For those of you that do, or have in the past offered half-day...

What hours do you consider half day? Also are your half day children there for lunch, which leads to the question what time do you serve lunch?

In my area these are some that I have seen:

9AM - 12:00PM
8:30AM - 12:30PM
9:30AM - 12:30PM
8:30AM - 1:00PM
8:45AM - 11:45AM

When I see the later times I wonder when do their children each lunch and when do the extended day children nap...

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I offer half days in two blocks of time.

AM block is 7-11 and PM block is 2-5

ANY care that includes lunch and rest/nap time is a full day as those are the hardest/most chaotic hours of the day.

I charge about 2/3rds my daily rate for half days otherwise it's just not worth my time.

Half days are only available to regularly enrolled families.

Anyone else that does not attend would be considered drop in and drop in is one flat daily rate and they can not be the dropped off or picked up within the first/last half hour of the day.

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Right now I have a child from 12-5. Lunch is served at 12 so eventhough the parents wanted her to come from 1-5 (basically late lunch and nap), I told them that I was not willing to do that. I have also done 8:30am to 12:30pm for school.

I serve lunch anywhere from 11:30 - 12 depending on the kids I have and their particular hours.

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My half days are blocks. I'm open 7-5 so AM is 7-11:30 & PM is 12:30-5. Neither include lunch.

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A half day is anything UNDER 6 hours (I don't put restrictions on times). Anything from 6-10 hours gets a different price. And I have one family that is over 10 hours so they pay an even higher price.

I serve whatever meal the child is here for no matter if they are full or part time.

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See in TN even just doing PT for infants is hard because the state has PT listed as under 20 hrs week... I will not do half days anymore because I can't fit someone else in the spot; I am limited to 4 babies. I also don't allow drops or pick ups between 11-2 unless it's a medical issue or you are nursing... my day is hectic enough lol. My half days were set at 4 hrs a day not including lunch or nap

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I don't offer part time (it never has been worth all the chaos of parents coming and going, as I let them tell me what hours they wanted kiddo here), but I always get people looking for it. I am sooo stealing this break down for part time kiddos.

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So your state can dictate whether a child in your care is full or part time? I always thought that was up to the provider......

The only time I do not allow drop offs is during nap time (which is 12-2). But I have a parent who's schedule changes.....sometimes it is a full day other times it is only 4-5 hours. I'm ok with that

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It's just for infants I believe - it's how they figure subsidy rate... infants are PT up to 19.5 hrs week then 20 or more is considered FT. I'm limited to 4 babies regardless of being licensed or licensed exempt so in my case FT is to my benefit. I believe Families First only offers FT subsidy at the moment but I could be wrong... the pay is so not up to par it's not worth taking it

I could set it different I suppose since I don't accept vouchers, but too many people wanted half days instead of full days so I just stopped it because it was too hard to fill the empty hours daily & it was screwing up naps at one point if the kids were off schedule. I know a few providers that take only accept FT children

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I would only do half days in the afternoon during nap.

If they come for the morning and just leave for nap it's full day at my three pm departure rate.

If they come for nap and go straight to sleep and are picked up by four, I would consider a half day rate. But... they must nap.

Never had anyone take me up on that.

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I don't do half day rates. For drop in, I charge a daily rate, whether it's for one hour or ten. I don't do part time, either, unless I really want the child and I really need the income. When I do part-time, it's only about 30% less than my full time rate, it's paid weekly, and can't be over 20 hours a week.

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I do offer a half-day program, however currently don't have any enrolled in that program. The hours I use are 8:30 to 12:30, although upon recent reflection I think I might amend that to 8:00 to 12:00, simply because most if not all of the children are usually going down for nap by 12:00 and having a pick-up after that time has been disruptive and difficult in the past.

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"If they come for the morning and just leave for nap it's full day at my three pm departure rate"

~Do you mean leave at/or right before nap time?

"If they come for nap and go straight to sleep and are picked up by four, I would consider a half day rate"

~If they come right at nap time you mean? What time is nap?

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I charge by the day. Anything over nine hours has extra $ added on

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I am considering 8:30AM - 12:30PM as I am setting up a preschool program or a slight variation of that. Thanks for chimming in.

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That is the tough part but since I am just starting I won't know when the group will naturally be tired. It is one of the reasons I decided to ask you all

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100% agree. I would only be offering a part-time preschool program because sadly it does not work for me to offer a full day. That said I am still hoping to earn as close to a full time salary so I like your break down of when you do take part time!!!!! Thanks so much for your insights!

You sounds similar to how sub childcare in my area seems to break it down. I am/was actually debating between offering a 4 or 6 hour day for part-time. Even from this thread is seems most providers do not actually consider 6 hours half day especially because they cannot fill the other hours. Schedule wise I can offer a max of 6 hours for my program i.e. 8AM - 3PM but I am not sure of any upsides to that than the 8:30AM - 12:30PM would the longer hours bring more clients, etc..... It is all a lot to consider when just getting started which is why I throw myself to you all for insight!!!! LOL

If I am offering a half day and not just a shortened day (like 6 hours mentioned above) then I would like to avoid lunch and hearing that from most of you who offer half day helps!

Thanks so much for always chimming in BC.

Due to other obligations in the afternoon both to my own dd and to my own studies to advance myself in ECE I will not be open past 3PM so I am only offering one preschool block.

When you say half days are only offered to regularly enrolled families does that mean they can be "regularly enrolled" as part time or what exactly does that mean? At my dd's preschool they did drop-in days for kids enrolled part time already (and not to the public) is that kind of what you mean?

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Regularly enrolled for me means a family enrolled here 3 or more days per week. Less than 3 days is drop in.

I do have 1 family that attends 2 days a week and I do offer them the option of using a half day when they want but it's usually ONLY after they've used or paid for their obligatory 2 days per week. They were more or less grandfathered in years ago and it's worked so we just leave it alone.

Most my families are 4 days a week Those families have the option of using a half day here and there when they want to.

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That makes sense now thanks!

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I have 8:30-12:30 listed as half day but honestly I never take anyone for it as it would take away from a full day spot. I used to say "under 5 hours" but then had the whole nap time dilemma so changed it.

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