Does anyone have parents text or call to let you know when the child's pick up will happen? We just moved and our daycare space is in our finished basement. We will be opening our garage door to have parents come into the garage for pick ups and drop offs since the basement stairs lead right to the garage door (or you can turn into the kitchen). This way, parents are not coming to my front door and walking through my house, and then down into the basement or stair area near the kitchen to get kids. But I will have to open the garage door each time a parent arrives, and I won't know they are here unless they text/call, or they were to ring the doorbell.

The only way I can think of to know which parent is arriving for pick up and have kids ready, is for them to text or call when they are coming for pick up. In the past, I have had several parents that pick up around the same time, but others at earlier times. I've considered taking each child up to the living room during their pick up time, but I don't want to leave kids downstairs unsupervised for any length of time.

I also understand some parents like to see the child care area regularly to make sure it is clean, see art projects up, and see that it looks nice so I'm not sure how to accomplish that, either. I've never had my daycare area be in the basement before, it's always been upstairs in a second living room. Not sure how to handle all this.

Thanks!

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My home is a split level entry. Daycare is down on lower level. I have contracted times so have a general idea of when parents will be arriving.

I have done it two ways. Just left the door open towards pick ups and parents come down to get their child at end of day. The only drawback for this was that one set of parents did not leave quickly at the end of day. It was a long drawn out process no matter what I said or did. Also, I ran into the issue of parents walking through my upstairs unattended. So that was the end of that.

Now... I keep my door locked. I will meet parents at the door with child. Puts an end to the 20 minute pick ups and parents walking through my house. Parents text to let me know that they are here as I won't hear the doorbell. Out of 4 families, only one actually does this, though. I do have a general idea of when parents come and make sure the children are all ready to go.

BUT I know they like to see the space and I don't like prepping the kids at the end of the day and would like to have parents come in but don't know how to balance that. I have to leave immediately after the last child leaves to go and pick up my own children so I have that issue, as well. I have one family currently that would drag it out so always head them off by meeting at door with bag and child ready to go. They are finished in a few months so I may reevaluate parents coming in after that.

The other option you could consider is that if all pick ups are within a small amount of time (like 30-45 mins), have them all upstairs at the table doing puzzles, colouring, etc so that you can see who is at the door and no one is unattended. (If that works for your set up). I sometimes will do this at the end of the day. Depends on the mood of the group

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Maybe a video doorbell like this would work?

https://ring.com/

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When I first started doing daycare, we were in a different house and the daycare space was like yours in the basement. At the top of the stairs was the door. I could not hear the doorbell or a knock when they arrived. I bought a portable doorbell at Menards for like $30. It comes with a doorbell button that you stick to the outside of your door and then the other part that rings, plugs into any outlet in your house, so you can move it anywhere. Worked like a charm.

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I had this issue as well. I was in a walkout basement but the side of my house was too steep for parents to walk down to access the rear door of the house. I basically had to take kids upstairs each time a parent came to pickup. Luckily most of the kids were being picked up around the same time so we just stayed in my living room for the last 15 minutes of the day. I had quiet activities in my living room for them like books and puzzles and it worked really well. I would sometimes put on music, read to them etc. as a "wind down". I had thought about getting a password lock for my front door as parents didn't need to walk through my house to get to the basement but I just didn't want the hassle of having to change it when parents terminated cared.

Right now I have the same issue as my play room is upstairs. I take all the kids downstairs for pickup and we just go back upstairs once a child is picked up. Right now my kids get picked up a half an hour between so I am not staying in my living room for that long and I just don't want the kids playing in there for very long!

Can you put some sort of a buzzer on the outside of your garage? I think that is a great suggestion!

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I may not be understanding the question, but can you make sure each family has a contracted pick up time and that way you can have the child ready except for putting their jacket on before their parent gets there. Then when they ring the door bell (if you can hear it), run up and open the door, then let them come downstairs with you to sign their child out and leave from there? Just let them know to always ring the door bell when they are dropping off/picking up. They'd learn soon enough that just knocking on the door doesn't do any good
Goodness, I'm in a small apartment, but if we're in the playroom which isn't even that far from the door, there's been several times I didn't hear a parent knock and they had to ring the door bell. No biggie

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We are almost always outside at the end of the day. I just take everyone's belongings and put them on my back porch and we play in the back yard until pick up time. That way everyone has shoes on and there is no reason for anyone to go in my house. This does not work when it's raining or extremely cold, but it's really nice most of the time.

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I operate on contracted hours only and know exactly when each child is going to be picked up.

If you can't see the arrival area from your daycare area, I would suggest a Dropcam or some sort of video monitoring system that would allow you to see who is there.

Other than the interview, none of my parents ever enter my child care, play area or any part of my child care facility other than the coat/cubby room for drop offs and pick ups.

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I handle it a little differently. My door is unlocked the first and last hour of the day. I live in a split level. Daycare is in the basement. I have a window the allows me to see parents when they pull up, so I almost always know they are here before they are at the door. I have a bell on the front door, so if I don't see a parent arrive I hear them enter. I have a gate at the entrance to the daycare space downstairs, so I don't worry about dcks getting out an unlocked front door. I live in a fairly safe area, without a sign or anything so only my neighbors know I have a daycare and I know all of them. I like parents letting themselves in so I don't have to stop what I am doing, and I like them seeing the kids in action.

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Ooh, I would love a space like you describe. In our playroom, which is right off the front door, you can see into our kitchen and dining room on one side and the main bath on the other, and if the parents use the bathroom they can see into all 3 bedrooms, too. It's a perfect setup to do daycare, but I hate that every room has to be in decent order all the time, too!

Someone on here had a keyless combo enrty for parents. That would be great for an entry door to the garage (I wouldn't want this on my front door). I would pair that with a doorway chime that alerted me when someone either came into the garage, or opened the door. Then I would also have a deadbolt for after hours or when we were gone. That's what I would do, so I wouldn't have to go open the door every time, and they wouldn't sneak in on us, and then they can see our area every day and get their own kid ready to go.

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I was going to suggest what BC did.

I also only work on contracted hours. So I know exactly when the children will get pick up and dropped off.

I would also second getting some kind of video surveillance as well. I also have this so when I am in my back yard, I can see and hear up front.

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Everybody picked up between 5 - 530 so I brought all the children up to inside front porch.We put coats on picked 2 books each and sat on the benches waiting.It worked great I had infants ready in car seats no waiting for parents to convince them to sit .

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Same here!

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You can ask them to text or call but there is going to be one that do not want to or forget alot. I have one of these, you can put them anywhere. I would suggest in the garage just inside the door as they enter the garage. The ding will get your attention, then you will know that some one is coming in.

http://www.harborfreight.com/catalog...driveway+alarm

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Love my keyless entry. Got ours at menards. Just saw that they have one on sale this week for $30, If I remember correctly it is the 3 day sale this weekend.

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We have one at both my daycare house and my home.
Inexpensive but surprisingly something I don't think I can live without now that we have one.

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