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Lperry2124 07:54 PM 11-16-2015
So for all my family childcare providers do any of you just provide services for a certain age range or does everyone do birth -4 or after school? does any one do 3 and up or 2 and up? If so how is that experience for you? Or as family childcare provider do you think its better for us to service ages birth and up?? Thanks in advance
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Josiegirl 02:58 AM 11-17-2015
I've always taken all ages until they age out. But as I've gotten older I am wanting to not accept school age kids anymore. I like the mix of ages but the older kids, unless they like little ones, don't seem to be a good mix. As challenging as the 2 yos can be I love that age group, they can be so darn cute and their rapid rate of soaking things up like a sponge always amazes me, plus sometimes they can be so much easier to entertain. Simple is good for them. Set up farms and animals, blocks and people, a sensory box, anything like that, and they're usually pretty good for awhile. I wish I could take just dcks under 3 but it wouldn't be financially feasible for me.
Probably not much help to you. Right now I have ages 17 months-almost 4. Potty-training is not my favorite part of this age group right now. And the aggressiveness they can display at times.... Other than that I love 'em!
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Play Care 03:01 AM 11-17-2015
I think it really depends on your area. I find taking infants - 5 to be the best here. I know I could get SA kids, but they are a lot of work for little money.

I try to space infants out to every couple of years, but the nice thing is that usually by taking an infant I am getting 5 years out of it.
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NeedaVaca 03:38 AM 11-17-2015
I don't take infants. I only accept walking/self feeding children. I have taken as young as 12 months when they had those skills but love age 18 mths and up and don't have problems keeping those spots filled. I don't accept SA.
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snbauser 03:41 AM 11-17-2015
I take only preschool aged - 3-5 years old. I do occassionally have a school ager or 2 for a teacher workday but they are kids who graduated my program so they know me and my rules.
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KidGrind 04:02 AM 11-17-2015
Originally Posted by Lperry2124:
So for all my family childcare providers do any of you just provide services for a certain age range or does everyone do birth -4 or after school? does any one do 3 and up or 2 and up? If so how is that experience for you? Or as family childcare provider do you think its better for us to service ages birth and up?? Thanks in advance
I don’t know what part of Maryland.

In Montgomery County infant care is highly sought after.

I prefer 2 and 5 years old.
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LysesKids 04:18 AM 11-17-2015
Originally Posted by KidGrind:
I don’t know what part of Maryland.

In Montgomery County infant care is highly sought after.

I prefer 2 and 5 years old.
If I could afford MoCo I never would have left (I grew up there), but it's too expensive for a single parent; I'm infants - 23 months only but even in the cheapest neighborhoods rent would still be too high for me... It's why I started doing childcare just over the state line lol.
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Thriftylady 04:46 AM 11-17-2015
Right now I have two school aged children and three more starting Monday! I have them before and after school. I really didn't intend it that way but in my small town and with the economy I am having issues getting kids. My favorite age is the 2.5 to school aged crowd.
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KidGrind 05:34 AM 11-17-2015
Originally Posted by LysesKids:
If I could afford MoCo I never would have left (I grew up there), but it's too expensive for a single parent; I'm infants - 23 months only but even in the cheapest neighborhoods rent would still be too high for me... It's why I started doing childcare just over the state line lol.
It is expensive, very. I am born and raised San Francisco bay area. I’ve also lived in Southern California for over ten years. So when I moved here and people said, “It is a high cost of living.” I thought, “Okay that is what we’re use to.”



We moved here and I was shocked. The area grew on me. I love the public school system here. It’s excellent. Yet, we buying a home and moving out of state and I am looking forward to living in an area that has a lower cost of living.

The funny thing is we’re moving to an area that is supposedly higher end. What we’re paying for a house there we couldn’t even get a one bedroom shack here.
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Play Care 05:55 AM 11-17-2015
Originally Posted by Thriftylady:
Right now I have two school aged children and three more starting Monday! I have them before and after school. I really didn't intend it that way but in my small town and with the economy I am having issues getting kids. My favorite age is the 2.5 to school aged crowd.
I think if you only have SA kids it's fine. Mixing SA with littles is usually where I find the most issues. If I could be on SA kids the way they need (without having to change diapers, feed a baby, assist with toileting, etc etc etc) I could totally rock that age group
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NoMoreJuice! 06:57 AM 11-17-2015
I don't take infants for many, many reasons, but especially because of our capacity tables in Kansas. I chose to go with the one that allows the most number of children, table 4:
http://www.kdheks.gov/bcclr/download/GDCH_Table.pdf

Therefore, I only accept kiddos 18 months+. In order to fill my spots to capacity since I eliminated a whole age range of kids, I chose to start a preschool program. So my assistant has 6 "littles" while I teach preschool to my six.
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LysesKids 08:21 AM 11-17-2015
Originally Posted by KidGrind:
It is expensive, very. I am born and raised San Francisco bay area. I’ve also lived in Southern California for over ten years. So when I moved here and people said, “It is a high cost of living.” I thought, “Okay that is what we’re use to.”



We moved here and I was shocked. The area grew on me. I love the public school system here. It’s excellent. Yet, we buying a home and moving out of state and I am looking forward to living in an area that has a lower cost of living.

The funny thing is we’re moving to an area that is supposedly higher end. What we’re paying for a house there we couldn’t even get a one bedroom shack here.
My 2 oldest children & their families live in Rockville & Germantown... thank goodness for the in laws because no way could my dd afford childcare for 4. I'll be up there for Christmas - spending time with other relatives & my youngest dd in CA next week for Thanksgiving
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KidGrind 09:01 AM 11-17-2015
Originally Posted by LysesKids:
My 2 oldest children & their families live in Rockville & Germantown... thank goodness for the in laws because no way could my dd afford childcare for 4. I'll be up there for Christmas - spending time with other relatives & my youngest dd in CA next week for Thanksgiving
I hope you enjoy the holidays, family and especially grandchildren during your visit!
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Nisaryn 09:20 AM 11-17-2015
Originally Posted by Lperry2124:
So for all my family childcare providers do any of you just provide services for a certain age range or does everyone do birth -4 or after school? does any one do 3 and up or 2 and up? If so how is that experience for you? Or as family childcare provider do you think its better for us to service ages birth and up?? Thanks in advance

I only take infants, so I'm only allowed 4 kids a time in my state. One of which is my own so really it's just 3. I enjoy it, I like being able to watch them grow and feel like I am helping them to get their best start in life. I was originally taking care of 'infants' up to age 2 but found that an 18m old and a 4m old just aren't....compatible...in the same care so I have no since terminated my 18m old (the one that practically lived with me for those of you that know) and will stick to that age. No kids over 18m. Currently all my kids are 9m and under and it's perfect!
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NillaWafers 10:01 AM 11-17-2015
I don't do infants under 6 mo. I am terrified of SIDs and just couldn't deal with an infant that young and 2 year olds.

I really like to take just preschoolers but there is now TK in my area and it seems most people don't want a home daycare for preschool.
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BabyMonkeys 10:15 AM 11-17-2015
My original business plan was to only keep them until two. I love babies, but not so much kids. Unfortunately I fell in love with the little guys (3) that have been with me since birth. Two are going to be 2 next month and one is 17m. I can see myself having to buy a bigger car so that I can take them back and forth to school in a couple of years.

I only have a small group by choice. Unless one of my current parents has another one, I'm full! I can't see myself ever accepting an older kid that I hadn't "raised" from an infant.
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kendallina 10:43 AM 11-17-2015
I take just preschool-age children, 3-5 years old. Some years I take a 2.5-year old if I need to fill a space or if it's a sibling, etc. I LOVE it and wouldn't do it any other way. I'm set up like a preschool room (I do hands-on, play based preschool, not drill and kill worksheet-type preschool) and planning the fun activities and seeing the kids learning is really what drives me and keeps my motivation going. I love it!
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TXhomedaycare 11:34 AM 11-17-2015
Originally Posted by Lperry2124:
So for all my family childcare providers do any of you just provide services for a certain age range or does everyone do birth -4 or after school? does any one do 3 and up or 2 and up? If so how is that experience for you? Or as family childcare provider do you think its better for us to service ages birth and up?? Thanks in advance
I do 18 Mos and up to 4 years. I have a hard time doing infants and older kids at the same time. I think next year I will only do preschool age. I thought of only doing infants but since I have a toddler and a preschooler I think infants would drive them nuts. I enjoy having just toddlers and preschoolersv that works for me so we can do nature walks and going to the park and have a good schedule that works for the age range of our group.
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Lperry2124 04:30 PM 11-17-2015
Originally Posted by KidGrind:
I don’t know what part of Maryland.

In Montgomery County infant care is highly sought after.

I prefer 2 and 5 years old.


i moved from Maryland the end of last month im in Florida now.
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Lperry2124 04:57 PM 11-17-2015
Thanks Ladies for all your input it just hard for me to decided i have done every age group when i worked at a center. I love babies they are just so cute!!! but i prefer children a little older maybe 2 and up i was just a little worried because i did know if it really made any sense. I just moved from Maryland to Florida (again) and i have to learn the market. It would be my dream to just to a preschool but florida offers free vpk and the difficulty i feel i might have that is there many be too many ppl just doing vpk
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The Play Room 07:43 PM 11-24-2015
I am just now setting up a family child care home, and am going to do the same as I did the first time I had a child care home. Take ages birth to 5 years. I will limit myself to only 1 infant at a time. The only after school children that I will take are the children who started out in my child care home and aged up to school age.
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KSDC 11:33 AM 12-03-2015
I do birth to SA. I like the mix and the limited turn over. I usually get them as babies and keep them until they age out.

(The only SA that I take are those that came through my program.)
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Tags:age groups, school age care, school agers - not
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