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MarinaVanessa 12:53 PM 10-26-2012
I got to thinking about this from another thread.

For those of you that offer holiday childcare during the holiday season for shopping and holiday parties etc. Do any of you make cute/creative ads or flyers etc.? I always offer extended childcare by apointment for my enrolled families during the holidays but I was thinking about extending it to non-enrolled families this year.

I'll need to make ads on CL, flyers etc. so I'm curious to see what others have done before or are thinking about doing. Maybe we can brainstorm.
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SilverSabre25 12:59 PM 10-26-2012
I might do something like that this year on Saturdays for shopping...thinking of advertising it (and my daycare!) with flyers during trick or treat. I like near a big shopping area and would be happy to keep kids on Saturdays through Nov/Dec for some decent cash. Maybe $5/hr, $4 hr minimum? Parents provide all food/drinks?
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Blackcat31 01:18 PM 10-26-2012
I have never personally done it but when my dughter was probably 16 or so I let her and a couple friend use my daycare for a parent shopping day(s).

They did both Saturday and Sunday and offered care from 8-noon and again at 1:00 until 4:00 so they didn't have to do any lunches...just an easy snack. They had craft activities planned as well as a couple fun games and stuff. They only took kids potty trained and up to age 5.

Her and her friends advertised in our local newspaper and hung fliers around the neighborhood. They had a great turn out and had a great time!

They charged a flat rate for each block of time and I think overall they made a couple hundred dollars a piece so they were thrilled!

They had all taken the babysitting course our community education services offers so all the parents knew they were "trained" to handle kids.

I don't know how this could or would work for providers and I don't know what rules and stuff would apply but this was several years ago as my daughter is now 24 and we live in a pretty small community so parents all know someone who knows someone who knows someone so everyone basically knew everyone in one way or another.
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MarinaVanessa 02:53 PM 10-26-2012
I have always offered occasioanal evening and weekend childcare for my clients and I have offered parent's night out to the public (with a great turnout) before however this year I want to really open it up and extend it more than just one night. I still have to decide how many hours and what night's I want to offer but I'll be discussing that with the hubs this weekend. Last year I had a huge amount of friends talk to me about how they wished they had a place to send their kids while they did holiday shopping, gift wrapping, cleaning before holiday company came over and for holiday parties etc. and I feel like I missed out on some easy income.

I'm already home (I tend to be a home-body most times) and I always have kids here anyway (baby-sitting one family member's or friend's kids or another) so why not? I figure I'll limit my holiday childcare to about 3 or 4 kids at a time or something and have a laid-back approach unlike my daycare day.

I'll throw the idea that blackcat had about the split shifts on the weekends to my husband ... that sounds interesting. And I was thinking about not only offering childcare on weekends but also on weekdays after daycare depending upon availability. So maybe on weekends no earlier than 9am and no later than 10 pm or 11pm for people thad had christmas parties to attend. Weekdays would be 6pm-10pm and I would supply the snack but the parent would supply their dinner. Lot's to ponder.

Here's a draft flyer that I made ... what do you all think? Please excuse the formatting issues (lines and such), it's the way that I uploaded it to google docs.

Holiday Childcare Flyer
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daycarediva 05:08 PM 10-26-2012
I do Saturdays and hand out flyers. I always have a huge turn out/success and am opening them up to non-clients this year as well.

In the past I have done various ornaments for the parents, baked christmas cookies/cut outs and decorated them, last year we went caroling (I had an older group (4-9).

I think your flyer looks great!
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Nickel 07:54 PM 10-26-2012
hmmm. that has me wondering. I wonder if that would constitute as baby sitting and not fall under the same rules/regs as licensing requirements. Especially for ratios. I would love to take a bunch of older children and have them do stuff at the house while there parents were out. But I'd rather have like 6 at a time and just watch a movie bake cookies, etc....

It would sooo be worth it. I noticed you have $6/hour was it? What is your normal child care rate if you dont mind me asking? I would love love love to do this
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Lyss 11:49 AM 10-27-2012
Sounds like a great idea! I like the way your flyer looks!!

Are you having parents of kids you don't normally watch sign any sort of drop in form or something similar? or just going at it like a one time babysitter?
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MarinaVanessa 12:11 PM 10-29-2012
Originally Posted by Nickel:
hmmm. that has me wondering. I wonder if that would constitute as baby sitting and not fall under the same rules/regs as licensing requirements. Especially for ratios. I would love to take a bunch of older children and have them do stuff at the house while there parents were out. But I'd rather have like 6 at a time and just watch a movie bake cookies, etc....

It would sooo be worth it. I noticed you have $6/hour was it? What is your normal child care rate if you dont mind me asking? I would love love love to do this
I'm in CA and in my area the regs still apply since I'm doing it in my home. That being said that still means I can take care of as many as 8 kids and still be within ratio. I'm thinking I'm doing no more than 3 or 4 at a time.

I based mine off of $5 an hour per child since that is what my normal drop-in rate is. My regular full time rate is $160 week, $3.20/hr. I already offer extra evening and weekend childcare to my clients on an ask for basis, this year I'm just opening it up to everyone else too.

Originally Posted by Lyss:
Sounds like a great idea! I like the way your flyer looks!!

Are you having parents of kids you don't normally watch sign any sort of drop in form or something similar? or just going at it like a one time babysitter?
Yes I will have parents sign forms. As long as I do childcare in my home I have to keep records of them so I'll have them fill out an emergency contact form, emergency medical treatment form etc. Whatever licensing requires of me. It's not too bad, I just won't make the whole parent packet that I usually give out with contract, handbook etc.
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MarinaVanessa 12:15 PM 10-29-2012
I talked to my hubs and he says he'll help me out with this whole holiday childcare thing . We decided to open it up and instead of only doing one day a week or something we are having open hours for pretty much whichever days a parent needs starting from Nov 1st to December 31st.

The nice thing is that since we always already watch our friends and families kids for nothing (they come over for playdates etc) now I can charge them all up until the end of the holidays .

Heres the extra web page I made for the holiday childcare.
If you gals can proofread it and let me know if I'm missing something or if something doesn't make sense. Thanks!!

Holiday CHildcare WebPage
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Blackcat31 01:12 PM 10-29-2012
Originally Posted by MarinaVanessa:
I talked to my hubs and he says he'll help me out with this whole holiday childcare thing . We decided to open it up and instead of only doing one day a week or something we are having open hours for pretty much whichever days a parent needs starting from Nov 1st to December 31st.

The nice thing is that since we always already watch our friends and families kids for nothing (they come over for playdates etc) now I can charge them all up until the end of the holidays .

Heres the extra web page I made for the holiday childcare.
If you gals can proofread it and let me know if I'm missing something or if something doesn't make sense. Thanks!!

Holiday CHildcare WebPage
Under the area where you list how much it costs it says;

"Reservations: Please call for availability. Reservations can be requested by filling out contact form zawqqaaazaqor calling 888.888.8888. Full payment is required upon making a reservation and can be done in person, online or over the phone."


What does the underlined bolded letters mean?

I also wanted to mention that you said to feel free to send a meal with your child even though snacks are complimentary. Do you think it might be wise to mention not sending any thing peanut related in case you get a child with peanut allergies?
Just wondering since that is something highlighted in flyers around here offering holiday babysitter services.

Otherwise, I think it looks great!
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MarinaVanessa 01:57 PM 10-29-2012
Originally Posted by Blackcat31:
Under the area where you list how much it costs it says;

"Reservations: Please call for availability. Reservations can be requested by filling out contact form zawqqaaazaqor calling 888.888.8888. Full payment is required upon making a reservation and can be done in person, online or over the phone."


What does the underlined bolded letters mean?
See I'm so glad I asked. The zawqqaaazaqor was probably my son typing before I hit the publish button That's fixed now.

Originally Posted by Blackcat31:
I also wanted to mention that you said to feel free to send a meal with your child even though snacks are complimentary. Do you think it might be wise to mention not sending any thing peanut related in case you get a child with peanut allergies?
Just wondering since that is something highlighted in flyers around here offering holiday babysitter services.
That's a great idea and I've added it as well.
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frugalmama4 05:39 PM 10-29-2012
MarinaVanessa,

flyer looks great...can you school me on how to make a fancy looking flyer...I need to put some around my neighborhood.


Thx...
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