For Those With Basement Daycares

[Oneluckymom]

For you providers with basement daycares: When you are doing a tour/interview how do you arrange it. Do you meet them at your front door and later show them your downstairs arrangement? Do you meet them at your basement walk out door and later show them your upstairs eating area if you have one? If they ask why you chose to set up your basement as a daycare how do you respond? Just curious.

[Ariana]

I meet them at the front door and then take them downstairs. The walkout stairs are a little steep and dangerous, especially when it rains or there's snow so I always get the kids at the front door anyway. I don't usually show them the upstairs eating area, I just mention that we eat lunch upstairs in our dining room. If they ask why I chose my basement I always say because it's a walkout and get much more light down there. My patio door is huge so it's actually brighter than other areas of my house. My basement also has ceramic tile and a bathroom so it's a perfect setup!

[Abigail]

I'm going to have parents come in through the garage and walk-down to the laundry room entrance. I want my home to be private upstairs because it's my space and the daycare is all downstairs. My only concern is how do I not make it sound creepy, "Please park in the third stall and walk around the garage to enter the daycare area" LOL. Right now I'm only going to have an adult rocking chair downstairs so I wouldn't know what to have the adults sit in while we go over the handbook which will take a good 20 minutes. Do I have them in the 10-12 inch high chairs at the kidney-shaped table? IDK, any advice is appreciated. I always could do the interviews upstairs in the kitchen, but then they will know what my private home looks like so once again I want to keep it all downstairs.

[iheartkids]

I meet them at the door and walk them thru the house and down to the basement for the interview process. I was once that parent looking for a provider and I wanted to see their living space as well as the daycare space. I guess so you can get a little visual to what kind of person will be watching your child. But my families have to walk thru my kitchen to get to the basement when they drop off.

[godiva83]

I meet them at my front door...and usually start the interview process in my homes office, going thru the handbook and q&a about policies. I then taken them down to the daycare set up show them the parent board, civvies, washroom, playspace ect, we conclude with a q&a in the daycare space.
I also think as a parent I would like to see the providers home( if my children were using that space) I would want to know if the kitchen was clean, and the rest of the house was clean and safe- again only if the kids were going to be using other rooms or meals prepared in the kitchen

[morgan24]

I meet them upstairs. I have an open floor plan so they see the kitchen, dining & living room when they come in. I do lunch upstairs. I show them the two bedrooms I use for nap. Then I take them downstairs to my play area and finish the interview there.

[Ariana]

Right now I'm only going to have an adult rocking chair downstairs so I wouldn't know what to have the adults sit in while we go over the handbook which will take a good 20 minutes. Do I have them in the 10-12 inch high chairs at the kidney-shaped table? IDK, any advice is appreciated. I always could do the interviews upstairs in the kitchen, but then they will know what my private home looks like so once again I want to keep it all downstairs.

Can you bring adult chairs down for the interview? My space has an adult sized sectional couch so that's what we use. Sometimes though we'll just stand and chat. I e-mail them my contract several days before the interview so we don't spend a lot of time going over the contract I just answer their questions mostly.