I was curious if anyone just did preschool/pre-k in their in home daycare? Did/do you have any trouble filling your spots? Do you take those that are not potty trained? Do you have typical daycare hours, or typical preschool hours?

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I'm probably not who you want to hear from... I kinda do this. I don't advertise this way, but this is kinda how I do things. I've pretty much decided I won't take another infant unless it's under the absolute best circumstances... A sibling of someone I already care for, or a referral of someone I 'think' I can trust and work with (or I get really desperate). Infants take up so much time when I really prefer to do the preschool activities with the kids. (I will take a dropin infant on occasion though)

So yes, I do preschool and no I don't have issues filling spots, but I have wonderful word of mouth referrals.

My preschool is done as part of my daycare, not as a separate option.

I do take non potty trained kids. But I kinda have my routine for this down, so I'm not overly concerned about having to train or do diapers.

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I only care for ages 2 1/2 - 4. I am just now reopening but when I was open before I never had a problem staying full. I offered both a full day and part day option although most of mine were full day.

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Butterfly, before I closed last year I did both as well and it was so time consuming. Not to mention I had some infants that were less than desirable to have. If I start in the home again, eventually we plan to open a center/preschool that will only focus on the preschool ages, at least initially. So, I kind of figured why not start out this way in the home, but I just wasn't sure how families respond to this option. Especially those with kids that might fall below the preschool ages. I know before families were not to keen on having their kids go to separate places, so I wondered how it would be if they were forced to send them to separate places.

snbauser, do you require those ages to be potty trained?

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When I get calls, the first question I ask is how old are your children. If they tell me under 2, I say I'm full and move on. (when I have openings).

Here there is such a great demand for infant child care, someone could open up an infant only care and really do awesome. They could probably charge a ridiculous price too, because it's in such demand.

I think if you really make it known that you do preschool, you'll have a great many interested in that. Most of the parents here, want that and don't want to settle for someone who doesn't do preschool.

I don't have anyone who sends one kid here and another somewhere else, but like I said, I don't advertise to be a preschool even though that's really what we do. If you advertise as a preschool, parents kinda expect that their younger children won't be able to attend.

Good luck!!

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Yes, I just do preschool/pre-k.

Sometimes I do have trouble filling my spots. I get a lot of inquiries for infants needing care.

Yes, I do take those that are not potty rained.

I have pretty typical daycare hours (slightly less), but far more than typical Preschool hours. More than 50% of my clients use this as daycare as well while they are at work.

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I take only 1 year and up (and I don't take school agers) but my youngest child tends to be about 1 1/2 on average. I currently have two that are 23 months and 4 that are 2 1/2 to 3 years old. It's been like this for a while now where I've had children around 2 for the most part. I know that's not typical pre-school age but I found running a regular preschool program has worked really well even with the youngest ones. My two 23 month olds act more like they are 2 1/2 and I attribute that to them being around the older ones daily. They are amazing.
I do take them if they aren't potty trained and most of them aren't.
I have had one spot open for months and am hoping that when summer arrives I can fill it but it may just be because my hours are 7:30-3:30 p.m. so it's a hard slot to fill. One thing that helps is that I live a few blocks from a college so I tend to get a lot of parents that are in school, have one child and aren't planning on having another for quite some time.

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Right now I do not but at some point in the future I hope to be able to be that picky and insist they are trained. I despise the training aspect.

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I think anytime you limit the age groups you care for the harder it is to find spots- espesually when its for a small period of time like preschool depending on what you consider preschoolers; some people say preschoolers are 2-5 years old, some say 3-5 year olds some people do preschool programs that are for 2 years some only do it for 1 year- it may also depend on the age of the child when they start and what age your state says is okay to start kindergarden (last I heard here in CA kids need to be 5 years old by September 1st). At the home daycare I used to work at she would let some of the not yet potty trained kids (2 year olds) sit in during preschool time if they no longer took morning naps with the infants.

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I'm still debating on ages, but I'm thinking 2.5 until they start Kindergarten. Depending on the cut off to start school, that would be my cut-off for the oldest I would take. As far as hours I think I would offer both the normal preschool hours as well as the normal daycare hours. That way I can cater to both types of families, those looking just for preschool, or those working parents that need both. I am a bit worried about limiting my age groups, but ultimately that is what I want to work with.

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Here we have most leave our home daycares at three they want preschool but in a brick building not a home preschool

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I agree that it would be harder to fill spots if u only took preschool. Where i live most people have a infant and preschooler. And im pretty sure they wouldn't enroll their children in different places. I would however like have a seperate area for preschoolers when i open my daycare.

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My reason for limiting is I'm just not a fan of doing mixed age groups. I plan to offer a traditional preschool program, and eventually transition into a center/school where those are the age groups that are offered.

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This is definitely true. Around here, most people think "preschool" and they think a smaller scaled down version of public school.

I know many providers in my community who limit their children to certain ages but no one calls them a preschool, just daycare providers who don't like to take the younger kids.

Parents also want to see their child's teacher to be licensed as a teacher AND have that ECE degree.

Plus, with this whole QRIS and Universal Preschool thing happening across the country, I think preschool age children will cease being the targeted clients for in-home child care providers and the age of most kids needing care will soon be the under 3 crowd ONLY.

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Since I'm a certified EC-6th grade teacher, I think that greatly helps me.

That will be very interesting if the ages of my clients completely changes to be under 3! I'll take it as it comes. Is there an estimated date when they think that will be in effect?

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Absolutely!
Can I ask you, how often do parents actually ask you about your credentials? Or do they know before coming?... is it listed on your website....


I think it will be very interesting as well. I have no idea about time lines, or anything other than 2015 was the targeted date to have ALL states participating (fully and/or in pilot phase) in QRIS.

The Universal Preschool thing ?? who knows about that one.....I am too mad to read any info about it yet but I am sure it will be coming down the line in one way shape or form before the President leaves office.

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It is on my website and my diploma is framed above the sign in desk separate from the "Information" board. I make it very obvious and always mention why I choose to do THIS job as a certified teacher instead of going to teach in the public schools. I get chosen over over places often times because of this, and the parents tend to trust my opinions about their child's evaluations (3 times per year) because of it as well.

The QRIS thing I can get on board with. I know it will be challenging, but that's manageable.

I just read about the universal preschool in a bunch of articles. I'll have serious doubts about our governments capabilities if that passes.
1.) Salaries for the teachers of the universal preschool are supposed to match K-12 teacher's salaries which will mean a lot more $$$.
2.) That hiring freeze we had a couple of years ago? That will be back x10 as many EC teachers that run/work at Preschools are out of a job and rushing to get a job in public schools. The amount of businesses and people that would be out of a job would be astounding.
3.) Head Start hasn't greatly benefited the masses (there's a lot of research out there), yet he wants to amp that up???
4.) Where are they going to put all of the low to moderate income Preschoolers to teach them?
5.) WHAT would they be brainwashing -- I mean teaching -- these masses of children?

I hope it's all just a bunch of talk on his part. Hopefully nothing that costs trillions of dollars will be passed ....
Some people speculate that it is "just talk" since he also talked about increasing minimum wage to $9.50 by 2011, and is NOW saying he'll increase minimum wage to $9.00.

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I do have a background in education. I have a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies and am licensed to teach K-6. I'm hoping to add on some sort of credential for ECE before starting. I'm hoping that can help. In home care will be temporary probably 2-4 years, and then I plan to expand to a center. I'll have to look more into the universal preschool though.

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I think targeting that age groups really helps if you can refer them to another provider for younger kids. I am lucky enough to have a former employe now friend who lives about 5 minutes from me who only does infants and toddlers. On many occassions she has the younger sibling while I have the older sibling.

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This was something I was thinking about! I think if I could find someone near me who preferred the age group I didn't take it could work out for the better, especially in the beginning.

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I do only a preschool program, ages 3 and up. I run my preschool just like a brick building preschool, with regular hours from 9-noon. Although this year, I am running from 9am-2pm because I have all Prekinders (4-5 year olds). I run my preschool as two separate classes, parents can choose from a MWF option or TTH option. I do not typically provide before or after care, just as a regular preschool doesn't, however I do have one child that stays an extra hour on TTH.

Most of my parents have a stay at home mom, which actually works great because they basically advertise the program for me while they're out and about and I get great word of mouth referrals. Without the word of mouth referrals, I'm not sure I could do this.

I do have formal training, a master's in Human Dev and have worked in a regular preschool as a teacher, curriculum coordinator and director for several years before owning my own in-home. Where I live (small college town), this makes a big difference to a lot of people.

We do have a daycare provider in town that runs a full day program, but only works with preschool age children. I think she also advertises that she does 'preschool' with them, but I've had children transfer to my program and have said that I do more preschool stuff, which they liked. But, of course I can do more preschool stuff because I only have children 5 hours a day. I could never run the kind of preschool that I run if I did childcare on top of it. I would burn out so fast.

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I would love to only do regular preschool hours, but I'm afraid that limiting myself even more may make it even harder to fill spots. I figure if I offer both, parents have the option and can choose what best fits the needs of their family.

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I have done preschool only for the last 4 years. I accept 2-5 year olds. They do not have to be potty trained. I have an AA in Early Childhood Ed and my CDA. I think that helps. I am working toward by BA in Child Development. Honestly, in my area I don't know if many will care about the BA but it does add credibility and has been a personal goal of mine. My program in designed for working families so I run from 7-5:30. I only accept full time M-F and charge by the month. I usually do not have a hard time filling spots. Most of my families have only 1 child or a sibling who is much older. I do lose families who have infants or younger toddlers. Sometimes I get a family with a 2 yr old and a 4 yr old.

Most of my families come to me from another home daycare that they were happy with but did not do any preschool with the kids. They do not want center based care, but want something more structured that focuses on preschool age children and kindergarten readiness.

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I run my childcare like a preschool and only accept ages 2-5y. They do not have to be potty trained. I am going to school this summer to get my Preschool Crediental as I don't have a degree, just the standard childcare classes and some classes I took on my own.

So far I haven't had much a problem staying full. My own downfall is come fall I usually lose 2-4 kids that are off to K5. But I've been able to fill up by Oct/Nov. so, it does make me nervous every year!

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