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mamamanda 05:50 AM 01-11-2015
So, I think I'm ready to take the plunge. lol I got really burnt out before maternity leave and had some negative experiences with childcare so I just allowed myself to enjoy some extended time off with my children. I allowed myself to be seen more like a babysitter instead of as a home daycare which didn't set clear boundaries to protect the needs of my own family.

Well, I'm ready to start up my "daycare" now and since I don't currently have any full time kiddos, I have the amazing opportunity to start fresh, so to speak. I'm sure I'll be asking several questions in the next few weeks, but I have taken the advice of several of you here and started writing up my handbook with policies in place. I am actually getting excited about rejoining the world of childcare again.
That being said, what I'm wondering about today...

Our home is not set up where I can have a "dedicated" child care space separate from our living area. Our home is a long rectangle with our family room, bathroom, bedroom, and utility/computer room at one end. Our children's bedrooms are on the other end. Our kitchen, living room, and main bathroom are in the center. We know we don't want dck's in our family room/bathroom at the far end, so that will be blocked off during daycare hours.

So basically, I see four options with pros and cons to each and I was wondering what your opinions are based on your own experiences. The way things are set up right now, our children's toys are all stored in their bedrooms so I am basically starting over from scratch here.

1. Leave our children's bedrooms as they are and block them off during the day. That means I would just be using the large living room, kitchen and bathroom for daycare hours. (Still using one bedroom as the nap room.) I would move shelving and toy storage into the living room and make that the play room during the day.

2. Leave bedrooms as they are, but use them as playrooms during the day to give us more play spaces. (I feel a bit nervous about allowing dck's to play in our children's rooms. We did this before and my children's things were always getting broken, kids trying to jump on bed, etc. I do have policies in place to hopefully curb this type of behavior now. Also, if a dck gets sick I don't want to have to disinfect my children's bedrooms over it.)

3. Move my boys into one bedroom and use the other one as a dedicated play room. My children are 3 years old and 4 months so I can actually see some positives to having them in the same room especially since my baby typically sleeps through the night.

4. Move my boys into one bedroom and set up the other room as a preschool space. I would still be using the large living room as the main play area.
Some things to consider: I've set up my daycare schedule with a strong emphasis on "preschool." Think Montessori style play-based learning. Our morning hours will constitute preschool while afternoon hours will be more like after care where children just play. So if we use the living room as our only play space I will have a closet set up with the preschool toys/activities to be used in the mornings with children being allowed to choose an activity one at a time, pick up and put away, and then choose a new one. Then during the afternoon the closet will be closed and children will just play with typical daycare toys in the same room. I'm not sure how that will work or if I really do need a separate room for preschool activities vs. daycare activities.

Thanks so much for all the help you've given me so far and any advice you have on this!
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mamamanda 06:20 AM 01-11-2015
I should also note that I plan to do small group care. I don't want to have more than 6 six children including my own at any one time.
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