Child Care Room

[athomemommy]

Do you have a room that is used for child care? Or do you use your whole house. I would love pictures. I am putting together a guide on how to set up your home for child care. If you would like to be part of this let me know. This is the first of many topics.

[athomemommy]

Forgot to post my address. everydayonpurpose@gmail.com

[cheerfuldom]

I use mostly a basement that is dedicated to daycare. Using my actual living space was a very bad idea for me and the only way I kept going with daycare was to move to a house with a basement. I think providers using their own living space burn out MUCH faster!

[Michael]

http://daycare.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25867

[sharlan]

I use my entire downstairs and 1/2 of our 4 car garage.

[EntropyControlSpecialist]

I use almost the entire downstairs. The entryway, 3 rooms that all lead to one another (no doors), the kitchen, and the Preschool bathroom.

I'll take new photos tomorrow and try to remember to come back here.

[athomemommy]

Originally Posted by sharlan

I use my entire downstairs and 1/2 of our 4 car garage.

Will you take a picture and send me.

[athomemommy]

Originally Posted by cheerfuldom

I use mostly a basement that is dedicated to daycare. Using my actual living space was a very bad idea for me and the only way I kept going with daycare was to move to a house with a basement. I think providers using their own living space burn out MUCH faster!

I agree. I am trying to use one room and the garage. Since our basement isn't ready yet. And won't be for a while.

[Blackcat31]

Originally Posted by cheerfuldom

I use mostly a basement that is dedicated to daycare. Using my actual living space was a very bad idea for me and the only way I kept going with daycare was to move to a house with a basement. I think providers using their own living space burn out MUCH faster!

So true! I think if I had to do this job in my own home, I would have been a permanent resident at the hospital down the street from dEHmom. (i.e. psychiatric ward )

Environment is so important in early childhood. Not only to the provider for stress, structure and sanity but for the children especially. The environment tells us how to behave and how to use items and things. The environment plays a VERY large role in mood, diposition and overall state of mind.

I think it is very important to not only pay attention to the obvious things but even the little things such as color, lighting levels, noise levels, secondary noises, etc. etc...

[frugalmama4]

Originally Posted by Blackcat31

So true! I think if I had to do this job in my own home, I would have been a permanent resident at the hospital down the street from dEHmom. (i.e. psychiatric ward )

Environment is so important in early childhood. Not only to the provider for stress, structure and sanity but for the children especially. The environment tells us how to behave and how to use items and things. The environment plays a VERY large role in mood, diposition and overall state of mind.

I think it is very important to not only pay attention to the obvious things but even the little things such as color, lighting levels, noise levels, secondary noises, etc. etc...

So true!....I hate that the daycare is in my house (the living are, dining and office) Trust I'm working so hard to move everything into the garage A/S/A/P!

Great Post!

athomemommy, to answer your question. What I do to keep some sanity, is use storage items that match my decor/style. I hide things under my sofa (mostly infant items) I have a entertainment system with doors that close off the art supplies. The actual daycare room is in my dinning room, I working on putting up curtains to close the entry way (no door their) out of sight out of mine!

Hope this helps

[Breezy]

I use my dining room but my whole house is a very open floor plan. When we move (which will hopefully be really soon!!!) I will be looking for a home set up better for childcare

[EntropyControlSpecialist]

I picked out beautiful, matching daycare furniture so that I would ENJOY having the items taking up my entire downstairs.
And ... I do. I really, really do. It's pretty and "matchy matchy" which makes me happy.

[thatdivalady]

I use my sunroom and dining room if necessary. The way it's set up they only leave their "area" to take trips to the bathroom. The sunroom leads out to the backyard so they are more than happy to hang out there all day! It's also good for my sanity and my daughter's because I have therapy clients who do daycare in their homes and they have unhappy children because the children feel as though they have to "share" everything. So my daughter hangs out in the livingroom when she wants to and her toys are all separate. It also helps me out for when the kids are gone home and I want to look at an adult room without all the colors!

[jokalima]

My house is small, I have a space that I used as a formal dining room, I moved the dining set to the eat in kitchen, little cramped but it works, and now use the DR for DC only. Is better that way, I could not imagine using my entire house for this, I would go crazy. They do use the living room sometimes to watch TV but they know not to make messes in there, I also use my son's room to change diapers and what I am doing lately is bringing a book basket so they can look at books while I change diapers, this way they won't touch my son's toys and my son won't get frustrated and wont start his usual screaming.

[Creek]

We have a living room and family room on our main floor so I turned the family room into our daycare playroom. It has two doors, one to the kitchen, and one to the main door. So it's nice at the end of the day that I can close the doors and the daycare is 'gone'.

[Abigail]

We purchased this house (first time home buyer!) based on the setup. My DH and I knew that my new career was going to be doing home daycare as that has been my dream since a child. I've worked in a daycare center long enough!

This house was one of the few in our price range with a side entrance which was HUGE on my list. Almost a deal breaker if it didn't have a separate side entrance. LOL. I wanted to keep the daycare completely separate from the home because of how dirty things can get and germs and I didn't want my cats getting hurt by kids.

The daycare families enter through the side garage door and walk down a few stairs to the laundry room which has cubbies and a sign in table. Then the bathroom downstairs is a toddler sized toilet very bare so it's easy to clean! Then the finished bedroom in the corner is the nap room with cots always in place and a crib. Then the bedroom we finished to the best of our abilities is the daycare kitchen with a kidney shaped table, highchair, 1 36" counter space with a matching upper cabinet for meal prep and storage of plates, bowls, cups, etc. Then a mini fridge sits on the floor with a small microwave above it. No flooring in this room except for the concrete which isn't cold. Then the huge livingroom is the main room with areas for reading, baby equipment, changing station, dramatic play, blocks, manipulatives, etc.

When I walk upstairs through the baby gate I'm "home". When I walk downstairs it's like I'm visiting work, lol.