Managing Your Time

[EAP]

What are your do ahead tasks or other secrets to managing your time? I feel like I am working nonstop - between the 50+ actual hours of child care, food prep, cleaning, lesson plans etc. There has got to be a way to scale this back short of hiring an assistant. My only current thought is to have them start bringing their own lunches to eliminate that meal prep, but I don't know if that will be a deal breaker for some families.

[Luna]

Time management is by far my biggest weakness. I really hate to spend my off hours doing daycare stuff, so really the only thing I do is make enough of our family supper to have leftovers for daycare lunches. Sometimes it's the other way around and I make enough daycare lunch to have leftovers for our family supper. For me, food is the biggest time ****...preparing, cooking, serving, and cleaning up so I have the kids do as much as they can. They love to set the table an d serve themselves family style using tongs, and I have recently got them to take their dishes to the kitchen counter and the older ones scrape the leftover food into the garbage.
I do my paperwork in the mornings while the early arrivals play with blocks waiting for the later arrivals.
The kids enjoy "helping" me fold laundry, so that is a regular chore I can get done during daycare hours without taking anything away from the children. They also like to go around the house with microfibres cloths while I sweep or dust mop.
I'm interested in reading other's responses as well.

[Willow]

I cap my hours. I refuse to work longer than a 10 hour day because I know beyond that I go downhill.

I offer a lot of time for independent play so kids can interact with each other, work on their own skills, create and explore on their own and in their own ways with me primarily here to offer guidance when it's asked for or needed. I think kids function and learn best with less structure like that and it frees up time for me to cook, clean, plan and organize during the day so when doors close I don't have hours of additional work to do.

I do however expect play to be somewhat contained. You can take out any toy you want to and play with it for as long as you'd like as long as you put it back where and the way you found it before you take out the next one.

There is no million scattered toy tornado mess for kids to be hindered by or me to clean up throughout or at the end of the day.

[MNMum]

After watching my new assistant run the show for a few times now, I realize that I do manage my time quite well. But I am still cooking, cleaning, organizing, packing lunches, etc, most of my day. All things food related take up the majority of the time. I figure the more we can eat at home, the more money we are saving - eating out for a family of 5 is expensive. As an earlier poster mentioned, I try to make two meals at a time.

I do laundry on the run. We have a decent sized laundry room, so I hang most things to dry. Fold a few things at a time in passing. I have gotten to the point that I encourage my family to dress themselves from the laundry room. Eliminates putting away clothes! When there is too much on the piles, then I will put it away.

[earlystart]

I try to get as much done as possible during daycare hours. Early morning until all the kids get here I might do some paperwork or computerwork (lesson planning, making receipts, sending emails), during breakfast and lunch I'll do dishes and clean the counter, during freeplay I'll do a load of laundry, during nap I'll mop the kitchen or clean the bathroom. I don't do all of these every day, but just to give an example, those are the types of tasks I can sneak into business hours. I try not to stay up late cleaning for it to look nice for the daycare the next day, because it's going to get messy anyway, it just needs to look presentable and I can do more thorough cleaning and organization during the day when the kids are here.

[Blackcat31]

Capping the number of hours I am willing to work is a biggie for me.

I also make a VERY conscious effort to NOT do anything child care related outside my business hours.

Other than shopping for supplies and being on the forum, I do NOTHING child care related when I am "off the clock".

All planning for meals, activities and lessons are done while I am at work.

I don't even take phone calls/texts after hours.

Once I walk out the door, I am done for the day. Even when I KNOW I have a ton of stuff to take care of.

Sometimes, you HAVE to set some limits or you will be riding the crazy train non-stop.

[EAP]

I need to cap the hours - with my set up doing prep with the kids here is hard, but I need plan b at this point I'm exhausted. Has anyone stopped providing some of the meals to help lessen it?

[Blackcat31]

I need to cap the hours - with my set up doing prep with the kids here is hard, but I need plan b at this point I'm exhausted. Has anyone stopped providing some of the meals to help lessen it?

I gave up breakfast a year and half ago. Makes a HUGE difference.

I used to spend 1-1.5 hours prepping/serving and cleaning up after breakfast. Now I use that time to do morning paperwork and other little things and don't serve any food until 9:15 at our morning snack.

I require parents to feed their child breakfast at home. Not only because it was difficult and cumbersome for me in the mornings but because breakfast is a great time for parents to sneak in a little face time with their kiddo and it allows them to do a health check....kwim?

If they eat with their child in the monring or have to wake them a little earlier than normal, they can see if they are feeling well and check their over all mood for the day before dropping them off.

Eliminating breakfast has made a BIG difference.

I now do:
A.M. snack
lunch
P.M. snack

and that is it.

[EAP]

I never considered that - I kept thinking lunch - but I might try that - I think no matter what I need to hire help. I was hoping to avoid it but I can't.

[canadiancare]

I do my craft prep time while the kids are at the table waiting. We talk and sing about the theme while I cut stuff or assemble stuff- I do only have 5 two year olds but I have never thought I needed an assistant.

[LaLa1923]

What are providers talking about when they mention lesson planning? Do you not use a curriculum? I'm thinking mother goose time....

Also, meals take me almost no time at all..
I mostly heat and eat. I make most of my meals ahead of time, and by that i mean the day before. Whatever we are having for dinner is lunch for the next day....I rinse dishes and put them right in the dishwasher. Every kid has their own cup and they use that all day. It doesn't even take me long to feed the babies.

Why does it take so long to do meals?? I'm not bashing, please don't think that. I just want to better myself and my program- maybe im missing something?

[Evansmom]

OP-yes I stopped providing meals and I love it! It hasn't been a deal breaker for me, none of the clients I've had since then even questioned it. I have to go even further bc we have food allergies so I limit the types of food that can be brought into the house too. No problems here. I encourage you to try it.

I reduced my monthly price a small amount to compensate for not providing food but then as I got new clients I raised them again for the incoming families.

I do still provide drinks and a small snack so parents feed breakfast at home and then pack a lunch. I provide afternoon snack. There is so much less prep for me now.

[Evansmom]

Why does it take so long to do meals?? I'm not bashing, please don't think that. I just want to better myself and my program- maybe im missing something?

For us, we don't buy or eat processed or prepared foods so making a meal takes a lot of time. When I compromised and brought packaged food in to feed the daycare kids it ended up that my own kids wanted to eat it which they either couldn't for food allergy reasons or bc I didn't want them to eat it. So deciding not to provide meals really lessened my stress levels.

[daycarediva]

I capped my hours. I do devote 2 hours on the weekend to really clean the daycare room(s), laundry and bathroom.

I take 1-2 naptimes the last week of the month and do my newsletters, menus for the month(including weekend for my family), checking my MGT curriculum box and getting my supplies in there.

On Fridays during free play I make a grocery list from my menu. I talk to the kids as I do this. They love it. "Next week we are having BANANAS. What does banana start with? What color is it?" Daycare shopping is right along with my weekly family shopping. That does take a good 6 hours, unfortunately.

I prep my meals the night before as much as possible. I even pre-cook some meats, like taco meat and then pop it in the oven for a little bit to warm.
My family dinner is made the same time as daycare lunch. (eg. Monday is baked chicken, sweet potatoes, green beans & roll. I make enough chicken for daycare lunch AND family dinner Sun night, then just warm up Monday at lunch-10 minutes to warm/serve & Monday at dinner I am cooking Tues, etc)

I do breakfasts, and like BC does, I will be phasing this out as soon as all of my kids are able to make themselves something. I do a hot breakfast most of the time, because I want MY kids to have that.

I don't do AM snack, that's gross motor time here.

I do AM paperwork at my desk while kids are eating breakfast & parents are arriving.

I put away folded laundry from the night before at nap.