Do You Pay for Curriculum or Do Parents?

[kpa0627]

I'm going to start using a curriculum in August (I think Funshine Express but not for sure). Do you pay for the curriculum yourself or do you have each parent pay for it month to month or a one time fee? Just wondering how you charge or if you do at all.

[mismatchedsocks]

I used to get Funshine Express. I would just pay for it all myself, but at that time I had only 4 kids in my care. I do not use it now, but i use alot of the items that I recreate as my own. I also get some ideas from online for weekly ideas. It is a bit cheaper that way, but its not all put together in a package for you.

[originalkat]

Putting together your own curriculum is definetly doable. However, I find Funshine Express is worth the price (About $10 per kids per month for 6 kids). I pay for it myself, but I have it worked into my rates. I just love not having to worry about coming up with everything myself.

Each Month I:
Request Library books from booklist for theme related books
Open my box and sort the papers, crafts, activities by week

Each Week I:
Send home the weekly Parent Page which explains the theme and home connection activities, songs we are learning

Each Day I:
Scan the Lesson Plans and highlight the things I want to do.
Complete the activities/crafts/coloring sheets with the kids.

It is SOOOOO simple, the parents love it, and for the most part it is developmentally appropriate. Some people dont like all the crafty stuff. I adapt some of the crafts at times. But mostly we do the crafts and I also have free art at the easel such as watercolors, dotdot paints, etc... for more open ended activities.

[SunflowerMama]

I just pay for it. I buy it for 6 kids so it's around $60.

[actaktmdt]

Right now I am paying for it. But I see in Aug the rates go up a tiny bit. And I am thinking i might have parents pay for a portion of it. Its not factored into my rates at the moment. Though I might wait untill January...as thats when my contracts get renegoiated.....

[Unregistered]

I'm not trying to highjack the thread, but I had the same question. I'm going to be using Fun Steps and Two Steps, and went ahead and ordered it with the early bird discount. I figured I'd have parents pay an extra curriculum fee each month, or a one time fee. But now I'm getting nervous, wondering what if they say they don't care if there child does preschool or not and won't pay the fee? Does ANY body charge the parents an extra fee each month just for curriculum? I have a letter I'm going to send out talking about the curriculum and how it follows NAEYC guidelines, etc etc, and about the price for it. The owner charges weekly for daycare, but since I'm doing preschool, I thought I'd take this on myself, out of my own pocket until the parents pay me back. That way they know it's ME asking for it for PRESCHOOL, and that the owner doesn't have anything to do with it, so they won't be mad at her and think she raised her rates.

[bre1313]

I consider it part of my expense running a business. there are too many problems related to parents paying for it. Say a child doesn't show when you do a project and the parents see it on the wall. They now expect that their child will do it. Say you arent' feeling 100%, your okay to do the basics but just not 100%. You'd like to just do the basics for a week.

[Carole's Daycare]

I pay for Funshine- and just deduct it as a cost of doing business for Full -Time kids. Part timers I charge $10 month for curriculum- since I dont have the profit margin on them, and since I have to make adjustments to our routineand do more planning for them to participate in the activities. Funshine provides a form explaining the curriculum and requesting the parents contribution already made out- so at interview I tell full-time pre-paid families its included, while part time must share the cost. I do charge for school age summer curriculum/supplies at $10/m or $30 for summer-paid in May- and I order them the Funshine summer kit and a Summer Bridge book for their grade level from Barnes & Noble.

[Abigail]

I'm not trying to highjack the thread, but I had the same question. I'm going to be using Fun Steps and Two Steps, and went ahead and ordered it with the early bird discount. I figured I'd have parents pay an extra curriculum fee each month, or a one time fee. But now I'm getting nervous, wondering what if they say they don't care if there child does preschool or not and won't pay the fee? Does ANY body charge the parents an extra fee each month just for curriculum? I have a letter I'm going to send out talking about the curriculum and how it follows NAEYC guidelines, etc etc, and about the price for it. The owner charges weekly for daycare, but since I'm doing preschool, I thought I'd take this on myself, out of my own pocket until the parents pay me back. That way they know it's ME asking for it for PRESCHOOL, and that the owner doesn't have anything to do with it, so they won't be mad at her and think she raised her rates.

I know this is a thread from a few months ago, but I would say if you are going the extra step to "teach" a curriculum, then your rates should increase accordingly and you should advertise that you have a curriculum. I wouldn't charge a rate for offering because some parents may not care and childcare is expensive enough. If you start "breaking down costs" then they are going to want to know what every little thing costs and you don't need to be put in that position. Increase your rates a little if you feel that your daycare offers more and should cost more. How does that sound?

[Unregistered]

I know this is a thread from a few months ago, but I would say if you are going the extra step to "teach" a curriculum, then your rates should increase accordingly and you should advertise that you have a curriculum. I wouldn't charge a rate for offering because some parents may not care and childcare is expensive enough. If you start "breaking down costs" then they are going to want to know what every little thing costs and you don't need to be put in that position. Increase your rates a little if you feel that your daycare offers more and should cost more. How does that sound?

Thanks, that does make sense. Thankfully it hasn't worked out that way for me. I had went ahead and ordered it out of my own pocket a few months ago so I'd get the early bird price. I knew the owner wouldn't be able afford to purchase it all up front, and if the rates increased, I'm sure we would have had some upset parents. All the parents know I teach the preschool part, and the owner takes care of he daycare part, so I think they understood the curriculum fee. Most of them actually seem really excited about it. I think the letter talking about it and how good it would be and what some of the things are that their child would be doing during the year helped. Over half the families paid the entire year's cost upfront, and the others have commited and signed an agreement to pay monthly. They'd have to pay more if they put their child in some preschool that is preschool only, and also have them enrolled here for daycare. This way they get both and only have to pay the daycare rate, plus $10/month for preschool. They understand that I did this out of my own pocket so I could provide I better program for their child. I also asked for school supplies, and some of the parents are going over and beyond what I asked for and getting extra stuff to help me out!
But I know my situation is a little different than most home daycares.

[TGT09]

I pay for it....if I really thought it was beneficial enough to the child to skip pre-school all together then I would make the parents pay for it. I'm not a teacher, nor do I claim to be so I don't feel right having them pay for it....does that make sense?

[HeatherB]

I pay for it.. a big tax write off! More I can write off the less taxes I pay.

[countrymom]

I'm going with MGT again and I pay for it, much easier than trying to get parents to pay for it.