggest health concern for home daycares is children making other children sick. The daycare provider needs to have rules in place for whether or not sick children are allowed at the daycare. Toys and other supplies need to be kept sanitized to help stop the spread of germs. A home daycare needs to proper first aid kit with healthcare supplies to take care of the children if any illness occurs while the children are at daycare.