Daycare Room Question

[littlemonkeys]

The earlier thread of the daycare room pictures got me to thinking about how everyone's daycare room is setup? I have a few of my older dck's turning two this Summer and right now our dc room is more like a dc playroom with toys and a reading center. My dc room is also our only living room in our house and at night the room looks more like an actual living room with toys . I would like to find a way to setup my dc room to be more like a preschool setting and still have the ability to have a living room at night. I know I'll never have a daycare room like the one posted in the other thread (although I'd love to), but I'd like to have something that might be more appealing to parents of older children and still have that homey look. KWIM?

Any ideas? Anyone else do dc out of their only living room?

[DBug]

I won't be much help, but I'm looking forward to other people's ideas too.

Right now our living room is completely converted to daycare use. We don't have a functional living room and we end up doing all of our hanging out and relaxing in our unfinished basement with all of my kids' toys. And when we have friends over on the weekend, the only presentable place to sit and chat is at the kitchen table. Definitely not ideal, but a new house isn't in the budget right. I'd love to have a way to hide the daycare stuff and make my living room back into a living room, at least for the weekend.

[Michelle]

I know how you feel, I used to have alphabet charts on the walls ,tons of toys , lego tables and cots in my living room when I first started.
At night I just looked at it all and got this feeling that I was still at work.
So I am fortunate enough to have an enclosed patio and moved it all out in there, but in your situation I would just get toddler tables and chairs , a pre school work book(you can get them at walmart) parents are usually impressed by these , get those cool toddler paints, and just keep it simple ....less is more

[SandeeAR]

I do Daycare out of my den. The toys are on one side of the room and the sofa on the other. They kids beds are all in one of the bedrooms. It is just my DH and I, so it is our den at night. The baby using the exersaucer is only here 2 days a week, so when he isn't here, the saucer is in the nap room.


Pic #1 is from just inside the door, facing the "very small" play area.
Pic #2 is from just inside the door, shows my desk with computer and changing table
Pic #3 is of the toy area. They red baskets on the bar hold the colors, baby toys, flash cards, kids dvds, non hard board books.

On the weekends, if we have company coming, I can easily move the "ball toys" (in front of the tv), the swing and saucer to the nap room. Then it becomes pretty much adult friendly. IF I really needed to, I could move all the baskets too, for a party or such.

[SandeeAR]

Here are the other two pics. Of the kitchen area and the nap area.

[cillybean83]

i'll post some pics of my new set up when the babies wake up

Sandee...we have the same furniture!!!!!!! lol

[SandeeAR]

BTW, the chairs don't match my table right now. My kids built me the wooden table I wanted for Christmas, but the chairs are from the old table. Gotta get free time to go to the flea markets and find some chairs to paint!


The changing table and toddler table and chairs can all go to the nap room if necessary. In about 45 minutes I can have my den back to normal and the kid stuff hid. I don't do that on a regular basis, just as needed.


Hope I didn't give you too much info. Hope some of it helps!


PS, I would love to have a large daycare room too!

[littlemonkeys]

Yes Sandee, that totally helps and loved seeing the visuals. It looks great! What is the age range of your dck's?


My living room looks somewhat of the same as yours. I have all the dck's nap in my 17 month olds room. I think I just need to get some sort of a table so the dck's can do preschool activities instead of using my kitchen table. I don't mind the fact that we always HAVE toys in the living room since we have a 17 month old. Like you said, it's easy to clean those things up for certain occasions.

[SandeeAR]

Originally Posted by FritzKorner

Yes Sandee, that totally helps and loved seeing the visuals. It looks great! What is the age range of your dck's?


My living room looks somewhat of the same as yours. I have all the dck's nap in my 17 month olds room. I think I just need to get some sort of a table so the dck's can do preschool activities instead of using my kitchen table. I don't mind the fact that we always HAVE toys in the living room since we have a 17 month old. Like you said, it's easy to clean those things up for certain occasions.

Mine are all part time: 2.5 y/o dcg and 5 mo dcb, siblings...every Mon &
Tues, e/o Friday.

1 y/o dcb....Mon., Tues. & Friday one week,
Wed. and Thurs. next week

9 mo dcg....Mon-Thurs

All come 7:20-7:40 and leave 4:45-5:30


So as the babies grow, the swing, saucer etc. will go into the attic, until the grandkids come along.

I used to use my living room also for my daycare, and it is a room that was used for everything as we have no family room. I have a formal dining room that I have converted to my daycare room now. We added onto our kitchen a few years ago and it is actually bigger now than my dining room is, so we do all our entertaining in the kitchen area now. So my dining room was just being a wasted space,we never used it anymore. So I decided to make that my daycare room and it works out beautifully. I have toys in there and there is space for the kids to play now. It is their room and the are so proud to have their own room for just them to play in. If any of you have an extra room your not really using, try using it for your daycare room. It really has saved my living room and my furniture!

[Michelle]

Originally Posted by SandeeAR

Here are the other two pics. Of the kitchen area and the nap area.

Absolutely love your nap room!

[SandeeAR]

Originally Posted by Michelle

Absolutely love your nap room!

Thanks that was one advantage of moving this month to this new house. I lost den/play space, but gained a room just for the kiddos to sleep! My previous house had hardwood floors on a crawl space, so I did toddler beds (CL for $30 with mattress and bedding). I felt it would be to cold on the floor with nap mats.

[busymomof2]

I am fortunate enough to have a room dedicated to daycare- my formal living room. I have attached some photos of my main daycare room. One shows my circle time area. Another shows the shelves with boxes that hold the toys. This might be good for you to hide the toys in your living room. They are all labeled with a photo so the children can easy put them away. The other photo shows my display wall. Where I display crafts, the schedule, holiday or seasonal bulletin boards, and a toy box. The last photo shows the kids lounge area, library, and parent board. My kids nap in my tv room on nap mats and eat on a bench in my dining area/kitchen. My husband would throw a fit if the whole house was taken over by the daycare. I also have upstairs that is daycare free. LOL.

[SandeeAR]

Those of you with dedicated daycare rooms, must have larger homes. Mine is only about 1200 sqft. Den, Kitchen, 3 bdrms, and 1 1/2 baths.

[Candyland]

Originally Posted by busymomof2

I am fortunate enough to have a room dedicated to daycare- my formal living room. I have attached some photos of my main daycare room. One shows my circle time area. Another shows the shelves with boxes that hold the toys. This might be good for you to hide the toys in your living room. They are all labeled with a photo so the children can easy put them away. The other photo shows my display wall. Where I display crafts, the schedule, holiday or seasonal bulletin boards, and a toy box. The last photo shows the kids lounge area, library, and parent board. My kids nap in my tv room on nap mats and eat on a bench in my dining area/kitchen. My husband would throw a fit if the whole house was taken over by the daycare. I also have upstairs that is daycare free. LOL.

Your animal art in the first picture are absolutely adorable!

[Abigail]

BusyMomof2, where did you get the "grass" and "tree" for your wall? I'm thinking about painting it on a wall and painting a tree then taping creations over it. I could take apples the children color to the tree or Christmas Light Bulbs or birds....LOL

[littlemonkeys]

Originally Posted by SandeeAR

Those of you with dedicated daycare rooms, must have larger homes. Mine is only about 1200 sqft. Den, Kitchen, 3 bdrms, and 1 1/2 baths.

My house is 1700 sq ft, but we only have the one family room like you. 3 bedrooms and two baths and a kitchen... oh and a garage that DH would never let me convert.

[littlemonkeys]

Originally Posted by Abigail

BusyMomof2, where did you get the "grass" and "tree" for your wall? I'm thinking about painting it on a wall and painting a tree then taping creations over it. I could take apples the children color to the tree or Christmas Light Bulbs or birds....LOL

Abigail, I bought a wall decal off Etsy.com for my LO's room/ nap room... It 's a tree and monkey and it's so cute. I gets tons of compliments on it. Here are some samples of the decals. Kind of pricey, but cute!

http://www.etsy.com/search_results.p..._type=handmade

[busymomof2]

Abigail I got the grass from GW School Supply (it's a grass border). The tree I made from construction paper. The trunk is brown rolled up then twisted to give the 3d effect. The green is not stappled flat to also give the 3d effect. I thought of painting too but when the holidays come I go all out with decorations for Halloween and Christmas and it might clash but the tree stays up all year. I also put numbers on the trees so the kids can find the numbers 1-20.

Thanks regarding the wall art. My kids LOVE doing crafts. We do several a week based on our theme.

[AnythingsPossible]

These are pictures from a few years ago. We have different flooring now, the old carpet was icky. A different table, and a different set up, but this worked nicely at the time for the same purpose you are describing. I used the little tikes table for crafts and activities, the book shelf held arts and crafts stuff. At the time when it was set up this way, my toys were in a different area, so that is why you don't see toys on the shelves. The books could easily be put in a basket and stored under the table they were on, and the book shelf could be covered with a cloth when daycare isn't in session, then it isn't all out. I used to leave the little table out as my kids were still little and used it, but it could be put away as well when not doing daycare. Not sure why the one picture is grainy??

[Missani]

Originally Posted by SandeeAR

Those of you with dedicated daycare rooms, must have larger homes. Mine is only about 1200 sqft. Den, Kitchen, 3 bdrms, and 1 1/2 baths.

I have a tiny home. It is one level with 3 small bedrooms, a bathroom, a family room, and a kitchen. It does, however, have a basement. We recently finished it and I use the space for daycare. It is a narrow room, but it runs the length of the house and gives me a great space. We did lose a lot of storage space, but it is worth it to be able to go upstairs, shut the door, and have our own living space.

[Missani]

Originally Posted by Abigail

BusyMomof2, where did you get the "grass" and "tree" for your wall? I'm thinking about painting it on a wall and painting a tree then taping creations over it. I could take apples the children color to the tree or Christmas Light Bulbs or birds....LOL

Also, I have the "seasons tree" from wallcandyarts.com

If you want to see a picture of how it looks on my wall, feel free to look at my website:
www.sproutingseedschildcare.com


and click on photos.

[Abigail]

AnythingsPossible,
What do you all have on your brown shelf? I have a few of those and am wondering what to use them for. They're not very deep, but the puzzles fit very nicely on the top. Is this all for daycare or do you keep personal items on it? Also, I noticed you have a pet door. What kind of pet door is it (requires a collar to walk through, automatic open/close, basic with a flap) and do you like it? I am thinking about buying one once we move to give access to the laundry room for the cat's litter boxes, but unsure of what type to buy and how large I should have the opening to keep daycare kids heads out of it. LOL

Missani, I LOVE your website! How many children do you have enrolled? Is looks very professional and your walls and very cute too.

Little Monkeys, thanks for the link to etsy. I think that is where I got my wedding tree guest book idea from. Those wall art trees are very elegant and do have a price tag. To bad I can't order an outline to stick on the wall and trace it and paint it! LOL, I wonder how much a projector would cost and where I could find a pre-printed tree design to make one myself. I'm not very artistic, but I may have to hire someone to do a wall mural. Those images also have it on brown/tan wall paint and some on blue and they both look nice...too many options. Thanks for the ideas everyone.

[robinsoninfl]

We enclosed our carport and made that the daycare/playroom. Our dining room has become an office as well and its small but I've managed to make our desk, 2 highchairs and a table with 2 chairs fit into it. I'm still working on the sleep arrangement. Pack and plays are set up in my daughters room but get taken down in the evening. Here are some pictures of the play room however. Then also a photo of my living room from the back wall of the playroom. Hopefully this works. It's my first time adding attachments.

[WImom]

I was also lucky to have dedicated space (My formal living room).

[WImom]

here are few more...

[Abigail]

WImom, I want to come to your daycare! I love that kitchen set, if I ever come across one I'm buying it! What do you have labeled in each of the plastic drawers by your kitchen set? I'm guessing one is play food, play cooking items, and something else? I know you posted your pictures of the books on the wall before and I still think that is cute. I like having things off the floor and am wondering if I should do this. The tough part is that I always like to re-arrange my house and would hate to have to take those off the wall to move them. Where did you get them at again or where they rain gutters of something? I forgot. Thanks

[AnythingsPossible]

Originally Posted by Abigail

AnythingsPossible,
What do you all have on your brown shelf? I have a few of those and am wondering what to use them for. They're not very deep, but the puzzles fit very nicely on the top. Is this all for daycare or do you keep personal items on it? Also, I noticed you have a pet door. What kind of pet door is it (requires a collar to walk through, automatic open/close, basic with a flap) and do you like it? I am thinking about buying one once we move to give access to the laundry room for the cat's litter boxes, but unsure of what type to buy and how large I should have the opening to keep daycare kids heads out of it. LOL

At the time, the brown shelf mainly had arts and crafts supplies and books on it. It was for the most part all daycare stuff, a few cookbooks on there for personal use. The above was an old picture. Current pictures; I now have one shelf in my front entryway closet that has books, and an assortment of toys on it. Some of the buckets are from an old toy shelf that broke, some are just storage buckets you find at the store. Books are on the bottom shelf of both closets and toys get shuffled from shelf to shelf as they get bored with whats out. I store daycare nap mats in large ziploc storage bags and hang them above the shelf in the entryway closet. Arts and crafts are now stored in a large tub, with papers and colors always available at the table.

[AnythingsPossible]

Originally Posted by Missani

I have a tiny home. It is one level with 3 small bedrooms, a bathroom, a family room, and a kitchen. It does, however, have a basement. We recently finished it and I use the space for daycare. It is a narrow room, but it runs the length of the house and gives me a great space. We did lose a lot of storage space, but it is worth it to be able to go upstairs, shut the door, and have our own living space.

I adore your shelves and baskets. Where did you find them at??

[Abigail]

AnythingsPossible, Any advice on a pet door?

[AnythingsPossible]

Originally Posted by Abigail

AnythingsPossible, Any advice on a pet door?

We bought it at home depot. It is just an average pet door, though it has double doors to help insulate. It is not controlled by their collars or anything, they go in and out when they need to. I have had kids throw toys out the door and a little girl crawled through it once, the little ones are always interested in it once they learn to crawl and watch the dogs go in and out. I do like the pet door and it hasn't really caused any issues, just a lot of redirection when they first discover it. I have a medium sized dog, so it is definately big enough that a kid could get their head through, but other then the one escape, it hasn't been an issue.

[WImom]

Abigail - they are rain gutters for the books. That's the only thing I don't like about them is that I can't move them since it would be a pain.

The cabinet next to the kitchen has dress up and food in it. I love my kitchen set too. I searched on Craigslist for months waiting for someone to post one...lol.

Thanks for the comments. This is my first year having a seperate space and I love it. My old house it was in the living room.

[littlemonkeys]

Thanks everyone for all the visuals... I love being able to see other providers set ups!

Originally Posted by Missani

Also, I have the "seasons tree" from wallcandyarts.com

If you want to see a picture of how it looks on my wall, feel free to look at my website:
www.sproutingseedschildcare.com


and click on photos.

I love your website and photos!! Thanks for sharing!!!

Originally Posted by WImom

Abigail - they are rain gutters for the books. That's the only thing I don't like about them is that I can't move them since it would be a pain.

The cabinet next to the kitchen has dress up and food in it. I love my kitchen set too. I searched on Craigslist for months waiting for someone to post one...lol.

Thanks for the comments. This is my first year having a separate space and I love it. My old house it was in the living room.

I was totally wondering what your bookshelves were too... great idea!!

[Missani]

Thanks for the compliments, ladies! I haven't posted my website before...I guess I was a little afraid of what people would say?

I have 6 children enrolled. All of them are between 7 months and 4 years, so this is the maximum I can have. I am licensed for 10, but since they are all under SA I can only have 6. I am, however, in the process of expanding my license to be able to take 8 under SA because one dcm is pregnant (due any day) and we are TTC. I have no desire to take any more at this time but I LOVE the ones I have.

My shelves are from IKEA and the baskets are from Land of Nod (they were on sale).

[littlemonkeys]

Originally Posted by Abigail

AnythingsPossible,
What do you all have on your brown shelf? I have a few of those and am wondering what to use them for. They're not very deep, but the puzzles fit very nicely on the top. Is this all for daycare or do you keep personal items on it? Also, I noticed you have a pet door. What kind of pet door is it (requires a collar to walk through, automatic open/close, basic with a flap) and do you like it? I am thinking about buying one once we move to give access to the laundry room for the cat's litter boxes, but unsure of what type to buy and how large I should have the opening to keep daycare kids heads out of it. LOL

Missani, I LOVE your website! How many children do you have enrolled? Is looks very professional and your walls and very cute too.

Little Monkeys, thanks for the link to etsy. I think that is where I got my wedding tree guest book idea from. Those wall art trees are very elegant and do have a price tag. To bad I can't order an outline to stick on the wall and trace it and paint it! LOL, I wonder how much a projector would cost and where I could find a pre-printed tree design to make one myself. I'm not very artistic, but I may have to hire someone to do a wall mural. Those images also have it on brown/tan wall paint and some on blue and they both look nice...too many options. Thanks for the ideas everyone.

Oh my gosh.... I didn't even see this. You are so welcome. My sister is very artistic. I'm going to ask her if she knows where you can find a pre-printed tree design and I'll get back to you.