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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Only Accepting Ages 2 - 5 Yr Olds
Shawn 08:42 AM 04-21-2016
Hello Everyone,

I have decided to change from an Infant Toddler program to a Preschool program. It has been very challenging. Before I had a very basic setup. It involved more large items such as play pens, cribs, swings and etc. The biggest issue is coming up with a curriculum. One that is much more detailed and geared to prepare children for kindergarten. I'm also stressing out because the type of "Preschool Program" I'm planning to offer means that I need to charge more than I currently charging. Which most people expect to pay less for preschool then infants.

The reason I am changing is simply because I no longer have the patience for screaming babies. Within the last 6 years, my infants have been so hard to deal with. My last infant screamed all day long. The only way to keep him quiet was by holding him or turning the T.V. on. I had to hire an assistant to help me balance him and my very active preschoolers. I was also paying her wayyy more than what his parents where paying me.

So I told all my dcp that starting in 2016 I will no longer take infants. I made the change official with the 2016 contract renewals.

So my question to all of you. Does anyone only accept preschool aged children in their daycares? And if so, how are you fairing competing with daycare centers and keeping your spots filled. (I get far more inquiries for infant s.) Why did you choose to only care for this age group?
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LittleScholars 09:51 AM 04-21-2016
I'm very new to this profession, so I'm not sure my replies are all that helpful; however, I only accept children over 18 months. I was a kindergarten teacher for ten years before opening a home daycare, so I felt most skilled in offering a preschool program (full-day only). I absolutely love it.

I do charge less as children age into the next tier, but I understand why you would choose to charge more. Curriculum and supplies are certainly expensive. For me, I was willing to lose some profit to open with my ideal ages. I charge about the same as full-day centers do in my area, which is a bit pricey. I'm sure this was a deal breaker for some families, but the focus and structure of my program was great for advertising. I was full within about a month of opening.

I do think this structure is going to get trickier in the future. Within the last few months, half of my families learned they have little ones on the way. I'm not quite sure what that will mean for families, and it will be quite hard to turn siblings away when I do have openings.

I'm not quite sure I offered any new insight, but I'd love to connect with programs offering a similar service!
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permanentvacation 10:19 AM 04-21-2016
There are a lot of home daycares as well as centers in my area that only watch ages 2 - 5 and a good handful of home daycares that only take school kids. It really depends on the ages and amount of kids in your area. Daycare is very specific to your immediate local area.

Of the daycares that I know that accept only preschoolers, they are doing just as well as the rest of us. Some are full and some barely have any kids. It depends on the provider/employees personalities, location, set-up, curriculum, rates, extras that they offer, etc. The ones that are nicely organized, have good rates, and have providers/staff that are professional, yet personable with the kids and parents are the ones that are full.

If you know that there are enough kids in that specific age group in your area, then you should set your place up nicely for them, have a good educational program ready, and go for it. If you don't get enough of that age group and decide that it's not working, you could always look into including school kids or just be more choosy with the babies that you add to your group.
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Shawn 10:26 AM 04-21-2016
Hello Little Scholars.

Thanks for responding. I love preschool over infant and toddler care. I have my degree in Early Childhood Development and working on getting a Preschool certification.
I have been trying for a while now to drop infants but my dcp keep getting pregnant. That same screaming baby I spoke about before is now two. He has gone form a screamer to a shreacher. And just like him, his mom waited until I asked her about being pregnant. So this would be the 3rd child of this family I have. The first cried a lot. So now after a week of being sad and upset, I told her that I WILL NOT be taking her newborn. She hasn't said anything else to me about it. I just prepare to replace that whole family if need be.
When I talk with parents during the interview I let them know that if they become pregnant, they would have to find other childcare options for their newborns.

I'm glad to hear that you charge just as much as the centers. I feel like the only difference between my program and theirs is that they have more staff. I currently charge a 3rd of what the centers around me charge. I also just moved to a different city where the cost of living is a bit higher and the demographics are better.

Maybe you can take only newborns of families who are currently enrolled and limit only to one at a time.

As for me, I removed every and anything that resembles infant care from the house. I replaced cribs and baby swings with learning centers and "Big Kid" toys.

I haven't started advertising my "new' program, but I am finding that offering a FULL DAY program will be a plus for this area that has more part time and half day preschools.

Thanks your response was very helpful.
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Blackcat31 10:26 AM 04-21-2016
I know lots of programs that accept kids in certain age groups only. That is not at all rare.

However my personal opinion is that the current trends in early childhood will lead all child care providers to only being able to enroll kids from birth to age 3.

Universal Pre-K and other government and public school funded programs will enroll kids at 3 yrs of age and will deplete the need for care for that age group.

Many of the providers I know now are making the move in the opposite direction and gearing their programs to meet the needs of infants and toddlers only.
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Annalee 10:33 AM 04-21-2016
Originally Posted by Blackcat31:
I know lots of programs that accept kids in certain age groups only. That is not at all rare.

However my personal opinion is that the current trends in early childhood will lead all child care providers to only being able to enroll kids from birth to age 3.

Universal Pre-K and other government and public school funded programs will enroll kids at 3 yrs of age and will deplete the need for care for that age group.

Many of the providers I know now are making the move in the opposite direction and gearing their programs to meet the needs of infants and toddlers only.
Same here! I do have two five year olds I will lose to kindy this year but this is not usually how it works, just an odd situation. Birth to 3 is the age to count on right now only keeping them occasionally when they go past 3.
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EntropyControlSpecialist 11:14 AM 04-21-2016
We don't have universal preschool/pre-k here, yet, and unless you're low income you pay a pretty penny to enroll in the public school's pre-k for a few hours a day.

I only accept 2-5's (mostly, 2.5+) and I'm only open 4 days per week. Upon switching to 4 days per week it became a little more challenging to fill the spots but I've remained pretty full (only having about 1 spot open at a time). I don't live in an extremely populated area, either. I offer 2 day preschool and 4 day preschool. There is no discount for enrolling 4 days per week.
A Mom, who has been enrolled a year, said she is having a difficult time finding a good program where she is moving to because there aren't a lot of in-homes with certified teachers. That's a big selling point here, along with the way my environment is set up and my style of teaching. I also make sure I document the things they are learning and upload them to photo albums for the parents to review and I also post some things on the business Facebook page. I highly recommend doing that.
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Shawn 12:22 PM 04-21-2016
I do see the trend of home daycare offering more infant and toddler childcare. I started with all ages the first 8 years. After a long hard mid west winter where I un expectantly had 3 weeks of 12 children ranging from 3 months to 12 years old. We were all snowed in. It was a hard time.
I decided to just turn to a toddler infant program. That worked okay. I had too many people wanting infants spots. Licensing only allowed for up to 4 children under age 2. And parents kept getting pregnant after the first child was barely a year old. Plus I didn't like holding spots open for the unborn child of the pregnant mothers. Holding a spot for 10 months (including the maternity time off mom) even with some holding spot fee was not enough. I had parents of children who had more children and refused to place the older children in preschool. If I let one stay until Kindergarten, others would tell me that I wasn't being fair. I had a few parents who loved how well I did caring for their infants but when their child got older, they couldn't understand why I wasn't spending more time teaching the older toddlers while focusing on the infants. The straw that broke the camels back. Actually there were two straws. I interviewed a couple who kept making excuses as to why they couldn't bring their two yr old in to meet me. We signed the contract. I finally met the boy a few days before he started. Come to find out the baby was fully autistic. Parents hid this fact from me fearing that I wouldn't accept him. I would not have denied him simply for that because it's against the law. But at least I would have had a heads up at the interview. That didnt work out long because that mother started blaming me as to why her child wasn't at the same level as my other children.The other straw was that many infants cried to be held all day because their mothers felt guilty for leaving their babies at daycare so they spend the entire evenings at home with the child resting on their chest.

So I am all "babyed" out. Where I live, the preschool programs are either for low income families or children with delays. The programs are only 4 days a week, closed during all school closings, and only offer bus transportation to certain areas.

i'm going to make a go for it. I know I have to really get on the ball with sharing more pic's of art projects and activities. Doing whatever it takes to attract parents who will see the value in a daycare like mines.

Thank you all for your comments and advise. I will certainly keep this in mind.
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Thriftylady 12:41 PM 04-21-2016
I would do only the 2-5 age if I could. But in my area right now, all I seem to get is SA kiddos.
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CityGarden 10:31 AM 04-23-2016
Welcome Shawn!

Yes I think you can do that!!!! In my area if you have a quality program at a competitive price point you will have clients --- sometimes with the older ages it takes a bit longer to fill but that is because there are more options for that age. Infant / Toddler care does charge more here and preschool is expected to cost less but you can run a high end preschool program for less because per licensing you could/would be taking on more children. There are also other ways to make your monthly/annual fee stay competitive without compromising your program or looking like the most expensive (i.e. I have an annual materials fee & a school supply list)

I am launching my program this summer it is structured as a home-based preschool for ages 2 - 6 years old. My goal is to start small and eventually open a small center (several years down the road). Right now I have it planned for Monday - Friday but I would love to eventually make it a Monday - Thursday program.

The program will not take younger siblings and I intentionally did not request to be licensed for those younger than 2 years. My set up does not even really allow parents to think I would consider that age. (i.e. none of the toys, seating, activities, etc. would work for an infant / toddler). I have wood work materials out, art materials out, etc. pretty much at all times. As a former teacher I know I want to be with young children and I am craving the change. I felt my days would be more intellectually stimulating with a preschool program that I could grow.
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