School Age Placement Stipulations

[SimpleMom]

I currently have a license for 12 kids. of that twelve, i want keep only two placements for school agers. how would you go about notifying parents of this policy? i have some kids going into school in the next two years and their siblings would still be here (i hope). or should i let them come through kinderarten/first grade? first grade would be my limit though

thanks in advance for the advice

[nannyde]

I don't worry about the business two years down the road for things like this. I worry about bringing in babies so that my 2-5 slots stay full two years down the road.

I don't keep kids that don't need a full afternoon nap so the conversation of keeping school agers doesn't come up.

[SimpleMom]

thank you for your respose. i can understand what you're saying. i have one movin into kindergarten again the spring and she's been here since i began. who knows, maybe she'll decide to stay home with a sibling anyway.

i have my own little one right now and so taking in more babies at this time is out of the question, but one yr olds i could take in. maybe i'll focus on that. however, what would i state to the one that's been here if there's no room for her at that time for SA placement?

[DCMom]

My license stipulates 4 of my 14 spots are school-aged. I don't take school aged kids unless they have a full-time sibling here, I would rather leave the spots unfilled


Here is how I word it in my contract:


***SCHOOL-AGE (All-day K/1st +, includes before & after
school, school-off days and summer vacations guaranteed) $ 100.00/week

***SCHOOL-AGE (All-day K/1st +, SUMMER CARE ONLY) $ 150.00/week
(These spots are limited and first requested, first served)


***PLEASE NOTE: In order to enroll at the regular school age rate, there must be a younger sibling enrolled in the childcare. Having a younger sibling here DOES NOT guarantee a spot during summer or school off days, if the school-aged child is not enrolled at the regular school-aged rate. SCHOOL OFF DAYS AND SUMMER CARE ARE BASED ON LIMITED AVAILABILITY and are filled on a first requested, first filled basis.

When the youngest of the siblings reaches the first day of all day Kindergarten or 1st grade, other childcare arrangements must be in place.


This summer has been difficult with the school agers, I am seriously considering not taking them at all and only using my school aged spots to age families out.

[nannyde]

thank you for your respose. i can understand what you're saying. i have one movin into kindergarten again the spring and she's been here since i began. who knows, maybe she'll decide to stay home with a sibling anyway.

i have my own little one right now and so taking in more babies at this time is out of the question, but one yr olds i could take in. maybe i'll focus on that. however, what would i state to the one that's been here if there's no room for her at that time for SA placement?

That's a tough one. I don't deal with it because the kids don't want to come here and take an afternoon nap. They just age out when they are too old for the nap.

[nannyde]

This summer has been difficult with the school agers, I am seriously considering not taking them at all and only using my school aged spots to age families out.

I know a lot of providers and only a couple like school aged kids. I've been thinking about it because this is the time of year when providers are really at their end of the rope with this age group.

I think about my own childhood and what I did during the summers. I was raised in the sixties and we were expected to be outside the entire summer. When we were indoors it was only to do household chores. We had a large garden and we were expected to hand weed it. Any free time and you were OUT. We even got in trouble if we came in too often to go to the bathroom. We were expected to get drinks from the garden hose. NO coming in for drinks.

It was like that with all my neighbors. Nobody allowed us to come in and play in their house and my parents didn't allow kids to come in the house.

We had bikes, balls, ball gloves, bats, and whatever we could find outside. We went ALL day long without an adult supervising us. We played at the park, went swimming which was a 2.2 mile walk each way from where we lived.

When I first started doing day care we were allowed to have school agers outside without an adult. Now it's not legal here. You have to have an adult with them outside. This rule changed everything for school aged care.

Kids that age need to be outside the majority of the day and they need to find their OWN happiness. Once you move them inside or require the adult who has much younger children BE outside with them with the younger kids it becomes unsafe and hard on the adult.

So few providers like it because they basically have to have them in an unnatural and unhealthy combination in order to make money. The kids are unhappy because they have way too many options. If adults are involved in their happiness then they are never happy. They need to be put into the position of having little resources and be on their own OUTSIDE. They need a little bit of play equipment (like balls, bikes, sidewalk chalk, etc.) and make their own fun. They need the life experience of the play that is wrought from SHEER boredom. They need to have the co-operative play that comes from just HAVING someone else to play with in the midst of sheer boredom. Kids who are bored out of their mind will get along really well with other kids if those other kids replace the current "adult generated happiness" we do today.

I think one of the big contributing factors of childhood obesity is the summers being summers of indoor adult involved happiness instead of outdoor kid generated happiness.

I have the space for school agers. I have an ENORMOUS toy collection for that age group. I have tubs of really neat barbies, huge collections of lego sets, huge collection of playmobil, a huge libray of full series for that age group, all the art supplies you could ever want, blocks, cars, robots, transformers etc.. I STILL wouldn't be able to take them in my setting because it would be very difficult to find school aged kids who were happy with these kinds of toys, crafts, and books.

My few friends that do summer care are having a hard time even getting the kids to be happy at the pool. They fight so much and complain about being bored even at a swim center. They try to take them to the City parks when the weather permits (equipment gets really hot here) and they have the same thing.

I found out quite a long time ago (soon after the first nintendo/sega etc. that came out) that most kids I was seeing just really don't play anymore. The screen play was the only thing that kept them happy.

It's sad but I think it is the ROOT of why home providers and school aged kids don't mix anymore. Even my school districts summer program and most centers here allow kids to bring hand held video games and have computers for them to play on. They highly encourage it and don't limit it.

I could be wrong though. I don't have too many years under my belt of school aged care.

I would love to hear from providers that have summer programs with school aged kids mixed in with birth to five that are very successful and the providers are happy. Are the ones that work have two adults so the adult dealing with the school aged kids is not working too much with the younger ones? How does that actually work and how much of the day are the kids actively PLAYING (not screen play) without the adults being involved in the play and generating the activities?

[daysofelijah]

Here in Minnesota we can still send the school agers outside unsupervised. I don't take school agers though anymore as a general rule for the all of the reasons nannyde stated.
I have a couple of older boys that I cared for when they were small that will come back a few days/weeks in the summer. It does get hard though because they get bored after a few hours, and that's with the computer/video games.
So yeah, I as a rule don't take school agers. I have two boys of my own, 5 and 7 so they take up my two school age spots anyway. I for the most part have had only children so when they get past kindergarten they go to the school day care or parents work it out so they don't need before/after care.

[melskids]

OMG nannyde, you hit the nail on the head!!! when if first started doing daycare, i thought i would love the SA and wanted to base my business around them. boy, was i mistaken. all they do is bicker and fight and they are never happy. i also have a house full of age appropriate toys for them, inside and out. they will not play with anything, and fight over what they do play with. i try ( i do for a fact) supply them with a full curriculum of hands on activities, experiments, projects, etc., and plenty of free time to explore and use their imaginations. they simply cant do it. even when we are outside. i dont even mind sitting out there with them, but they simply cant do anything on their own. we're not out there 5 minutes, and they are all fighting and complaining they are bored. they ruin everything i try to do and make it very unpleasurable for everyone. the only time they are content is when they are in front of a screen. they have limited time here, at set times for their turn. all they do is bug me, all day, wanting to know when their turn is. unfortunatley, i have caved. after 7 weeks of dealing with them, and 5 more weeks to go, sadly, i dont care anymore. if they want to sit on the stinking video games/ computer, so be it. i really just cant handle anymore this summer.

i hear stories from my mom, and others from the 60's generation talk about being outside, free to roam, drinking from the water hose, and it makes me sad. i am 32, and a child of the 80's, and i remember, although not having as much freedom to wander, i spent most of my summers in the yard making up games and activities for HOURS with my friends. it is sad that in such a short (relatively speaking) amount of time the world has changed so much.

even adults. (not to change the subject, but) we live on a mountain in a very small town in upstate NY. many of our neighbors are from the city and only are here on the weekends. this past saturday we had a cookout at their house. they had brought a few of their friends up with them. they werent much on conversation, cause they were to busy updating their status' on facebook using their fancy iphones. as we sat around the campfire gazing at the stars, they missed much of it cause their heads were down, texting or twittering, or whatever it is they were doing. its like, come on, you are here for a relaxing weekend in the mountains, you think you could put your dang phone / laptop down for a second and enjoy what's passing you by. sad, really.

its not just the kids...its the entire human population.

[AfterSchoolMom]

I couldn't agree more. I care for primarily school agers, and I see this all the time - I have barbies, blocks, legos, puzzles, board games, an entire bookshelf full of arts/crafts supplies, REAMS of paper, jump ropes, sidewalk chalk, bubbles and wands, balls of all varieties, skateboards, an air hockey table and dart board (safety darts, not the regular sharp ones) on the screened in back porch, and yes, a Wii system and games, and a huge collection of movies. I have a large front porch with a porch swing, and we have a playground that is mere steps from the backyard. Last school year I had a group of five SA's and they were ALWAYS complaining about being bored. All they really wanted to do was lie around on the sofa and text other kids on their cell phones (yes, they ALL had cell phones except for my own SA boys).

I'm a child of the 80's as well, and I have very fond memories of roaming the woods, playing in friends' backyards, and making our own fun. We were never allowed to lie around on the sofa all day - you played outside, often until past dark because you caught fireflies (we called them "lightning bugs") when it got dark out. We had an Atari when I was younger, and I got a nintendo when they first came out, but I wasn't allowed to sit and play for hours and hours.

I have no TV/Video Games/Computer time at our house. They're allowed to watch for a bit in the morning, then it goes off for a large chunk of time. Right now my kids are outside playing with a ball/bat. I know it won't last long, but I'll take what I can get! It makes me sad that my own children won't know the kind of childhood that I had, and that I have to force them outside to play.

To get back to the original question, if you only want two SA's, I'd just make it first come, first served. If you have kids with SA siblings, maybe you can make an announcement that effective X date this is how many spots you'll have, and see who takes you up on it. The thing that I've found about SA kids is that they "age out" fairly quickly. I only accept K-5th graders, because that's what I feel my enviroment is best for, but I've found that in my area parents are allowing their 6th graders to go home alone anyway.

[melskids]

[QUOTE=AfterSchoolMom;38867 We had an Atari when I was younger, and I got a nintendo when they first came out, but I wasn't allowed to sit and play for hours and hours.

[/QUOTE]

my parents bought me a nintendo when it first came out too. i was only allowed 1 hour a week!!! can you imagine...