Is Your Childcare Space.....

[Blackcat31]

Just wondering what kind of "space" you have for your childcare,

Is your childcare area blended into your home/family or
semi-separate with a designated area within your house or
a completely separate building all together?

[youretooloud]

I have a large room for the kids. BUT, every morning, I take tables and toys and mats out to the kitchen and family room, and every night I take it back. The play room is large enough for everything, but it's just a better set up if I use all the rooms.

[JaydensMommy]

My living room and attached office is used just for the daycare. The kitchen is shared with a table for the kids and also our dining table. We use one of our large bedrooms as our living room with couches and tv. I had our stuff out when I first started and I did not like having to share the space, I'm much happier with it this way. But I do wish I had a completely separate space that I could close the door after daycare and not see it until the next day.

[Meyou]

I have a large room that is just a daycare playroom but I use the surrounding hallways and a large open area daily as well for activity centers. Everything tucks in the playroom at night except the art on the walls....everywhere. ::

[AnneCordelia]

Well, it's a little of both of the top two choices. I have converted my diningroom into a playspace that is solely for daycare use. My kitchen is used for daycare meals as well as my family and naptime occurs in my craftroom in the basement. My crafting gets tucked into cupboards and the playpens come out.

[snbauser]

Our downstairs is an open floor plan with a dining room, living room, kitchen, and bathroom. Think 'L' shaped with the kitchen and bathroom being the short part of the 'L'. The bathroom is shared. The kitchen is used to prepare food for both but the kids are never in the area other than to pass through to the bathroom or outside or wash hands. The living room and dining room are completely daycare.

[Lianne]

My whole home is dedicated to childcare. If it's not being used as a play or sleep area, it's used for storage. My friends all tease me that I don't do daycare out of the home I live in, I live in the home daycare. Up until a few months ago, I didn't even have a couch. I prefered to use the extra space for the kids. I changed things up in the spring and now have space for a couch and the kids. I love it like this though and because I'm single and have no kids of my own, it's not a big deal.

[DCMom]

My childcare is in the lower level walkout of my home; 1000 dedicated square feet with 3/4 bath, bedroom, large playroom and a kitchen area with sink, undercounter fridge and microwave oven. Most of the cooking for daycare is done in the daycare area; I rarely use my full kitchen except in the summer, but then I have lots of help for supervision of the kids.

A few years ago we added a sidewalk/stairs leading to a completely separate entrance. No clients come through my house any longer. That is my favorite feature!

[Sugar Magnolia]

Just wondering what kind of "space" you have for your childcare,

Is your childcare area blended into your home/family or
semi-separate with a designated area within your house or
a completely separate building all together?

Separate space, but in FL that makes me a center, not a family daycare. Its too bad, because we are exactly like a large family daycare except we don't live here. Makes many Many MANY more hoops to jump through. Also means we are evaluated using ECERS, not FECERS (the family child care version), and unless an evaluater "gets it", we have to explain out multi age approach over and over again. "Where's your 1 year old room? Where's your preschool room?" Well, there isn't one, its mixed age. "Oh I see, that's tough to evaluate then." Yep.

[Holladee]

My daycare space is not separate. I have a small play space where the toys are kept neat and organized however kids are encouraged to bring the toys to the living room to play where there is more space.

I only have two daycare kids though - and don't plan on anymore! .

[WImom]

My daycare space is my formal living room/dinning room that's off my kitchen. I share the kitchen (only for me for cooking) and the front entry and bathroom. We have a dedicated outdoor space which I love.

[Blackcat31]

Separate space, but in FL that makes me a center, not a family daycare. Its too bad, because we are exactly like a large family daycare except we don't live here. Makes many Many MANY more hoops to jump through. Also means we are evaluated using ECERS, not FECERS (the family child care version), and unless an evaluater "gets it", we have to explain out multi age approach over and over again. "Where's your 1 year old room? Where's your preschool room?" Well, there isn't one, its mixed age. "Oh I see, that's tough to evaluate then." Yep.

I know exactly how you feel. You are in an essence no different than me.....except that I am allowed to be licensed under family childcare and not as a center. I am working on that though and I have done a bit aof research in that regard but I am comletley surprised at how many hoops they do make you jump through to do that in FL. Here, we just have to follow some really weird rules such as labeling EVERYTHING and taking and charting food temps but NOTHING like you have stated you were made to go through. YIKES!! That would make me reconsider things completley!

[morgan24]

I have a finished walk out basement. One half of that is the daycare space. My upstairs is an open floor plan. I use that for lunch, snacks are done downstairs. I use my 2 extra bedrooms for naps. I don't have any children at home so I have room for play pens and nap mats in them. The only thing I don't like is I don't have a bathroom in the basement so every time I have one that has to use the bathroom or I need to do a diaper change I have to take everyone upstairs. Once I have the kids for awhile I can train them to use the bathroom before we go downstairs and when we go up for lunch and after nap so it does work out.

[KEG123]

Blended. I have my own 3 year old so toys are inevitably going to be everywhere. My hope is that, should we move any time soon, we move to a place where I can have a separate area, like a basement or something for the daycare.

[beachgrl]

I have a dedicated daycare room in my dining room area that is off from my kitchen so we eat in the kitchen area and have an office, hallway and bathroom for the kids to use off the other end. I have my diaper changing area in the hallway so not right in my daycare room. I have baby swing and extra baby gates and such in my office area, there is a train table and other games in our front living rm/family room and our main living room is attached to both my office and the other end of the kitchen. For the most part the kids play and work in the daycare space but i don't get bent out of shape if they drag toys around because the ones I have are good about cleaning up and the boys love the train table. I also have two closets and part of my laundry rm under cabinet area full of daycare storage, .