What Is Your Niche?

[Angelsj]

I do individualized care. We have a general schedule, but I am not tied to it. On one day last week, I fed lunch to a sleepy toddler at 10:30, to another two when they got hungry at 11 and to the 3 yo when she got off the bus at 12.

If I have a couple kids at the same place educationally, I will do a curriculum, but often I do not. I teach each child at their own pace/ability. I am comfortable with tiny infants up through age 10 (though I honestly don't care much for SA kids), babies eat and sleep on demand. I accept kids who have been tossed out of other care, or have special needs, particularly autistic/aspergers or kids with sensory issues.

I also allow pay as you need and charge mostly hourly. If you use 25 hours, you pay for 25 hours.
Oh, and we are multilingual. We regularly speak English, Spanish and French, and occasionally throw in Latin, Greek, German, Italian and a touch of Mandarin.

[Cat Herder]

I am full care to include specialty medical care, curriculum and special need inclusion.

All meals are hot, home cooked, complete meals.

All toys and linens are washed daily.

I have a small group with little to no turn-over in kids. lovethis

[Willow]

I offer back to basics and Montessori inspired activities.

I believe life for kids today is too stimulating, too pressure filled, too structured. I keep my group small, I refuse to accommodate a group any larger than the size of a regular large family. Limited technology, no insanely brightly colored rooms or toys, very rarely do I serve processed foods and we spend a lot of time outside. We garden, run, get dirty, do all of our learning through exploring in play, and kids help with household chores just as they would in their own families. I emphasize teaching kindness and compassion in a quiet and controlled regular home.

My motto is "Your Child's Home Away From Home." I spent many summers as a child staying weeks at a time with aunts and grandparents, those experiences are what I strive to replicate.

I am of the belief that kids thrive best if they have a stay at home parent the first several years of their life. It's absolutely why I stayed home with my own. I realize that's not always possible though for every family to make work so I offer parents an option to replicate that down home model as closely as possible.

Blood relation aside my group is family in every other regard.

[Angelsj]

I offer back to basics and Montessori inspired activities.

I believe life for kids today is too stimulating, too pressure filled, too structured. I keep my group small, I refuse to accommodate a group any larger than the size of a regular large family. Limited technology, no insanely brightly colored rooms or toys, very rarely do I serve processed foods and we spend a lot of time outside. We garden, run, get dirty, do all of our learning through exploring in play, and kids help with household chores just as they would in their own families. I emphasize teaching kindness and compassion in a quiet and controlled regular home.

My motto is "Your Child's Home Away From Home." I spent many summers as a child staying weeks at a time with aunts and grandparents, those experiences are what I strive to replicate.

I am of the belief that kids thrive best if they have a stay at home parent the first several years of their life. It's absolutely why I stayed home with my own. I realize that's not always possible though for every family to make work so I offer parents an option to replicate that down home model as closely as possible.

Blood relation aside my group is family in every other regard.

I absolutely agree with this on all counts! Nice
We are close to this as well, though I haven't been able to garden for a couple of years. I miss it.

[Greenplasticwateringcans]

I offer back to basics and Montessori inspired activities.

I believe life for kids today is too stimulating, too pressure filled, too structured. I keep my group small, I refuse to accommodate a group any larger than the size of a regular large family. Limited technology, no insanely brightly colored rooms or toys, very rarely do I serve processed foods and we spend a lot of time outside. We garden, run, get dirty, do all of our learning through exploring in play, and kids help with household chores just as they would in their own families. I emphasize teaching kindness and compassion in a quiet and controlled regular home.

My motto is "Your Child's Home Away From Home." I spent many summers as a child staying weeks at a time with aunts and grandparents, those experiences are what I strive to replicate.

I am of the belief that kids thrive best if they have a stay at home parent the first several years of their life. It's absolutely why I stayed home with my own. I realize that's not always possible though for every family to make work so I offer parents an option to replicate that down home model as closely as possible.

Blood relation aside my group is family in every other regard.

That is exactly how I run my daycare as well.

[Countrygal]

I don't think I have a "niche", although I am seriously thinking about before/after and summer school age care. My favorite activity is teaching and I bring learning into EVERYTHING we do. The daycare motto is "Reach for the Sun", because the sky is the limit and learning is everywhere! I also keep a fairly rigid basic schedule (meals, naps), because I feel every child needs schedules. In between we might be found anywhere doing anything. So far since school started we've studied Fall, Apples, Pumpkins, Johnny Appleseed, Knights, Thanksgiving and the Pilgrims, and we also have what would be the equivalent of a "circle time" which is all Christian material, in which we have covered the whole week of creation.

We take 1 to 2 field trips a week, and we have gotten "into" geocaching. The kids love it! So we do that probably a couple of times a month.

They still get plenty of play time, but my preference for play time is outdoor play, dancing, crafting, building, or even things like leappads, so most of this is available to the kids during free play. I have greatly reduced the number of "toys". They seem to only be things to be abused and broken to most kids.

Some day I will become even more organized, and my curriculum will be planned well ahead so I can remember to include all of those neat things I think of two weeks AFTER the unit! ::::::

[Heidi]

I think my Niche' is primarily infant and toddler care. My favorite age is probably 7 or 8 months (sitting up, crawling), to 3. If they've been with me all along, I can usually tolerate them for another year, but otherwise, those pesky preschoolers sort of drive me bonkers.

JK-but while I can teach and plan a curriculum, it's really not my favorite thing in the world. I prefer the days when theres some order to the day, some activities to liven things up, but not this huge expectation that we just have to learn x,y, and z today. It feels more natural to me that way.

So, this morning it occurred to me what my "style" is. I teach under the "If you give a mouse a cookie" principle... AKA, expanding the children's interests.

This morning, dcb (2 1/2) was the first to arrive. Just then, I found some play money that had fallen on the floor. I said "here..have a dollar". He took it and seemed interested. So, I found more in my "money" in my coat pocket. Then he tried to find a pocket to put it in, so naturally, I found a purse for him (had to dig in the overflow closet).

He brought me the money once he had it all packed up, and took out dollars. We counted, we talked about the guy on the front...George Washington. If I had one that worked (on my list) it would have been a great time to get out my cash register. If he stays interested, I will find other ways to expand that play.

That, to me, is a natural way to teach infants, toddlers, and pre-schoolers, even older children, if one's ready to be creative!