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Toys from Home
Your child may choose to bring their own bedding and/or an item to snuggle during rest time. I do ask that other toys remain at home. I will provide a wide variety of toys and educational activities and there should be no need to bring your own. I am pretty firm on this rule. I have been flexible with this rule in the past and it always causes conflict among the children and it just isn’t fair to them. Please discuss with your child ahead of time letting them know that I will have lots of toys to play with. I ask that you respect this rule. If your child enters my home with their toy, I will ask you to take the toy with you when you leave. This is not a fun way for them to start their day with me. I suggest that you not allow the toys out of your vehicle. I do understand how difficult it can be to take a toy away from a child. Imagine how difficult it is for me to do this for several children.
Pets
Our family loves animals. I am a 4-H leader and have a small farm in the making. The current animals that I have are; an English Mastiff Dog, 2 cats, 2 Guinnea Pigs (indoors during winter and outdoors during the summer), 3 rabbits and several chickens. There may be other pets in our future. I will let you know in advance if we will be adding anymore animals to our fur family.
Field Trips
I will be bringing the children on field trips. I think they are an important part of child’s development. There are wonderful things to see and places to go that can enhance their love of learning and socialization.
I will do my best to notify you of major trips. I will however have many spontaneous trips to the park and other such locations. I will have a cellular phone with me at all times so that you can contact me. I will also have with me my first aid kit and all emergency contact information and permission slips. Please be sure to sign the permission slip. This permission slip allows me to take your child outside of my home for field trips and in case of an emergency.
Swimming
I have an above ground swimming pool on my property. During the summer months we may use this pool. Please provide a towel and bathing suit that we can keep at my house for the summer months. No child will be allowed in the pool or on the pool deck without a grown up present. My pool deck is blocked with a child safe gate (with security lock).
There may be times we will go to the lake, or a public swimming facility.
Please be sure to sign the Swimming Agreement form.
Birthdays and other Holiday Celebrations
We all come from many different cultural and religious backgrounds and beliefs. I welcome the opportunity to include your family’s favorite holiday traditions in our daily activities and would love to learn more about them myself.
I discourage a general exchange among the children at birthdays since there could be many birthdays’ each year. In addition, children often have birthday parties at their home, so the exchange of presents during daycare hours is not really necessary. Parents are welcome to provide a special treat for the group on their child’s birthday or we will have a gift-free celebration. If you do choose to bring a treat in simply let me know ahead of time so that we can discuss any possible allergies that any child in my care may have.
Dressing Appropriately
Children should be dressed casually because their play is often on the floor or outdoors. Your children WILL get dirty. If they go the entire day without getting dirty then they must not be having enough fun. Please do not send them in their finest clothes. We will play in dirt and paint and even occasionally mud. We will go outside every day weather permitting. The temperature and wind chill factor is checked daily and then the Child Care Weather Watch System is followed to determine when it is safe to bring children outside. Parents should send their children appropriately dressed for a day of outdoor play, art activities, water play and other activities. Non-slippery shoes such as sneakers are best. Please no fancy shoes or heals as they are not safe. Inside my home I have a no shoe policy. Everyone is required to remove their shoes when they come in. This includes your children. Please help them get into the habit of removing their shoes and putting them on the rug when they come in.
Discipline Policy
I do not believe in spanking, slapping, smacking, yelling or hitting of any kind. This type of discipline will not be used in my home (by myself OR PARENTS), regardless of your practices in your own home. Instead, I prefer the following discipline methods to handle any dangerous or hurtful offenses:
For children under the age of about 18 months, I find it most effective to remove the child from the situation, and redirect their attention elsewhere. Although I will most likely explain to the child that the offending behavior was inappropriate, children of this age are rarely able to fully understand what they have done. Fortunately, at this age their attention span is also usually shorter than with older children, so simply showing them a different toy or activity usually does the job.
For children that are over this age, I will alert the child to the offense by saying “we do not hit, hitting hurts”, this allows the child to know what the offence was and why it is not acceptable. If the child chooses not to behave appropriately, I will first explain to the child why their behavior is not acceptable, I will then remove the child from the situation for a break. Not so much of a time out as a chance to regroup.
At the end of the break, I will discuss the offending behavior with the child to be sure they understand the reasons it is not acceptable. I will encourage children to apologize to each other when appropriate however I will not force an apology.
Dangerous and hurtful offenses include hitting, kicking, pushing, hair pulling, throwing objects at someone, climbing on an inappropriate structure and willful destruction of property. Relatively minor offenses will be handled as described above, depending upon the child’s age and developmental stage.
In the rare instance that I feel any child in my care has a serious behavior issue I will request a conference with the parent(s). If an understanding cannot be reached, I reserve the right to terminate our contract with as much notice as possible in order to guarantee the comfort and safety of the other children in my care.
Sign-in/out Log
Effective 1/1/11 you will be required to sign your child in and out each day. There will be a sign in/out log by the front door. This log will be used to keep an accurate attendance for food program and tax purposes. Please use exact times on the log.
Pick-Up Policy
When your child/ren are with me during the daycare day we have a great routine. They are, for the most part, very polite and well behaved. When someone arrives at my home that is not there on a regular basis (and this includes parents) the children are simply not themselves. They tend to get very wound up and behave in ways that are not normally allowed. Because of this I ask that pick up and drop off time be brief. Please do not take this negatively. I enjoy your company and love sharing with you how your child’s day went but when pick up and drop offs last more than a few minutes it is disruptive to the rest of the children that are in my care. Because of this I also try to limit parent visits during the day. I do have an open door policy and would never refuse a parent to come and visit but I do discourage it because of the reasons above. And when you do come for pick up and you see the kids are a little wound up, please know that this is not their normal behavior with me.
Also, once the daycare day has ended my time with my own family is underway. Dinner, homework and family time are all very important to me. I find that spending a lot of time with parents during pick up cuts into my family time and I hope that everyone understands this and does not feel rushed out the door. Please don’t hesitate to call me in the evenings between 7:30-9pm or anytime during the weekend. I also am available via email – I check it regularly and will respond within 24 hours. I also have texting on my phone and use it regularly. So although it isn’t always easy for me to talk with you during pick up and drop off please know there are many other ways to communicate and I am always willing to make time for you.
I will not under any circumstances release your child into the custody of anyone other than his or her parent or legal guardian, as indicated by the signatures on the contract. If you wish to have anyone else pick up your child, please be sure their name is on the list of authorized persons.
If I am unfamiliar with the person picking up I may require a driver’s license as proof of identification before I will release the child into their custody. Anyone picking up a child must have an appropriate car seat in their vehicle or I will refuse to release the child to their care.
Late Policy
As a courtesy to your child and myself, please make every effort to drop off your child on time. If you are going to be late for any reason please call and let me know. If you are more than an hour late without phoning me it will be assumed that your child/ren will not be joining us for that day.
It is required that you pick your child up on time. If you will be unexpectedly tardy it goes without question that you should call me to let me know as soon as you can. There will be a $5.00 late fee assessed for every 1-15 minutes you are late picking up your child. The charge begins the 1st minute after your pick up time. To clarify, if you are 1-15 minutes late you will be charged $5.00. If you are 16-30 minutes late you will be charged $10.00. This is for times you are late that have not been discussed ahead of time. Please call if you are running late. If you are repeatedly late we will discuss our options which may include increasing your daily rate.
Communications Methods
Please feel free to call me at any time during the day. I will not answer the phone if I am in the middle of an activity with the kids but I will get back to you as quickly as I can. I also use texting as a regular way to stay in touch with parents. In addition I can receive emails through my cell phone so if you need me you can email me and even if I’m outdoors playing with the kids I can quickly respond. Any and all of these methods of communication work for me. Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any concerns or questions.
Termination of Care
Our contract may be terminated at any time for any reason, by either party with proper notice. Proper notice will consist of written notice to the provider not less than two weeks prior to the child’s last day of care. If you choose to terminate care with less than proper notice, you agree to forfeit the entire deposit. In addition to the deposit, regular tuition charges will apply for the remaining time your child is in care, and will be prorated for the number of days your child remains.
If at any time, after consultation with the parent or guardian, I feel that you or your child pose a safety risk to myself or any of the children in my care, I will give you as much written notice as possible that care is terminated but in some cases termination of care may be immediate. I will first attempt to resolve any issues with you before resorting to termination of care. If I have to terminate care effective immediately your deposit will not be refunded to you. If I am able to give you notice your deposit will be put towards the last week of care.