Do You Do Weekend Care?
I am wanting to do weekend care, but I have a few questions that hopefully someone here can help me with.
Do you do drop in or do contract those hours? Do you have a weekend handbook or use your regular handbook? My thoughts was to do contracted hours for the weekend, this way I will always know who is coming and what time and also the amount I will be paid each weekend. Weekend care must be paid on the previous Saturday for the next weekend. And I would do a small handbook for my weekend care. Then if I had openings that were not filled a parent could be a drop in, but would let the parent know if I get a contract for weekends, then I would not have room for them. I was thinking about charging $25.00 a day for 9 hours my regular rates are $21.00 a day. What does everyone think?? |
Make sure you don't burn yourself out working 7 days a week. I don't know what I would do without my weekends off to rest and energize!
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I care for one daycare kid on Saturdays. One and only one, because that's all I can transport. He is contracted Monday through Saturday, but only here 4 or 5 of those days depending on his parents' variable days off. For them I charge normally because Saturday is part of his normal schedule and they pay me the full rate whether they use all the days or not.
Before I got this boy I was planning on taking on one Saturday kid and charging about $5 more/day for Saturday (so $35 instead of $30). I use my regular handbook/contract, but verbally tell the parents that Saturdays are different. There's no routine, no set schedule, we go places, we run errands and go to birthday parties, we often eat lunch out, there's more TV and more junk food. They're cool with it. My DCF actually really appreciates that dcb gets the chance to go to storytime with us and to the zoo and children's museum and things like that. That's a long-winded answer to your simple question, lol. |
Originally Posted by SandeeAR: |
Originally Posted by SilverSabre25: This is just what I was thinking to put into a weekend handbook and then on payment for Holidays would be the same as my regular handbook, if Holiday falls on weekend, they still pay. |
I would definitely charge more for saturday care and I would limit how many I watch on the weekends. You need to have time to do your errands, shopping and such, so I would only want to watch as many as I could easily transport and supervise with my own children. I personally need a break from daycare, so I couldn't see myself doing weekend care unless I was in deep financial need. Don't burn yourself out!
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I used to be open 24/7 but found that other than occasional overnights it wasn't needed. I now am open M-Sat 6am-midnight with hours being contracted based on a regular 40 hour work week. Most of my Sat use is for moms that work retail or waitress and get scheduled for weekends. Sundays would be utilized if I were open but I decided to keep one day for me and my husband. I charge the same for Sat and evening or overnite care - based on contracted hours. $35 per day if part time slot is open no matter whether day is 4 or 10 hours. $5 per hour if over 10 hours. $175 is my full time slot price for consistent contracted hours/week.
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Originally Posted by Little People: Originally Posted by : You can always do whatever you feel comfortable with but I just want to point some things out. If you offer it as contracted hours then you are locked in to work weekends, meaning that if you get a M-F client and then a client that wants you on weekends, even just one day, then you could be working 6-7 days a week. What about family time and family functions etc? I agree that you should charge more for weekends. And just to give you an idea, I charge a weekly FT rate which breaks down to $31 a day. PT breaks down to $35 a day and drop-ins during the week is $37 a day and weekends are only charged by the hour at $5 an hour so if they did a full day on a saturday or sunday (10 hours) it would come out to $50. Just trying to show you that your weekend fee should be considerably more than your normal rates. I do like that you would ask for payment a week before. I don't particularly do this but I do ask for payment in advance. When a client reserves a weekend I don't consider it to be locked in until it's paid for in full. You should also think about making a cancelation policy. What happens if they don't need you afterall or don't show up but have already paid you? Here's what I have (just so you get an idea).: Additional Services Drop-in, before/after-hours and weekend childcare is available. These additional services are not included with regular tuition rates of the scheduled hours and separate payment is expected for each of these. This kind of care requires that you make a reservation which must be pre-arranged. A spot is not guaranteed and depends upon availability and the ability for the childcare provider to meet your needs. To make a reservation please speak to the provider in advance. A specific date and time period will be needed and full payment must be received at the time that the reservation is made. Immediate payment is required to ensure both to the provider and the client that care will be offered at that time. A reservation will not be considered to be confirmed until it is paid for in full and so the provider will be free to schedule personal appointments or fill the spot. To cancel a paid reservation and to receive a full refund, a minimum of 24 hours’ notice is required. If a 24 hours’ notice is not given, a cancellation fee of $10.00 per child will be deducted from the amount paid and the balance will be refunded. A reservation cancelation cannot be made after the actual start-time of such reservation. If this or a “no show” should happen payment will not be refunded so please be sure to cancel any reservations in advance. We are a very active family and planning for a day where we expect to care for a client’s child only to have the child not come is very inconvenient. Please be courteous and mindful of this. -------------- Weekend Care Care on Saturdays and Sundays is considered weekend care and has a 10 hour maximum per day. Because weekends are usually reserved for family time with my family, weekend care is only available at an hourly rate and has a minimum of 4 hours of care even if your child is not here for the full 4 hours. Since weekend care is during non-business hours the regular daycare routine will not apply. We will still have a meal and sleep routine like a normal day; however we will not have curriculum activities. The children will participate in family activities if any are planned. |
heck no! I have them 5 days a week, I think children can spend at least 2 days a week with their parents (its different if you have to work, but its not every sat.)
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Originally Posted by : |
A couple other posts on the subject: https://www.daycare.com/forum/tags.php?tag=weekend+care
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