Former Teachers HELP!

[kristin]

I am currently a teacher. I love working with kids. I love teaching, but I feel so torn at work lately, there is so much getting in the way of me doing my job. I feel like it is not even my classroom some days.

I have been tossing around the idea of starting a daycare out of my home for only teachers’ children, or starting a preschool disguised as a daycare, or running a nursery school out of our church. My dream would be to rewind the education to 30 years ago but something tells me that is not happening.

My other thing is I love the woman my DD goes to now, but there are some things about her DC that bother me and they seem to be getting worse and a huge part of me would like to be the one deciding what my daughters care will involve.

So those of you who use to teach tell me do you miss it? Do you think you will ever go back? What made you leave?

I am particularly interested in information on running a teacher only daycare or running a preschool daycare that is not year round. Thanks everyone!

[JenNJ]

I will be honest with you. Now is not the time to open a daycare if you are looking for a specific type of client. Unless you have friends at your school with young kids who want to take their kids to you. There are an obscene amount of daycares right now and it is TOUGH out there.

You being a teacher is not enough of a draw to gather teacher only clients. I say this because there are mothers out there offering daycare for pennies a day. Close to free. No matter how special your daycare is, you can't beat free daycare.

I suggest working another year as a teacher and really exploring the daycare world. Read books, read posts here, other forums, articles, and do your own local research. A lot of local research. How many home daycares in a 2 mile radius? 5 miles? How many centers? Average rate? Etc.

As far as your daughter's care, do you want to share the issues here and maybe we can explain some things from the other side? Have you spoken to her provider about the issues you are having?

[Snoozer]

Wow! Kristin...I feel like I wrote your post! That is EXACTLY the situation I am currently facing! I am really trying hard to weigh the PROS and CONS of getting out of the teaching field and opening a daycare (for teachers only and maybe part-timers). I am afraid I will regret getting out of the field but there are soooo many changes taking place in education and it's not what it was 20-30 years ago. The demands of "latest and greatest" methods and multiple progress monitoring and assessments...you really have to have a strong passion and drive to do it and I am not sure I have what it takes at this point to be happy doing it for the rest of my working life. I would also love to hear some insight from people who have moved from education to their own daycare as well as those who take only teachers' children!

[jenn]

I taught kindergarten for 9 years before opening my home daycare.

I quit teaching for 2 reasons. One being that I knew I would want to be home when I had my own child and the other was the burn out feeling I had. I felt like I wasn't really teaching, just assessing and doing paperwork.

What I love about daycare is that I can still teach, but I can make it fit my need and the needs of the kids. I don't advertise as a preschool, but I do work a lot with my kids.

Will I ever return to classroom teaching? I don't think so.

What do I miss? The kids. Adult interaction. If you allow it to, home daycare can become isolating.

I do year round daycare and do not have any teacher's kids, so I can't give you any advice there

[DCBlessings27]

I taught for 3 years. I taught high school English. The kids definitely aren't the same as they were 20-30 years ago or even when I went to school. The teachers in my city have been working without raises for a couple years now and don't have adequate supplies. They're also working with large class sizes due to budget cuts and helicopter parents. Teaching has definitely gone downhill as a career IMHO.

I quit teaching 3 years ago after having my daughter. Even though my sil does daycare too, I couldn't stomach the thought of placing dd in daycare. Do I miss it/kids? Yes, sometimes I do. I definitely miss adult interaction and the freedom to take personal days/meet my dh for lunch on an inservice day. Would I go back? I don't think so. I'm currently trying to decide if I should take the classes to keep my license current. I think sometimes that I should bc I would want to be able to maintain our lifestyle for my dd if something should ever happen to my dh.

I would second the advice that JenNJ said about taking some time out to research daycares/preschools in your area. Check CL to see how many licensed/sahms are offering care to see if it would be worth it. In my area, we have tons of licensed and unlicensed homes. It took me about 2 of the 3 years I've been licensed to get to the point where I have been turning away phone calls.

My daycare is a year-round one. Doing business with friends doesn't tend to work out, so I never offered care to any teacher friends.

[Country Kids]

I've never been a teacher but really want to work in the school system. Crazy I know but here are my reasons:

I could cut 2-4 hours off my days.
I would start work later/end much earlier
Have lots of time off with my own children
Be able to participate if my children had something come up at school/function
Be available for my own children
Not depend on others to help me all the time
Feel free to take a sick day/personal day without having to let 10 others know and feel guilty


What keeps me in childcare:

It my own business
I've done it for 17 years (its about all I know)-
The money is good
Great families

[kristin]

Issues with my DD care are that the TV is on all the time now, they are napping with the TV on, she is not napping much so she is tired and cranky all evening. Cleanliness is also becoming an issue.

I consider myself a laid back person, but it is starting to really bother me. I have said something about the TV and she told me it is not on as often as I think, but I pick up anwhere from 3:00-5:00 depending on the day and it is always on then, it is on when I drop her off, it is on when I have had to pick her up mid day, it is on when my husband has picked her up mid day and she now knows what comes next on nick jr (she was listing shows and so I checked it out and low and behold she was listing them in the order the come on).

[EntropyControlSpecialist]

I have to disagree about now not being the time to look for a specific type of client.

I am a certified teacher and opted to open an in-home Preschool. I take a very specific age range and live in a pretty remote area (along a highway with several subdivisions off of it). I do not live in a large city.

[bunnyslippers]

I was a teacher in the public schools for eight years, and now run a teacher only child care. I miss teaching terribly, and intend to go back in 1-2 years. I opened my child cae so I can be home with my own children. Once they are old enough to be in preschool full time, I will be closing the child care down.

I would definitely consider looking into the market for what you are looking at doing. Also consider the retirement piece - the teacher retirement system is GREAT, and if you leave public school you are missing out on that benefit. There is also a lot of job security in teaching, but child care can be up and down and there may be times that you aren't making the money you need to be successful.

There are great things to owning your own business - and I don't regret it - but I also will not be doing this forever!

[Country Kids]

See in our area there is no job security-. We have had so many layoffs and "forced" retirements its not even funny.

My one friends husband retired and was going to do subbing for back-up but has only received two calls this year.

Another one subs only and hasn't been called since before Christmas.

The reasoning-there are 150 subs for 11 schools in our area! Not much work out there even for a sub.