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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>I Need Promotion Ideas
permanentvacation 07:40 AM 07-14-2014
My town has a ... kind of like a fair.... coming up. They have a good variety of local companies that set up a booth to promote their businesses. I have been there each year just walking through with the rest of the crowd checking everything out. This year, I have decided to participate and bought a space to advertise my daycare. Can you guys help me come up with ideas of how to promote my daycare there? We can pretty much do anything we want that will be free for the crowd. We can't sell anything.

Some ideas I have are the typical business cards, brochures, and coloring pages. But I want something that really will draw the kids to my booth. I am not creative and definitely can not face paint or anything like that. I am a broke single mother, so I have to watch the costs. I have about 6 weeks to get things together. Any ideas would be appreciated.
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jenboo 08:24 AM 07-14-2014
I vote for music and some easy cheap games!
You could use buckets for like a bean bag toss game (you can make them out of socks and beans) or maybe find something to make a track that cars or balls can go down...?
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mskaykay 09:17 AM 07-14-2014
One year we made lots of homemade playdough and put it in plastic baggies and attached a business card to each baggie. I have also ordered lots of tiny bottles of bubbles (like the kind they pass out as wedding favors) and handed those in a baggie with a business card. One year I set up a booth and on one side I had sensory bins for the kids to explore and on the other spin art and I talked to the parents in the front while the kids did projects. I once saw a group that just set a table of crayons and coloring pages out at their booth or a table with legos. Things that would make the parents hang out and chat for a few minutes. I liked the projects though because then the kids didn't stay endlessly... they finished up and left and I only had to chit chat for a few minutes.
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Mom2TLE 09:26 AM 07-14-2014
You can find some cheap carnival games through oriental trading, then hand out a business card or brochure in a baggie with a coloring page and a couple crayons. Or a Frisbee with a sticker with your info on it. Or a drawing get of some kind maybe a toy for the kids and date night daycare for parents. Balloons will always draw kids but not sure you want to be the daycare handing out choking hazards. Snow cones, or suckers and a business card.
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permanentvacation 09:37 AM 07-14-2014
These are great ideas! Thank you!
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NoMoreJuice! 10:38 AM 07-14-2014
My favorite small gift I've seen attached to a business card/brochure was a little snack-size baggie with a graham cracker, marshmallow, and wrapped miniature hershey bar. The note said "We're looking for S'more kiddos!"

I wanted to steal immediately. Too bad I'm stuffed full of kids and don't need to advertise.
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Second Home 10:41 AM 07-14-2014
Buy a bubble machine , I got one for under $20 ( and it can be a tax write off) . Mine is battery operated .
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permanentvacation 10:50 AM 07-14-2014
Nomorejuice,

That is so cute!! I might just do that! Thanks!
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MarinaVanessa 11:22 AM 07-14-2014
double post. That's what I get for trying to type with a 1yo in my lap
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MarinaVanessa 11:24 AM 07-14-2014
We have a yearly festival at a park where businesses and the city promote their services. We've gone 4 years in a row. Hands down the funnest and most crowded booths were from our resource and referral agency. All they did was make some sensory tubs out of cement mixing pans and PVC piping from a home improvement store.

They had a
sand table: play sand, little scoops and some play animals.
water table: water, measuring cups, turkey basters, little floating boats.
bean table: spoons, containers of different sizes.
soil: little shovels, containers of different sizes.



They had a banquet table set up with a waterproof tablecloth in bright yellow and a blue canopy for some shade. On the table they had business cards set up, and brochures (they print themselves, black/white). They also had pump soap, paper towels and a water cooler on top of the table near the edge filled with water. They used it for kids to wash their hands with before and after.

You can do something like that and I doubt you'll spend a whole lot in supplies. The pic above shows a clear storage bin but I prefer the cement mixing pans from like Lowe's or Home Depot because they are sturdier and cost less (but have no lids).
$6.00


You can get play sand and soil from a home improvement store also but be careful to check the bags and use clean sand and soil that has no chemicals in it. Play with it first to make sure you don't get chemical burns. You can even get 5 gallon containers with water at most Lowe's and Home Depots. Beans or rice you can get at the grocery store and the other stuff you can get from the dollar store.

If you wanted to really get creative and had a large child-size table and chairs you could set up an art area with watercolor paints, paper, brushes and cups of water (for rinsing brushes).

You can also make gift bags with stuff from Oriental Trading like
small coloring books (72 for $10)
crayons (48 boxes with 5 crayons for $9)
and maybe throw in some stickers (or not) and wrap them in clear bags with some balloon ribbon bows and curl the ends. I would make labels with my daycare info and phone number on it and stick it to the crayon box or coloring book and add a business card inside.

I would also have 2 or 3 complete parent packets for people to look through with my contract, handbook, rate sheet, holiday calendar etc. I'd have a clip board with a form for people to fill out if they wanted more info so that they could leave their name, phone number and email address.

Maybe even have some free bottles of water. Lots of ideas, just depends on how much you want to spend. You can do a lot of this for cheap if you get creative and have some of these items already on hand
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Learning Daycare 11:33 AM 07-14-2014
I love the table idea! I know you said you're a single mother on a budget so, the Dollar Tree has dish washing bins for $1. It would be much more cost effective than spending $8 on one. I'm hoping you come up with great ideas! Where in MD are you? I'm in PG county.
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permanentvacation 11:38 AM 07-14-2014
I'm in Middle River in Baltimore County.
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permanentvacation 11:40 AM 07-14-2014
Thanks guys! I've been taking notes and have already been doing some research on some of your ideas!
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MarinaVanessa 12:05 PM 07-14-2014
I just though of something else ... what if you had a table with supplies for making gak? Back to school sales are starting so you can probably get a lot glue for cheap (I still have some from last year, I guess I went overboard when I bought glue during B to S sales ) and then all you need is water and borax ... food coloring if they want to color it (with a parent's help). You can get plastic sandwich size zip bags from the dollar store and stick a label with your DC info on it and they can take it home with them.

When I make it and follow the typical recipe I split it and enough for 4 kids to take some home and they have more than enough to play with. Just a thought.

Just thinking about activities that would be fun for the kids to do, impressing to the parents and were related to your DC.

Originally Posted by Learning Daycare:
I love the table idea! I know you said you're a single mother on a budget so, the Dollar Tree has dish washing bins for $1. It would be much more cost effective than spending $8 on one. I'm hoping you come up with great ideas! Where in MD are you? I'm in PG county.
The only thing about these is that it's better to just put these on a table than to put them in a stand. They don't hold much weight otherwise (I've tried a variety of different bins) and I wouldn't just put them on the floor, it looks more professional and is better for the kiddos to have them at their height instead of having to stoop during play.

You also don't have to make 4 of them, you can have only 1. The $6 pans are pretty big (just as big or bigger than the one in the photo) and 2 or 3 kids can play with it at a time. If you do only 1 sensory table I would choose water. ALL kids LOVE to play with water, you just have to haul the water to your booth lol.
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Josiegirl 04:12 PM 07-14-2014
Cloud dough is popular too, as a sensory tub filler. Or what about making a bunch of sensory type bottles for kids to explore? Someone mentioned having stuff available to make tracks for balls and cars. They had something similar at a school play day type of event and it was very popular. If you could find a source for ultra strong cardboard tubes and have somebody cut them for you. Maybe you could beg recyclable materials from dcps and save some money that way.
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Thriftylady 04:23 AM 11-02-2015
At our family fun night, I took toss across (no expense as I already had it), and did a small duck pond. I also thought about a ring toss which you could probably also make with things from around the house. I made small goodie bags as prizes. I used cheap ziplock baggies, and put in a small prize I had bubbles in some, small party favors in some, and pencils in some they got to pick. Every child got a prize. Every parent got a business card. The full cost would be a tax deduction. I got my bubbles at big lots, they had a six pack for $2.
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CalCare 08:10 AM 11-02-2015
When this question first came up, I felt bad I didn't get a chance to mention the clipboard! Always bring a clipboard to these events with pen attached by string and a pile of papers printed (or by hand) designed to be contact list to "keep families updated on openings"... You make a column for name, phone number, email address, ages and number of children. Every parent that shows up at the booth, you say to them, "Would you like to be on our email list? So you can be informed of open houses, tours and openings?" Many will do it. A week later you can CALL them and tell them about the open house you will have that week- don't let it take a long time in between meeting them, calling them, and doing the open house. For the open house, have a few enrollment packets ready. Have your place set up with your typical set up- centers, a healthy snack, whatever is truly typical. Whenever a spot comes up, call those parents and offer a tour, etc... I have used clipboards and gotten lists like this at events and parents HAVE signed on because of this whole set up. I would add, that this is also a good way to engage in conversation with a parent when they are at your table. Even if they decide not to give you their info, you can tell them you're having an open house coming up soon and that they can look you up on facebook if they want the details without signing up on the email list. Have a facebook account where you will post the open house info when it is finalized- as in you don't give the open house info now (even if you have it) because then people wouldn't need to sign up for the email list.

Another tip is whenever you do these events you should definitely have your info on anything that goes home with kids. Having a stamp made is a great way to do it. Stamp all the activities they do, if possible. Like on the back of a paper craft or stamp cheap brown paper bags and put the thing they keep in the bag...
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daycare 08:42 AM 11-02-2015
If I can find the pics I will send you my booth.

I did a health fair and I set up several activities.

we made palydough no cook, it was super fun and each kid got to take some home. someone here gave me the idea

we had two water tables with sink or float science


bird seed table set up for spring, little birds that were fuzzy, little shovels, buckets.

bubble blowing station. I also had a bubble gun and walked around with it . it was like kids see it and went nuts.

I had tons of little prize (treasure chest) give away.

I have to find the pics...lol
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Laurel 09:33 AM 11-02-2015
I'd have an old fashioned duck pond like Thriftylady said. You just need a container with water, some dollar store ducks and a net you can buy at a tropical fish/pet store. They catch a duck, they get a prize and they all catch one of course. I'd look for prizes at Oriental Trading. Each one in a baggie with a business card in it.
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