Filling Up Your Time Slots The Best Of Your Ability

[awestbrook713]

Ok so I became registered as of August 1st. I have a total of 7 kids on my daycare list and will have a newborn around the end of october beginning of november. Now with school starting I have kids I won't be seeing at all except maybe school vacations, but I still need to have income, how do I go about making sure my time slots are filled and I don't go over in my numbers. I am thinking I am going to see what my schedule looks like for the first month of school and go from there. My other concern is if I take on more kids during school season how do I make sure it won't run over into the summer when I am all ready pretty full. Any advice would be helpful. I can give you an idea of what I think my schedule will look like once school starts if needed, I am not looking to kill myself watching the max amount since I have a 6 month and 2 boys of my own but I do need to make in the range of $700-$1000 a month.

[LittleD]

Well, you can take on other kids with the understanding that they won't be able to come during pd days, and that there may not be space during week long breaks. That's what I thought of doing. Maybe advertise gearing towards teachers (same schedule that you need) maybe offering a slightly discounted rate due to the inconvenience.

[erinalexmom]

I am almost to the point of letting my school agers go for this very reason. They take up a space that I need for a full time income and during the school year I make less on the school agers cause they are here for a shorter period of time. Within the next year I will be letting them know they will be needing to look for other care for thier big kids. I just cant take the hit financially for 9 months out of the year that they are in school just to have 3 months of good income, when I have kids on my waiting list that are younger and would pay the full rate year roud.

[e.j.]

In my day care, parents either pay to hold their child's spot open or not. If not, they take the chance that there may or may not be an opening when they need one for their child.

If parents agree to pay me to hold their school ager's spot during the school year, they are guaranteed a spot when they need it. Since I'm still getting paid, I don't have to look for additional kids to fill the spot. I have no worries about going over my numbers because I'm already counting them as if they're here.

Usually, though, once a child ages out of day care and heads of to school, parents can't afford or don't want to pay to hold the spot. In this case, my school agers become drop-ins. They can come during school vacations weeks or days off as long as I have room for them. Parents know I may or may not be able to take their school age child on any given day but that's the risk they take if they don't pay to keep the spot. Again, I have no worries about going over in my numbers. If I'm full, I just say so and the parent has to find other accommodations.

[Abigail]

Wow can't you guys have so many full time and then 2 b/a school agers as well? That is how it works here so the 2 school age we have are fine even when we are full. We don't lose a spot because we can't have those 2 school age be full time during the school year anyway.

If I was extra limited, I would advertise for drop-in options of short-day options on a regular part/full time basis to make sure they're picked up before school gets out and dropped off and school starts kind of thing.

[Crazy8]

honestly, you can't have it all. those ones you won't see till vacations need to become drop-ins. If you have the space for them at that time you can take them but if you are full with "regular" clients then you can't. If I worked a year round job with a baby/toddler I would not sign on with a daycare that was going to terminate for the summer because they had school kids coming back and I'd be pretty mad if they weren't upfront with that info and just termed me when the time came. You need to decide if you are doing preschool or school aged but you can't mesh the two unless like Abigail mentions, it can be done without messing with your numbers - but since you are worried about going over I'm guessing that is not the case.