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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Charging for Curriculum
DaisyMamma 11:25 AM 03-22-2013
Im looking into doing preschool curriculum next fall.
I will need to have an assistant here to care for the babies while I work with the preschoolers.

How do I go about choosing a curriculum. I'm looking at fireflies I think its called.

I figure each kit per kid is around 15/month or so, but I shouldnt have to cover the expense of my assistant either, so thats another 40/month if I base it on 4 kids. Plus my own time, which I realize they are already partially paying on, so I think only another 25/month per kid is fair. Is $20/week reasonable for 2 day preschool curriculum? Do your parents question how you price it?
Around here, if you send your child to just preschool twice a week it costs a very minimum of 160/month. And if I have to bring your kid there and pick up, not only do I charge you gas $ but I don't give a discount for the time she is at preschool.
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snbauser 11:28 AM 03-22-2013
If you need to charge for it then you would be better off raising your rates to cover it. Otherwise you need to think about what if one of them doesn't pay? Are you going to exclude them from the activities?
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EntropyControlSpecialist 11:29 AM 03-22-2013
My tuition price includes the curriculum cost in it. I wouldn't raise rates because of it.
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butterfly 11:30 AM 03-22-2013
In my area, parents expect preschool activities. I love doing it too, so there is no additional charge. When I have babies, they lay on the floor while we do our activities or sit in a bouncy or high chair with some teething rings or something.
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itlw8 11:36 AM 03-22-2013
as parent yes I would mind if you need me to pay more for you to hire and assistant AND wanted me to pay for coloring sheets.

raise your rates if you need to charge for the materials it should be built into the tuition rate. Not sure what to tell you about the cost of hiring an assistant but that should be covered in the tuition of all the children or you just eat the cost.

If someone told me I needed to pay extra to hire an assistant and buy curriculum I think I would just move my child to a place that had it already figured into the rates.
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DaisyMamma 11:44 AM 03-22-2013
Originally Posted by snbauser:
If you need to charge for it then you would be better off raising your rates to cover it. Otherwise you need to think about what if one of them doesn't pay? Are you going to exclude them from the activities?
Yes, that's correct. If the parent doesn't want to pay then the child will be with the assistant. I'm not paying for someone's kid to do curriculum just because they don't want to pay it.

I think raising tuition by $20 is the best way. That's a great idea.
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DaisyMamma 11:51 AM 03-22-2013
Originally Posted by itlw8:
as parent yes I would mind if you need me to pay more for you to hire and assistant AND wanted me to pay for coloring sheets.

raise your rates if you need to charge for the materials it should be built into the tuition rate. Not sure what to tell you about the cost of hiring an assistant but that should be covered in the tuition of all the children or you just eat the cost.

If someone told me I needed to pay extra to hire an assistant and buy curriculum I think I would just move my child to a place that had it already figured into the rates.
The parents are asking me to do it and are aware it will have a cost. I wasn't planning on giving them an itimized bill. I was just going to say, its $20/week for curriculum.

I was going to do it as "optional" but it sounds like just raising rates to include it is the best way to go.
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EntropyControlSpecialist 11:56 AM 03-22-2013
Originally Posted by DaisyMamma:
The parents are asking me to do it and are aware it will have a cost. I wasn't planning on giving them an itimized bill. I was just going to say, its $20/week for curriculum.

I was going to do it as "optional" but it sounds like just raising rates to include it is the best way to go.
$20.00/week seems pretty steep. $20.00/month is far more reasonable.
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DaisyMamma 12:12 PM 03-22-2013
Originally Posted by EntropyControlSpecialist:
$20.00/week seems pretty steep. $20.00/month is far more reasonable.
To the parent, yes.
To me, no. I'd rather not do it if I'm losing $35 per month, per kid. I'd prefer to drive their kid to preschool for $10/week gas $. kwim? Then they can pay the preschool another $160+/month.
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butterfly 12:16 PM 03-22-2013
Originally Posted by DaisyMamma:
To the parent, yes.
To me, no. I'd rather not do it if I'm losing $35 per month, per kid. I'd prefer to drive their kid to preschool for $10/week gas $. kwim? Then they can pay the preschool another $160+/month.
Sounds like you knew the answer before asking...
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Starburst 12:18 PM 03-22-2013
You don't always have to buy curriculum there are ways to make curriculum yourself.

1) Just pick a subject (a broad subject like the beach or animals- or if it is child led you can have the kids pick a topic every monday) and do a web (or a brainstorm) with the kids about things they know about the subject (beach: sand, water, fish or animals: some walk, some fly, some swim), what they want to know (what can people do at the beach or learn more about different animals) and then try to think of different activities you can do that work out each of the "SPICE" domains (Social, physical, intellegence/cognitive, creative, emotional). This is how most child led (and even some teacher lead) curriculums are made.

2) Some curriculums like coloring pages you can find online or just get from walmart or the $1 store and scan on your computer and print it at home yourself. The only thing you will have to pay more for is the paper and the black ink so you can raise your rate alittle bit for that. Sometimes you can just buy one curriculum and then see if you can copy the rest.

3) you can also look at pintrest for some ideas ('In lue of preschool' has some cool things). I have a board on my account for infant,toddler, preschool, and school age curriculum.

Another thing you can do is charge the parents a yearly registration/enrollment/ materials fee (between $10-$50 per child) around the beginging of the school year so you can buy all the school supplies when they have all the sales.

I plan on doing preschool with my daycare but I plan on just charging the same for every age group depending on their full-time or part time attendance; though if they want to enroll in my preschool program their child will need to attend all 5 days a week for the instructional part {or what I call "the sit down preschool"} and for people who will only attend the sit down lession part of my preschool (1 hour every day 5 days week) they will need to pay the part time rate. I also plan on starting my tution rates low at first and slowly in creasing it every year. and I plan on doing curriculum for all ages so the tuition will cover tution.
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NeedaVaca 12:27 PM 03-22-2013
Originally Posted by Starburst:
You don't always have to buy curriculum there are ways to make curriculum yourself.

1) Just pick a subject (a broad subject like the beach or animals- or if it is child led you can have the kids pick a topic every monday) and do a web (or a brainstorm) with the kids about things they know about the subject (beach: sand, water, fish or animals: some walk, some fly, some swim), what they want to know (what can people do at the beach or learn more about different animals) and then try to think of different activities you can do that work out each of the "SPICE" domains (Social, physical, intellegence/cognitive, creative, emotional). This is how most child led (and even some teacher lead) curriculums are made.

2) Some curriculums like coloring pages you can find online or just get from walmart or the $1 store and scan on your computer and print it at home yourself. The only thing you will have to pay more for is the paper and the black ink so you can raise your rate alittle bit for that. Sometimes you can just buy one curriculum and then see if you can copy the rest.

3) you can also look at pintrest for some ideas ('In lue of preschool' has some cool things). I have a board on my account for infant,toddler, preschool, and school age curriculum.

Another thing you can do is charge the parents a yearly registration/enrollment/ materials fee (between $10-$50 per child) around the beginging of the school year so you can buy all the school supplies when they have all the sales.

I plan on doing preschool with my daycare but I plan on just charging the same for every age group depending on their full-time or part time attendance; though if they want to enroll in my preschool program their child will need to attend all 5 days a week for the instructional part {or what I call "the sit down preschool"} and for people who will only attend the sit down lession part of my preschool (1 hour every day 5 days week) they will need to pay the part time rate. I also plan on starting my tution rates low at first and slowly in creasing it every year. and I plan on doing curriculum for all ages so the tuition will cover tution.
I was thinking the same thing! I do preschool activities but there is no way I spend $20 per child per month. I buy construction paper & spend extra for ink but that's about it. I find the coolest stuff on Pinterest! I check out books from the library to go with our themes. There are lots of things you can do that don't have to be expensive.
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KnoxMom 12:39 PM 03-22-2013
You can charge a higher rate because you offer it, but I wouldn't charge a "curriculum fee" per se. In reality, having a curriculum should be expected of you. I use the HighScope Curriculum. It is what our county uses for Pre-K so when kids leave my care they will be familiar with the structure and some of the activities. Just because you choose a certain curriculum, don't feel restricted to ONLY using their products. I buy the textbook that discusses how to approach learning and sample activities, but purchase my own materials and look for similar lesson plans and projects online. I LOVE pinterest; you can get SO inspired from other class projects and learn from other educators. Hope this helps! :-)
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itlw8 12:54 PM 03-22-2013
May I change my mind? the parent asked for it. you will save them 160 + 10

so yes charge it and make it one killer program I would use part of the money to pay for materials like science stuff and art materials. those canned curriculum are alot of coloring sheets and flash cards.
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DaisyMamma 04:35 AM 03-23-2013
Originally Posted by Starburst:
You don't always have to buy curriculum there are ways to make curriculum yourself.

1) Just pick a subject (a broad subject like the beach or animals- or if it is child led you can have the kids pick a topic every monday) and do a web (or a brainstorm) with the kids about things they know about the subject (beach: sand, water, fish or animals: some walk, some fly, some swim), what they want to know (what can people do at the beach or learn more about different animals) and then try to think of different activities you can do that work out each of the "SPICE" domains (Social, physical, intellegence/cognitive, creative, emotional). This is how most child led (and even some teacher lead) curriculums are made.

2) Some curriculums like coloring pages you can find online or just get from walmart or the $1 store and scan on your computer and print it at home yourself. The only thing you will have to pay more for is the paper and the black ink so you can raise your rate alittle bit for that. Sometimes you can just buy one curriculum and then see if you can copy the rest.

3) you can also look at pintrest for some ideas ('In lue of preschool' has some cool things). I have a board on my account for infant,toddler, preschool, and school age curriculum.

Another thing you can do is charge the parents a yearly registration/enrollment/ materials fee (between $10-$50 per child) around the beginging of the school year so you can buy all the school supplies when they have all the sales.

I plan on doing preschool with my daycare but I plan on just charging the same for every age group depending on their full-time or part time attendance; though if they want to enroll in my preschool program their child will need to attend all 5 days a week for the instructional part {or what I call "the sit down preschool"} and for people who will only attend the sit down lession part of my preschool (1 hour every day 5 days week) they will need to pay the part time rate. I also plan on starting my tution rates low at first and slowly in creasing it every year. and I plan on doing curriculum for all ages so the tuition will cover tution.
Wonderful ideas, thanks!
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Starburst 07:05 PM 03-23-2013
Originally Posted by Starburst:
I plan on doing preschool with my daycare but I plan on just charging the same for every age group depending on their full-time or part time attendance; though if they want to enroll in my preschool program their child will need to attend all 5 days a week for the instructional part {or what I call "the sit down preschool"} and for people who will only attend the sit down lession part of my preschool (1 hour every day 5 days week) they will need to pay the part time rate. I also plan on starting my tution rates low at first and slowly in creasing it every year. and I plan on doing curriculum for all ages so the tuition will cover tution.
oops I ment "tuition will cover curriculum".
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Tags:curriculum, preschool - rates
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