Recommendations for starting an at home daycare?

Question

I have a 19 month boy and 1 on the way and I would like to stay home when the second child is born. Does anyone have any recommendations for staying home and starting a at home daycare?

Answer 1

Check with your state department of health services. They will be able to tell you what the requirements are for opening a home day care. Where I live you can keep up to 5 people, of any age, legally in your home during the day without a license. I would imagine that would be what you were thinking about doing anyway. I have a day care in my home currently and I keep 5 children including my own, most likely you will have to include your own children as part of the day care numbers until they enter public school. I have a lot of advice I would be willing to share, what to charge, hours of operation, policies and contracts, what's worked for me, a little too much for this forum, but if you would like to email me through the Yahoo Answers site, I would be more than willing to help out any way I can. Good luck.

Answer 2

I opened my in-home daycare last June when I was about 6 months pregnant. I'm not sure how far along you are but that will make a difference on how you go about things. Here is how I got started:

First of all I came up with a name and had my husband help me create fliers and business cards. Word of mouth is a great way to start. I passed out fliers and cards to everyone we knew, and spread the word that I was opening an in-home daycare about 2.5 months before I planned to open.

I'm not sure how familiar you are with daycare policies but I worked in several daycares prior to this and had a pretty good idea of what policies I wanted to implement. You can ask some local daycare centers for a copy of theirs to go off of if you'd like. If you want to see mine you can visit my website (it needs updating though, I have made revisions and changed my logo) but you'll get the idea. I'll put the link to it at the bottom of my answer.

I purchased nap mats and a couple porta-cribs (NOT playpens). I bought a lot of toys from second hand stores and garage sales to accomodate all ages and stages. You will also need several highchairs, bouncy seats, exersaucers...if you don't already have them.

Then I ran an ad in both the local newspapers and got a great response. When I had parents come for a "tour" I had all the paperwork (forms, handbook...) in a folder for them to take home, I went over it briefly with them. Then had them go home and think it over, told them to call with any questions, then did a follow up call in two days to see if they needed anything else or would like to visit again.

There are a lot of state regulations that you will need to look at also and they do vary from state to state.

6 months later my business is going wonderfully, I am happily staying home with my 4 year old son and 4 month old daughter...plus I have 4 other kids in my daycare (I'm currently full). I also have 2 on my "waiting list". There is so much more to it, so if you would like more info or advise I'd be happy to help, it's such a great way to be able to stay home and still afford the little things :) You can email me at [e-mail] (the link is on my Answers profile too)

Here is my daycare's website (again, it needs updating...I don't really use it)
http://www.the-tot-spot-home-daycare.com

Best of luck!!

Answer 3

Depending on the state, you would need to take courses and get licenced and be prepared for inspections by the state.