Drill Sergeant

**BusyBee** · 09-27-2011, 03:46 PM

I totally can relate!!

As I type, I am so tired that I am literally numb and I still have to make dinner, clean the house, workout, prep a bit for tomorrow... It is an EXTREMELY taxing job!

**Heidi** · 09-27-2011, 04:30 PM

The only thing I can say is that naptime is not a choice in my house. If you disrupt others, you sleep in a porta-crib in a seperate room. Napping with the group is earned.

In WI children under 5 must who are in care more than 4 hours MUST be offered a nap. That means, lay down and be quiet. If they do not fall asleep after 1/2 hr, they are supposed to be offered quiet activities. I only have one 4yo who some days doesn't fall asleep, so he has a basket of toys and books. He is in the livingroom with me, and if he gets too loud, he gets shushed.

He is my toughest customer, yet this is one thing he respects..

I typically get 2-3 hours of quiet time per day. I eat lunch myself, wash the dishes, do my homework (taking 6 credits), clean up a bit, and sometimes plan dinner.

My thought is that you need to be a little tougher on those huligans! You deserve a break, and they NEED it!
:-)

**WImom** · 09-27-2011, 04:47 PM

Yep, in WI here too. Everyone lays on their mat. I usually have them lay for 30 minutes to one hour instead of 30 minutes though since most of the time they do fall asleep and need it.

I have one that doesn't nap so she has a nap bucket (I have 6 that rotate) and she is in the living room with me. Once other kids wake up they also can come out and pick a bucket. They must all be quiet or they go back to their mats. I haven't had one day yet that I didn't get a nap break.

I also bought a laptop since I stay in the daycare room until they are all asleep (my living room is right of the daycare room) and my laptop has been my savior. I can work on all kinds of stuff for that 30-45m. I recommend one to everyone.

**Christian Mother** · 09-27-2011, 05:01 PM

Nap time is sacred here..

! So far the kids have been great nappers but I've had parents who would prefer that they not sleep that way they're good and ready to fall asleep at bedtime. I tell them no nap no daycare. I don't offer those services. I need that down time bc we are go go go from drop off til noon. And then from 3pm on same thing. I never get a full 3 hrs bc my daughter goes to school at 12:30 and my son gets home from school at 2:25pm. For napping I have each child in there own rooms. That might not be ideal for providers that have more then 4 children. I only have 4 so each have there own room and I make it dark with Christian music on each day. Noise doesn't bother them bc some are down stairs sleeping and others are up stairs and they've learned to sleep through it. Do you have a way of putting the ones that are disruptive in a separate room?

**cheerfuldom** · 09-27-2011, 05:28 PM

perhaps you have over extended yourself with the amount of children? maybe consider an assistant? or figure out what are the biggest time wasters are and start revamping stuff. There's no reason to be spending hours prepping for daycare duties! Do that stuff during the day!

**Christina72684** · 09-27-2011, 06:10 PM

Originally posted by bbo

The only thing I can say is that naptime is not a choice in my house. If you disrupt others, you sleep in a porta-crib in a seperate room. Napping with the group is earned.

In WI children under 5 must who are in care more than 4 hours MUST be offered a nap. That means, lay down and be quiet. If they do not fall asleep after 1/2 hr, they are supposed to be offered quiet activities. I only have one 4yo who some days doesn't fall asleep, so he has a basket of toys and books. He is in the livingroom with me, and if he gets too loud, he gets shushed.

He is my toughest customer, yet this is one thing he respects..

I typically get 2-3 hours of quiet time per day. I eat lunch myself, wash the dishes, do my homework (taking 6 credits), clean up a bit, and sometimes plan dinner.

My thought is that you need to be a little tougher on those huligans! You deserve a break, and they NEED it!
:-)

Lucky you!!! I've been opened 3 months and only have had 1 or 2 days where all the kids were asleep at the same time. That being said, I also have a 2 month old, 6 month old, and the other 10 kids are between 1-3 years old. I have no clue how to get them all down at the same time!

**permanentvacation** · 09-27-2011, 06:16 PM

I agree with Cheerfuldom. I don't think you should spend 2-3 hours preparing for the next day. I've been in daycare for 20 years and teach a very well-rounded curriculm, keep a clean home, do activities with the kids, used to do weekly field trips every summer, etc. But I have never spent 2-3 hours preparing for the next day.

I had a group of kids who seemed not to need a nap at one time. I tried to allow them to stay up all day. It lasted about a week and a half! They really did get tired and hateful between 4 and 5 pm. They fought more, were more fussy, and I had a more difficult time getting things done that I needed to do. So I went back to a required nap time. Whether the children think they need it or not, they are required to lay down and be still and quiet for 2 1/2 hours every day.

You also have to realize that if you are operating your daycare by yourself and have ages infants - 4 years old, you are doing the job of about 7 people ( if you worked in a center) - the director, assistant director, infants and toddlers teacher, their aid, preschool teacher, their aid, and cleaning lady. If you also prepare the children's meals, add the cook to your list for a total of 8 people that it would take to do your job if you were in a center! If you also watch school aged kids, add being a school age teacher and an aid for that which comes to a total of 10 people to do your job!! So YES, you NEED and DESERVE your nap BREAK!!!! Which, by the way, most of us don't actually take the full nap time as a break, usually we are using a good bit of that time to clean, cook, and prepare activities. Most of us take 1/2 to 1 hour of actual break time where we are doing nothing related to daycare.

Maybe you should really notice what you are doing with your time during your work hours and see if you can use your time more effectively during the day. Are you really just trying to do too many activities with the kids? Are you honestly involved with the kids every moment of the day? Is there some of that time - such as while they are having indoor free play that you could remove yourself from them, but still be able to monitor them, and do some preparing for the next day then? Such as place a table and chair in the play room for you to sit at and prepare the next day's curriculum while you are still right there able to watch them. If you are doing cleaning after work hours, can you fit that into your work day? The way I look at it, for the most part, when my last daycare child leaves for the day, I should be completely done with my workday.

Yes, as a business owner, there are some days that I work after hours on some big change I want to make to my walls, contract, shopping spree I go on, TAXES, etc. But my typical day to day work is done during the workday.

My curriculum planning is done during naptime and sometimes I need to work on it during the children's free-play time.

As far as the cleaning, I finish loading my dishwasher, run it, and clean the sink, kitchen counter, and stovetop after the children's last meal ( dinner at 4). As far as the dishes go, I rinse off their plates, bowls, and silverware after each meal/snack and put them in the dishwasher. After their last meal - we have dinner here - I put their cups into the dishwasher. By then I have a full load and start the dishwasher before the kids are all picked up. After the last scheduled bathroom break, I clean the bathroom and take out the diaper pail trash bag. ( the children are having indoor free-play at that time) I vaccuum while the children are watching tv at the end of the day while waiting for the parents. I have the children pull the chairs away from their table and put them back for me ( they actually like helping), I have the children starting out sitting on one side of the room then move to the other side of the room for me to get the entire floor. Then I put the tv on in the main room, so they can watch tv while I vaccuum the other areas on that floor. My entire main floor is for daycare - the living room, some 6 foot wide weird hallway type thing, the dining room, and kitchen. I take out the main trash anywhere from the time I clean the kitchen to just after the last daycare child gets picked up.

As far as cooking meals, I find it works well for me to cook every meal early in the morning. If I cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner all at once, first thing in the morning, then I save money on firing up the oven/stove throughout the day, and I only have to be in the kitchen when I have only 2 kids here - my early kids get here 2 hours before the others! So if I use that time to do some of the work that does not directly include the kids, I'm not distracted by them arguing/fighting as much.

I would suggest that you take your hours of operation and see how you might be able to fit everything you need to do in those hours. If you are open 6am - 6pm, see if you can make a schedule to get everything done by 6pm. List all the activities you do with the kids, bathroom breaks, meal times, free play times, educational time, arts and crafts time, etc. as well as what you need to get done such as cook meals, do paperwork, clean, prepare curiculum, etc. Then plug everything into your work hours as if you worked for a company out of your home. You honestly might be just trying to do too much each day and need to eliminate something.

Drill Sergeant

Drill Sergeant

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