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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Adding My Second Family! Yeah!
momofboys 08:28 PM 01-09-2010
I care for one family but starting the week of January 17th I will have two families. While I am excited I am nervous & am hoping it goes smoother than I expect. I assume the first few days will be a little bumpy as I get used to more kids being here. Does anyone have any tips? Also, with taking on more kids I feel like I don't devote as much time to my own kids (especially my school-age kids) b/c we seem more time crunched in the evenings to get things done. My boys go to bed at 8:30 pm so by the time daycare kida are gone (at 5:00) & by the time dinner is finished at about 6:30 it doesn't leave a lot of time. Can anyone offer me good advice?
GretasLittleFriends 09:38 PM 01-09-2010
The only piece of advice I can offer is to ensure your children (and daycare children?) do their homework as soon as they get home from school. I have my daycare kids do this so that way when their parents pick them up, all they have to do is feed them dinner, ensure they bathe, and most importantly, spend some quality time with them before they go to bed. The two school age dc kids I have are kindergarten and first grade, so homework help at this level is not a challenge.
mac60 06:24 AM 01-10-2010
For your dckids, have a daily schedule and stick to it each and every day. BK and lunch same time every day, nap and snacks same time every day. Activities same time each day. It won't be long and they will sense their own schedule and you will find you will have a little time to yourself in the afternoon at nap to wind down with some quiet time yourself.
originalkat 09:40 AM 01-10-2010
Whenever I add a new family it makes me a little nervouse. Adjusting to another child(ren) and the routines/preferences of the parents. I am currently looking for my last child and then I will be full. I dont think it will be too big of a difference from now. My oldest daughter will be in Kindergarten in the fall. We plan to homeschool our two girls so that will be a new challenge...balance and scheduling my kids curriculum/schoolwork and the daycare kids activities and routine. Thankfully, my husband is home a lot during the week so he will be helping with the homeschooling as well.
You will do great. Just work into a routine and get the kids homework done right away so you dont have to worry about it in the evening and you can spend quality time together.
You will do great. Just work into a routine and get the kids homework done right away so you dont have to worry about it in the evening and you can spend quality time together.
momofboys 10:41 AM 01-10-2010
Originally Posted by originalkat:
Whenever I add a new family it makes me a little nervouse. Adjusting to another child(ren) and the routines/preferences of the parents. I am currently looking for my last child and then I will be full. I dont think it will be too big of a difference from now. My oldest daughter will be in Kindergarten in the fall. We plan to homeschool our two girls so that will be a new challenge...balance and scheduling my kids curriculum/schoolwork and the daycare kids activities and routine. Thankfully, my husband is home a lot during the week so he will be helping with the homeschooling as well.
You will do great. Just work into a routine and get the kids homework done right away so you dont have to worry about it in the evening and you can spend quality time together.
Thanks for the advice everyone! Right now we have a pretty set routine/schedule it's just our evenings as a family seem rushed! Prefer I was doing daycare we'd eat dinner at 4:30! Now it's closer to 6:00. I do like the idea about doing homework right when everyone gets home, that's a wonderful idea I plan to implement.Whenever I add a new family it makes me a little nervouse. Adjusting to another child(ren) and the routines/preferences of the parents. I am currently looking for my last child and then I will be full. I dont think it will be too big of a difference from now. My oldest daughter will be in Kindergarten in the fall. We plan to homeschool our two girls so that will be a new challenge...balance and scheduling my kids curriculum/schoolwork and the daycare kids activities and routine. Thankfully, my husband is home a lot during the week so he will be helping with the homeschooling as well.
You will do great. Just work into a routine and get the kids homework done right away so you dont have to worry about it in the evening and you can spend quality time together.
Pammie 11:20 AM 01-10-2010
Hi Janarae - I'm new here, but not to home daycare (I'm in my 22nd year now), so I'm going to jump right in
When my own kids lived at home, I would make sure that my daycare kids would be occupied in an activity (puzzles, coloring, legos) when my kids got home from school, so that I could spend 10 minutes or so just talking to them about their day - mostly uninterrupted from the daycare kids. My kids liked having those couple of minutes of "mom" time when they got home. Then everyone would sit down to afternoon snack together.
I also asked that they have their homework done by the time the last daycare child went home so that the evenings would be a bit more relaxed. Another thing that really helped me was having crock-pot meals a couple of times each week. I'd fill the crockpot at lunchtime when the daycare kids were eating lunch and by the time everyone went home - dinner was ready!
Good luck with your new family!
Hugs,
Pammie
When my own kids lived at home, I would make sure that my daycare kids would be occupied in an activity (puzzles, coloring, legos) when my kids got home from school, so that I could spend 10 minutes or so just talking to them about their day - mostly uninterrupted from the daycare kids. My kids liked having those couple of minutes of "mom" time when they got home. Then everyone would sit down to afternoon snack together. I also asked that they have their homework done by the time the last daycare child went home so that the evenings would be a bit more relaxed. Another thing that really helped me was having crock-pot meals a couple of times each week. I'd fill the crockpot at lunchtime when the daycare kids were eating lunch and by the time everyone went home - dinner was ready!
Good luck with your new family!
Hugs,
Pammie
Unregistered 04:07 PM 01-10-2010
Do you cook dinner? (here my husband does it) If you do it, you could do the prep work during nap time so you can have it ready a little earlier. I always try to get lined up early...lunch is put together while the children are having morning snack so I just have to warm it up at lunch time...snack is put together at lunch so afternoon snack is ready to go. Helps me incase there is anything unexpected that comes up during our day. In daycare you never know...a really messy diaper, someone who almost made it to the bathroom, a phone call, played in too much dirt, water play that you need to clean up after...you get the idea. Once you get going you'll look back and think...I can handle just about anything...just need to do it for a bit.
kitkat 11:29 AM 01-11-2010
Great post janarae! My oldest is in Kdg this year and I sometimes feel like he doesn't get enough of that "mom time" and sometimes our evenings feel rushed, too.
Having a supper menu has helped us. Since I do a monthly lunch one, I just do a supper one now also. I know which daycare days are rougher, so I can plan easy meals or just leftovers.
Having a supper menu has helped us. Since I do a monthly lunch one, I just do a supper one now also. I know which daycare days are rougher, so I can plan easy meals or just leftovers.