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Infants are a lot more work, especially if you only have 1 and other preschoolers and school agers. I charge more for infants than I do for preschool or school-agers because they're more work.
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Personally I view the infants as my bread and butter since they tend to stay longer. I have never had a parent pull out a kid I had since birth, I usually have them 4 years. (free preschool district)
Plus: I get to teach them from the start so no fixing problem behaviors later For me it is much, much, much easier than taking a two year old who has already been through a few providers, IYKWIM :
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:::::: I hear you!! That makes sense... I am in a different bind. 
Once you reach a certain combined taxable income you are no longer eligible to have a Roth IRA and you are put in a tax bracket that eats your ability to save for retirement any other way.
I am straddling that line..... 
Succeeding in Business??? Don't worry, there's a trap for that!!!
- Unless otherwise stated, all my posts are personal opinion and worth what you paid for them.
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That's what I was thinking. Of course, I charge more for preschoolers than our local centers, because I'm trying to offer specialty care. But that doesn't matter for parents who need to worry more about the bottom line. Since I'm already a little higher, and low on enrollment, just keeping my same price structure may be fine. I wouldn't be making more for infants than preschoolers, but I'd be making more than having open spaces.Comment
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I know this is naughty but have you checked out what other locals are charging for infant care? Like does anyone on your local Craigslist have a link to their website with pricing or advertise their prices? I have found that I'm actually a bit under what other people are charging when I apply a FT discount. I won't be doing that with future infants though but when I started I offered a $10/day discount when they were 3+ days a week. Now that I've been licensed for awhile I think I will only offer a 10% discount for FT kids, 4 days or more.Comment
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I charge the same rate regardless of age.
I also charge the same for a K as I do a pre-k. I hate the interruption of picking a child up at noon, so the parents pay for it.Comment
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Everyone here lowers rates as the kids age, we can have up to 8 kids but only 4 of them can be under 15 m.
I have a rate for 0 - 1 yrs, it drops by about 5% from 1 - 3 yrs and then another 5% after that.
Honestly, if you aren't that interested in infants that would be another reason to have higher rates for infants.
Although, I agree that in your situation I would greatly consider taking that infant. At some point, that infant will also be a preschooler
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I never thought of it that way. We contribute double to my husband's 401k now that I am employed at home. I thought of an IRA, but it's just too easy to skip deposits when I think I need the money for something else. My husband and I will retire at around the same time, so we put everything into his 401k now instead of opening a new retirement account for me.:::::: I hear you!! That makes sense... I am in a different bind.
Once you reach a certain combined taxable income you are no longer eligible to have a Roth IRA and you are put in a tax bracket that eats your ability to save for retirement any other way. I am straddling that line.....
Succeeding in Business??? Don't worry, there's a trap for that!!! Comment
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I have, but it's just all over the place, $90/week to $200/week.
I think I'm about $5 per week over my local center for preschool aged kids, but I limit that rate to 8hours/day. My weekly rate goes up for longer days. At that point, I'm priced higher than the center, because they're open all day at the same rate. But I'm just not going to kill myself on 11 or 12 hour days without it being really worth it.
This possible infant situation would only be part time, 4 hours/day for 4 days/week. So, I'm trying to figure out how to translate my current preschool pricing structure to make it worth it, but not unreasonable.Comment
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My rates decrease $5 from infants to toddlers to preschool.
$35/day for infants
$30/day for toddlers
$25/day for preschoolComment
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Yeah, I really want a house full of happy preschoolers coming to my little school. But I don't want to ignore reality and potential income in pursuit of my ideal.
But I also don't want to pull my hair out trying to figure out how to work an infant into my plan. Of course, this one would be part time, so it might be a good way to give it a try.
Thanks, everyone, for the feedback and helping me to think out loud through this.Comment
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Well I wouldn't necessarily agree with the bolded...Everyone here lowers rates as the kids age, we can have up to 8 kids but only 4 of them can be under 15 m.
I have a rate for 0 - 1 yrs, it drops by about 5% from 1 - 3 yrs and then another 5% after that.
Honestly, if you aren't that interested in infants that would be another reason to have higher rates for infants. Although, I agree that in your situation I would greatly consider taking that infant. At some point, that infant will also be a preschooler There are people who don't accept infants (in CA that's under 2) because of the extra time it takes, even if they paid more. Time is money. One provider I know basically says on her webpage it allows her to have more quality time with the kids instead of diapering and bottle feeding. If everyone is able to walk, talk, go potty and play independently that everyone gets more time in the day for fun & learning. Unless you hire an assistant to do strictly baby care while you do a preschool program, which also costs more money, I'm not sure how else you could 100% focus on the curriculum with infants and their own schedule which then makes it more of just a daycare rather than a preschool. Infants don't really "belong" in preschool. So if you want to focus more on preschool, taking an infant isn't really the best idea to me regardless of price. Incorporating learning and play, absolutely, but I think some parents wouldn't really look at it like a "preschool" if there were young babies there. It's like specializing. I could actually see charging more for infants and limiting yourself to have a higher quality of care which is what I try to do. I don't usually have all 8 kids in my ratio, partly because I have 3 of my own kids in the mix, but also because I would rather have fewer infants and charge a little more for the quality care than have more big kids at a lesser rate. Ideally I would have 3 infants, 2 toddlers and 1 school aged, 1 toddler and 1 SA being my own children. I have 1 DCB who's continuing next year, I would rather just fill the 3 infant spots and be done. I also have 3 other boys over 10 who aren't in ratio after Jan-Feb. Unfortunately it seems like the slow season in our field of work. There are many providers out there right now trying to fill spots, at least 5 licensed daycares on Craigslist this week alone and I know of at least 2-3 others.
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Do you know what 4 hours it will be yet? I'm guessing AM's? Otherwise PM's would be kinda easy, just do AM preschool and "aftercare." Would you be able to have a preschool program in the afternoon and a daycare program in the AM? Do you have kids that come JUST for preschool or all of them there all day anyway? Like you said, see what you can work out with what you're already doing. Worst case scenario you give it the trial period to see if this is working for everyone.Comment
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This is true. My 18yo daughter is here with me (homeschooled high school senior) so I can switch between kids/groups when I need to, and have an extra set of eyes and hands around.
I completely agree. But while I'm trying to build up a "preschool," my only full-timer is here for daycare, preschool is just a nice bonus. My part-timer is largely here for the preschool aspect. But that's all of I've got. Maybe I just need to be patient. On the other hand, I really to need to increase my income or this just isn't worth it.
Thanks for the feedback. I really do appreciate it!Comment
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I used to run a preschool only program ages 2 and up. but as things changed with the new Pre-K and more preschools opening around me, I found it next to impossible to ever fill up. I had a lot of clients with younger siblings that would keep one with me and younger at a different care because they were not old enough to join my program.
well over time, I realized that if I didn't change my ages, then I wouldn't have any kids.
So I ended up going from a small DC to large and hiring some workers. I now take ages 16 months to 5 years of age.
I was full for a long while until I just lost a few parents that could not follow my illness policy.
I keep the preschool kids and teach preschool and my asst has her classroom for the 2 and under kids. I do teach them all together at one point in the day and then we branch off into different rooms so that the preschoolers can do things that the younger ones can't.
my rule is that at the time of enrollment kids have to be able to walk, self feed and follow simple directions. If they can, then they are in.
In the past I tried to have mixed ages that included under 2 while teaching preschool by myself and it did not work out. I was too stressed out trying to do it all and decided it was time for a change.
and now to answer your question, I charge 25$more a week for under 2.Comment
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