Since my DS was born I have only accepted infants and toddlers (6 weeks-2 years). Now that he is older, I have been considering accepting older children and revamping my whole DC!

I e-mailed a woman looking for care a few weeks ago that has a 4 year old and a 5 year old (girls) and is looking for care in my area. She lives outside of my city but is having a heck of a time finding care there. I decided not to even mention a sibling discount and to quote her the same rate for BOTH kids. I figured I wouldn't hear back from her after telling her the rate, but since I will no longer settle just to get clients in the door, I sent the e-mail any way.

So, she e-mailed me back this morning and would like to set up an interview and needs care starting as early as next Monday. I have not e-mailed her back as of yet because I am still deciding whether or not I want to change everything to offer care to older children.

Our home is slightly on the small side, we have 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. My living room/dining room has been the main DC area and as I have only had infants and toddlers mostly, that has worked out great! I obviously feel like I am surrounded by toys but I don't have much room to work with.

I am thinking if I did enroll older children that I would set up the 3rd bedroom (currently used as a nap room) as a play room of sorts. Everything is attached, the bedroom is right off of the main living room and dining room. It currently has a queen sized bed in it which is not being used but is taking up a ton of space. I would move the queen into my DS's room and then I would have a decent amount of floor space in that room. There, I could put things on the walls and decorate it better for DC.

Anyway, I am rambling.... My main question is what are your routines like for older kids (1-5)? I would still have PT baby a few days per week but I would like to be able to have a pretty strict routine established day 1 if I were to enroll this new family. We have a park across the street, a swing set in my back yard, and a walking path behind my house. I also would like to take weekly (or biweekly?) field trips with DS and the girls. Zoo, library, a bigger park, etc to keep us busy in the summer.

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I have children ages 3-5 (with ONE 20-month-old who is a sibling and here 3 days a week).

I love our routine. It works well for us. Time passes by quickly and the children learn. I can PM you my schedule if you'd like.

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I'd be interested in seeing too!

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I'll PM you, too.

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Awesome thank you!

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My routine is the same each and every day.

Arrivals/Free play
8am - Breakfast
820 - Clean up/potty breaks
830-9am Free play
9am - Diaper changes/potty breaks
915am - 11am Scheduled activity
11am - Handwash & sit down for lunch
11:15 Lunch
1145 Lunch cleanup, handwashing
1200 Circle time/Read books
1220 Diaper changes/potty breaks
1230 Nap
3pm - Diaper changes/potty breaks
315 - Snacktime
330 - Departures/free play

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Do you have a trial period? You could always try it and see how things go. You might really love having older kids, I know I do. I wont take any kids younger than 18 months anymore.

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Personally, if I could get all older kids, I'd do it! 18 months and older is the best group in my opinion. They socialize more, are apt to learning more things, they can participate in most activities, etc.

With that comes attitudes, personalities, sometimes the smart mouth and the dreaded potty training. I'd much rather take all that and more than have to deal with frozen breast milk, bottles, and babies being up at naptime.

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I only do the older kids and advertise as a preschool and prek program. I currently have all 3's and 4's except one who just turned 2 but is a sibling of one of my 4's. This is our schedule:

7:00 – 8:00 – Arrival – All centers open
8:00 – 8:30 – Breakfast
8:30 – 9:00 – Breakfast clean-up - routines – diapers, toileting, etc. as needed
8:30 – 9:30 – Free play – All centers open
9:30 – 10:30 – Teacher directed activities and centers including arts and crafts and theme related items
10:30 – 10:45 – Circle Time, welcome song, reading (Mother Goose Time)
10:45 – 11:45 – Outside Play (weather permitting) or vigorous indoor play (i.e. dancing, etc) if weather doesn’t permit outdoor play
11:00 – 11:30 – Routines – diapers, feeding infants, napping, etc as needed
11:45 – 12:00 – Clean up/hand washing/prepare for lunch
12:00 – 12:30 – Lunch
12:30 – 2:30 – Nap/quiet time
2:30 – 3:00 – Children get up from naps, routines – diapers, toileting, etc. as needed
3:00 – 3:30 – Free play – all centers open
3:30 – 3:45 – Afternoon Snack
3:45 – 6:00 – Pick-up time – Free play – outside play (weather permitting)

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