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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>My DD's Friends And Preschool Toys
kendallina 03:44 PM 05-18-2015
How do you handle when your child has friends over? My daughter is in kindy so my preschool room has a lot of stuff that interests her friends when they come over. This usually is not a problem because many of her friends have been in my preschool and understand my rules.

However, we have some kids in the neighborhood that have been playing with my daughter and they don't know the rules and I feel like I'm constantly telling them things like, "don't take sand from the sand table and pine needles stay in the pine needle area, and leave the frog in his tank" My DD knows these rules, of course but has a hard tme speaking up and then she gets stressed out when they break the rules (which they don't know in the first place).

How do you handle your own kid's friends with daycare stuff? I feel like such a nag...
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nannyde 04:49 PM 05-18-2015
I couldn't allow my son to have his friends in the play rooms. It was too risky for cross contamination.

I just had them play in his room.

I also had the deal of every neighborhood parent wanting their kid to play at my house but not wanting to host my kid. I had to put a stop to that.
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cheerfuldom 08:41 PM 05-18-2015
Talk to the kids right when they come in about rules and expectations. That is what I do with my kids' neighborhood friends. I make sure they know I will send them home if they can't behave.

"Aiden, this is your warning to follow the rules at my house. If you spread anymore sand or pine needles, you are going home immediately"

Dont be afraid to parent these kids. If their parents dont like it, they can keep their own kids home.

I have four kids under 8 and a small home daycare and my kids' friends now that I will send them home (I have done it before).

"Aiden, you broke the rules. You need to go home. We will try to play another day when you can follow the rules."
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Controlled Chaos 09:14 PM 05-18-2015
Even MY kids aren't allowed to play in the daycare room during non daycare hours. I would never have a friend over in that space. My oldest is 5. Her friends can play in the living room or in her room or preferable in the yard
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Play Care 03:15 AM 05-19-2015
This is why I don't go nutty making my home a day care. The playroom is just a playroom, outside play space is normal outside play space. Day care "rules" are for day care. Neighborhood kids stay outside to play. Friends specifically invited over to play usually play in my child's bedroom or the basement family room (both off limits for day care) but there's nothing to "get in" to or worry about if they do wander into the dc playroom. The toys there are for younger kids as my dc is mostly toddlers/preschoolers and my kids are older SA.

I don't feel like being "on" when my kids have their friends over - I check in from time to time to make sure everything is okay, but this isn't work and I refuse to act like the "daycare lady" on my time off. I do the same basic supervision every other parent does when their kids have friends over. If someone consistantly doesn't play well, they don't get invited back. But I've never had an issue.
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Unregistered 04:58 AM 05-19-2015
Back in the days I was on the food program, as a provider I had to keep the numbers right or I would be over which meant that my own children rarely could have friends over while I was on the clock with daycare...that would have put me over and heaven forbid the food lady comes when there are more kids than allowed or that some nosy neighbor would call and alert whoever monitors such things. It was good in that some of the daycare kids were my kids ages and they would be friends.Now I know my own kids resented not being able to be in their own room if it was being used for nap by a paying child.I did attempt to keep some toys jsut for daycare and my kids had their own toys.My kids now are much older and not in any hurry to procreate because they were around littles all their lives while still at home.
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kendallina 09:53 AM 05-19-2015
Ok, thanks everyone, I definitely do want them to be able to play in the playroom. My DD plays in there almost all the time and it's right at the front door and huge, so it seems silly to not let them play there. Her bedroom is small and upstairs (and really, always a ridiculous mess).

I guess I just needed to hear that it's okay to give ground rules to neighborhood kids. My daughter has friends over a lot (she's an only child) but I'm just used to kids that I already know and they're used to me telling them what to do...haha.

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childcaremom 09:56 AM 05-19-2015
I have space that is dedicated to daycare but my kids are allowed in there with their friends. They know to clean up when they are finished and how to play but I also have no problems stepping in and laying down the law. Kids that require me to play the lawman too much do not get to play here often.
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kendallina 09:57 AM 05-19-2015
Originally Posted by Unregistered:
Back in the days I was on the food program, as a provider I had to keep the numbers right or I would be over which meant that my own children rarely could have friends over while I was on the clock with daycare...that would have put me over and heaven forbid the food lady comes when there are more kids than allowed or that some nosy neighbor would call and alert whoever monitors such things. It was good in that some of the daycare kids were my kids ages and they would be friends.Now I know my own kids resented not being able to be in their own room if it was being used for nap by a paying child.I did attempt to keep some toys jsut for daycare and my kids had their own toys.My kids now are much older and not in any hurry to procreate because they were around littles all their lives while still at home.
Yeh, I don't allow neighborhood kids over when I'm working. This summer it may be harder to do that, though, when my own daughter will be off school and home all day. Fortunately I have a couple of kids DD's age that will be here.
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Annalee 09:59 AM 05-19-2015
Originally Posted by kendallina:
How do you handle when your child has friends over? My daughter is in kindy so my preschool room has a lot of stuff that interests her friends when they come over. This usually is not a problem because many of her friends have been in my preschool and understand my rules.

However, we have some kids in the neighborhood that have been playing with my daughter and they don't know the rules and I feel like I'm constantly telling them things like, "don't take sand from the sand table and pine needles stay in the pine needle area, and leave the frog in his tank" My DD knows these rules, of course but has a hard tme speaking up and then she gets stressed out when they break the rules (which they don't know in the first place).

How do you handle your own kid's friends with daycare stuff? I feel like such a nag...
I have a separate daycare room. We have lots of family get-togethers so the all the children's parents used to ask me to let their kids go play in the daycare. After being told multiple times NO NO and NO, they do not ask anymore I just tell them I keep my room up to state guidelines and with the strict rules, I can not afford to let anyone go out there.
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kendallina 10:00 AM 05-19-2015
Originally Posted by nannyde:
I couldn't allow my son to have his friends in the play rooms. It was too risky for cross contamination.

I just had them play in his room.

I also had the deal of every neighborhood parent wanting their kid to play at my house but not wanting to host my kid. I had to put a stop to that.
Fortunately the neighbor mom is good about suggesting that they play at her house one day and then they play at my house the next. I definitely have no desire to host my daughter's friends all the time. It's hard though because my DD is an only child, like your son, and my daughter wants to have her friends over a lot. She's very social, much more extroverted than my husband or me. I have c couple of her friend's parents that are more than happy to accept an invitation for their child to come here, but don't invite my DD over there...needless to say those friends don't come over a lot anymore.
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daycarediva 11:18 AM 05-19-2015
Originally Posted by Play Care:
This is why I don't go nutty making my home a day care. The playroom is just a playroom, outside play space is normal outside play space. Day care "rules" are for day care. Neighborhood kids stay outside to play. Friends specifically invited over to play usually play in my child's bedroom or the basement family room (both off limits for day care) but there's nothing to "get in" to or worry about if they do wander into the dc playroom. The toys there are for younger kids as my dc is mostly toddlers/preschoolers and my kids are older SA.

I don't feel like being "on" when my kids have their friends over - I check in from time to time to make sure everything is okay, but this isn't work and I refuse to act like the "daycare lady" on my time off. I do the same basic supervision every other parent does when their kids have friends over. If someone consistantly doesn't play well, they don't get invited back. But I've never had an issue.
This exactly.

In your case, I would do a 1 time rule reminder and then just a generic, 'Ok, time to clean up in here and move on to _______" if they failed to follow your rules.
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Tags:preschool, preschool - toys
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