Head Count?

[amberleigh222]

Do you find yourself constantly doing a head count?

[midaycare]

All the time! And I only have 6!

[hwichlaz]

not in the house, but at the park yes

[momofsix]

All the time. I even did it with my own 6 lol

[Baby Beluga]

Yes, and I only have 4, lol.

[e.j.]

All day long - inside and out. Glad to know I'm not the only one!

[Josiegirl]

Definitely! To the point that the SA dcks were doing it all summer.

[284878]

Yes, when I use to watch my nephew's and niece I would do Marco Polo at the park. If I could not see one of the boys in the fort, I would say hi x and they would respond with a hi. My niece was the youngest and never out of my site.

[daycarediva]

Yes!

At every transition, potty break, during walks, at the playground pretty much constantly- I count up, and then back down.

[Blackcat31]

Oh goodness....I do head counts all the time... including those times in which I am not even at work. Guess some habits are hard to break.

[storybookending]

We got yelled at for calling them "head counts" by our licensor my last year of care at the center with school age kids. Appearently "face counts" are what we are supposed to call them now

Literally looked at me and said "and here where "Billy" is signed in. How do you know that child is "Billy""... oh I don't know maybe because he's in 4th grade and he's been in this after school program since K. "So you looked at him". No lady I didn't look at him at all.. in fact that's just a random child that got into our locked facility by himself and is following our schedule and no one noticed he doesn't belong

That being said my current group in small and my yard is fenced. I don't literally count them in my head just notice if one is missing or maybe that's my subconscious counting.. oh where is "Billy"? Oh he was climbing the ladder when I scanned and I didn't see his little head peak out. There he is.

[284878]

Originally Posted by storybookending

We got yelled at for calling them "head counts" by our licensor my last year of care at the center with school age kids. Appearently "face counts" are what we are supposed to call them now

Literally looked at me and said "and here where "Billy" is signed in. How do you know that child is "Billy""... oh I don't know maybe because he's in 4th grade and he's been in this after school program since K. "So you looked at him". No lady I didn't look at him at all.. in fact that's just a random child that got into our locked facility by himself and is following our schedule and no one noticed he doesn't belong

That being said my current group in small and my yard is fenced. I don't literally count them in my head just notice if one is missing or maybe that's my subconscious counting.. oh where is "Billy"? Oh he was climbing the ladder when I scanned and I didn't see his little head peak out. There he is.

What if you can't see their face and you can only see the back of their head do you have to count them or worry that you can not find them?

[storybookending]

Originally Posted by 284878

What if you can't see their face and you can only see the back of their head do you have to count them or pretend that you don't see them?

Idk she was not our regular licensor and full of it. My boss said she was just looking for something to nit pick because she couldn't find anything else wrong.

[midaycare]

Originally Posted by Josiegirl

Definitely! To the point that the SA dcks were doing it all summer.

Ha! I can beat that, my 2 and 3 year olds do it. How many kids do we have Everyone? Only problem is they don't always count themselves

[Snowmom]

All. Day. Long.

[BumbleBee]

Yup! Only time I don't catch myself doing it is if I only have 1 or 2 kids.

The last time my licensing consultant was here she says "wow, busy day here today! How many do you have today?" (she was nice, not accusing or anything. I had a very busy group and it sounded very busy because it was!)

I completely blanked. We had 11, then one got picked up so that was 10, then 2 got dropped off so we were at 12, then 3 got picked up so I was at 9. All of that happened in the hour before she arrived so my brain was not in tip top shape.

I'm standing there going "um....uh...." and the 4 year old looks up and goes "there's 9 here right now. 2 girls and 7 boys."

Licensor looks at me, I just say "yeah, she's right. 9 kids right now."

[hwichlaz]

Mine are all in a gated room together, lol. I have to open and close the gate for them, so I don't count when we're inside.

[flying_babyb]

11 kids most days. Count them once leaving classroom, call ALL their names (and some respond) then repeat when we get to the hallway before outside, then a headcount on the playground. Each time we have to put a mark next to the child's name. On the playground I count at least 10 times in a hour cause we only have a half fence between the blacktop (2 and 3's playground) and the woodchips (4+ playground) and the grass (1.5 and under). I swear my kids try to sneak over to the big kid side at least once a hour.

[daycare]

My rule is that every time the door opens we do another head count. Also any time we go from inside to outside. I have 12-14 kids

[Buttercup]

Yup, it was my center's policy to do head counts every time we went from one room to another, or inside/outside. We also had to know how exactly how many children were in our room at all times. There's no way I'll be able to break that habit when I start my own daycare

[CeriBear]

All the time!

[DaveA]

Yes- especially when we're outside or on a trip somewhere.

[sharlan]

All. The. Time.

When we go on outings, I count every 15 minutes, every time we get in or out of the car.