Help Me Brainstorm!

[Lucy]

Right now, I have all school-agers. Two are half-day Kindergarteners who will obviously be in 1st grade next year, meaning all my DC kids will be gone from 8:40-3:40.

I've been loving my 3 hours to myself while the Kinders are gone, but I don't think it will work financially to have all of them be gone in school full days. So I've been brainstorming what I could do.

I don't want to take any babies or toddlers. I've done DC for 20 years, and I think I'm done with babies. (Love 'em to pieces, but been there/done that!) So what I'm considering is doing pre-school during that time when the big kids are off at school. I would have the pre-schoolers arrive AFTER the big kids are gone, and they would be long gone before the big kids get back after school. Pre-school would go by the public school calendar, meaning when public school is not in session, neither is pre-school. If public school is on a snow day or a late start day, so is pre-school. That way, the two groups of kids would never even meet.

My questions are many:

How many pre-schoolers should I take?

What ages? Should I stick to 3's and 4's (or even 5's as long as they haven't been to K yet?) Or should I open it up to approx 2 1/2 yr olds?

How many days per week should I do pre-school? (this sort of ties in with the question and explanation below regarding Tues/Thurs)

What hours should I do pre-school? (Big kids leave at 8:40 most days, but 9:40 every Wednesday. They get back at 3:40 every day. I do have another issue, in that I take my mom to an Alzheimer's day center on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'm gone from 9:40 to 10:05 to take her, and again from 1:50 to 2:15 to pick her up. So should I do it M/W/F for that reason? Or could I have them come at 10:15 until, say, 12:45? If so, would I include a lunch those days?) [Sorry to be so confusing!]

Should I include lunch, or just a snack? (Guess that depends on the above question. Wow, this gets more complicated by the minute!)

What kind of curriculum should I use? (Yes, I know this is a bigger question that could actually be a separate post. Just shout out the name of the one you like, or say that you make up your own.)

How much time per day or week do you spend organizing your curriculum?

And the big one... how much should I charge per child? (Just to give you an idea of the standard DC costs in my area, I charge about $120 per week for full time care - meaning up to 50-ish hrs/week.)

This is just in the thinking stages. I really don't have a plan as of yet. And this all depends on if I can even get enough interest in it. I'm in a small-ish town (about 15,000) that is over-saturated with providers and church/commercial pre-schools, so it's really hard to get clients when I have an opening. We only have a once-weekly newspaper that doesn't have a ton of readers, so ads in that aren't always helpful.

That brings another question:

How would you advertise for this? Flyers at the grocery stores? What all would you say on the flyer?

Ok, that's A LOT of questions!!! Whatever thoughts you can give me would be greatly appreciated!! I don't expect someone to come up with my entire plan, but maybe just advise me on the parts that you think you have good answers for. Thank you sooo much in advance!!!

[butterfly]

Right now, I have all school-agers. Two are half-day Kindergarteners who will obviously be in 1st grade next year, meaning all my DC kids will be gone from 8:40-3:40.

I've been loving my 3 hours to myself while the Kinders are gone, but I don't think it will work financially to have all of them be gone in school full days. So I've been brainstorming what I could do.

I don't want to take any babies or toddlers. I've done DC for 20 years, and I think I'm done with babies. (Love 'em to pieces, but been there/done that!) So what I'm considering is doing pre-school during that time when the big kids are off at school. I would have the pre-schoolers arrive AFTER the big kids are gone, and they would be long gone before the big kids get back after school. Pre-school would go by the public school calendar, meaning when public school is not in session, neither is pre-school. If public school is on a snow day or a late start day, so is pre-school. That way, the two groups of kids would never even meet.

My questions are many:

How many pre-schoolers should I take? I would take up to what licensing allows. I think it's fun to have a full class of the same age. They tend to keep each other occupied and they learn so much from each other.

What ages? Should I stick to 3's and 4's (or even 5's as long as they haven't been to K yet?) Or should I open it up to approx 2 1/2 yr olds? I would take 3 and up or specify potty trained only. All preschools here require the child to be potty trained and then they'll do T/Th for 3 yr olds and MWF for the 4/5 yr olds.

How many days per week should I do pre-school? (this sort of ties in with the question and explanation below regarding Tues/Thurs)

What hours should I do pre-school? (Big kids leave at 8:40 most days, but 9:40 every Wednesday. They get back at 3:40 every day. I do have another issue, in that I take my mom to an Alzheimer's day center on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'm gone from 9:40 to 10:05 to take her, and again from 1:50 to 2:15 to pick her up. So should I do it M/W/F for that reason? Or could I have them come at 10:15 until, say, 12:45? If so, would I include a lunch those days?) [Sorry to be so confusing!] I would do a MWF class and then you could be available for your mom or make some appts. for yourself on your time off in the middle of the day.

Should I include lunch, or just a snack? (Guess that depends on the above question. Wow, this gets more complicated by the minute!) Most preschools here do NOT do lunch and they have the kids rotate bringing snack. The kids get so excited to be "snack leader" and bring their favorite snack for the group. I wouldn't bother with lunch if they aren't going to be there a full day. I'd just schedule a close time before lunch.

What kind of curriculum should I use? (Yes, I know this is a bigger question that could actually be a separate post. Just shout out the name of the one you like, or say that you make up your own.) I currently make my own and follow the seasons/time of year for our themes.

How much time per day or week do you spend organizing your curriculum? I'm closed during the summer so last summer I spent some time prepping the curriculum for this school year. I do go to the library one night a week to get some additional resources for our themes, but if I get busy that doesn't happen and we get along just fine. During the summer, I made most of my copies and totally had everything prepped so I'm good to go unless I change my mind about doing the units I had planned.

And the big one... how much should I charge per child? (Just to give you an idea of the standard DC costs in my area, I charge about $120 per week for full time care - meaning up to 50-ish hrs/week.) Preschools here charge around $360/semester and follow the school calendar but only go MWF and are still closed on holidays/breaks. The average weekly daycare rate is $120-125/week for up to 50hours. Another preschool here also does daycare and just does an hourly charge of $3.30/hour and if the child is present during the preschool hours than they attend preschool too with no additional charge, but is the same rate as daycare only...

This is just in the thinking stages. I really don't have a plan as of yet. And this all depends on if I can even get enough interest in it. I'm in a small-ish town (about 15,000) that is over-saturated with providers and church/commercial pre-schools, so it's really hard to get clients when I have an opening. We only have a once-weekly newspaper that doesn't have a ton of readers, so ads in that aren't always helpful.

That brings another question:

How would you advertise for this? Flyers at the grocery stores? What all would you say on the flyer? I'd print some attractive color flyers and hang them everywhere you were allowed to (library, kids clothing stores, book stores, toy stores, laundromat...), facebook, craigslist. Be sure to include your daycare/teaching experience, hours, rates, learning focus, contact info.

Ok, that's A LOT of questions!!! Whatever thoughts you can give me would be greatly appreciated!! I don't expect someone to come up with my entire plan, but maybe just advise me on the parts that you think you have good answers for. Thank you sooo much in advance!!!

I think this would be a perfect fit for you!! I love your idea. I replied above in color. Good luck with this. I'd love to hear how it ends up working for you and how you ended up structuring it.

[Lucy]

Those are awesome answers, butterfly! Thank you so much! I need to leave in a couple min, so don't have time to digest all of it, but when yo say "semester", are you meaning like the 3 semesters they have in school - fall, winter, spring? So you say $360 X 3 for a full school-year set up? Thanks again!!! :hug:

[butterfly]

Those are awesome answers, butterfly! Thank you so much! I need to leave in a couple min, so don't have time to digest all of it, but when yo say "semester", are you meaning like the 3 semesters they have in school - fall, winter, spring? So you say $360 X 3 for a full school-year set up? Thanks again!!! :hug:

Here they do a semester from fall to winter break = so like end of August or beginning of sept (when the schools start) to Christmas break. Then Jan - May for the second semester. So here it would be $360 x 2 and then have summers off.

[butterfly]

I would also start advertising as soon as you have your details planned; as parents start choosing their preschools early and I'd want parents to be aware of me long before the school year starts so I'd have the best chances of filling up. Good luck!

[Lucy]

Excellent... thanks!

[Lucy]

Here they do a semester from fall to winter break = so like end of August or beginning of sept (when the schools start) to Christmas break. Then Jan - May for the second semester. So here it would be $360 x 2 and then have summers off.

So if I'm understanding you right, you are saying the following:

Children attend 3 days per week. (If I were to do M/W/F)

School year is 9 months. (I realize there would be holidays, but for my calculations, let's assume they are paid holidays, and I'll figure them in as if kids attended.)

That means 39 weeks of school (again, that includes holiday weeks like Christmas).

At 3 days per week, the total number of days would be 117.

At your figure of $720 per school year (or $80 per month), that's $6 per day.

If they come for 3 hours a day, it's $2 per hour. This would have to cover any curriculum I purchase (because I know myself, and I'm not ambitious enough to organize it all myself and make all the copies, etc., etc!)

So is that enough money? I guess it depends on how many kids I get, but again, I'm in a small town over saturated with providers and pre-schools. I have my doubts that I can even pull this off, let alone attract 6 kids or so, which I think would be a perfect class size.

So correct me if I'm wrong on what I'm assuming here with the math. It just doesn't sound like enough? I looked up a website of 2 local ladies who do pre-school in the converted garage portion of one of the lady's homes. One of my (now) Kindergarteners went there last school year, and I picked her up several times, which means I saw their program firsthand. Now, they are a lot more "school-like" than I would be. There are 2 of them, and they are run a lot closer to a commercial pre-school than I would be. Anyway, their cost for 3 days/week is $125 per month, which comes out to $1,125 per school year. I don't think I could get away with charging as much as they do, given how theirs is closer to a commercial school, but maybe I could meet in the middle somewhere? Your suggested cost was $80/month, they charge $125/month -- could I get away with $100 per month???

Also, I just noticed that their program goes for 2 1/2 hours per day. What is yours?

[LadyPearl]

That sounds like a good idea to provide a daytime filler.

I live in a really small town (2000 give or take) where the play school and preschool programs are offered free through our elementary school. The play school serves 3 year olds and runs 2 days per week for a total of 6 hours. The preschool serves 4 year olds and runs 3 days per week for a total of 10 hours. They then transition into a full-day kindergarten program.

[Lucy]

I appreciate the help I've gotten. Does anyone have any other ideas for me? Thanks!!!

[melskids]

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, since your time is limited, you can do a younger class (like 2 year olds maybe) from 10:30 to 12:30.

Or even market it as a "mothers morning out" on those days. Or even a "Mommy and Me" class...if you can handle the mothers hanging around. LOL

[butterfly]

So if I'm understanding you right, you are saying the following:

Children attend 3 days per week. (If I were to do M/W/F)

School year is 9 months. (I realize there would be holidays, but for my calculations, let's assume they are paid holidays, and I'll figure them in as if kids attended.)

That means 39 weeks of school (again, that includes holiday weeks like Christmas).

At 3 days per week, the total number of days would be 117.

At your figure of $720 per school year (or $80 per month), that's $6 per day.

If they come for 3 hours a day, it's $2 per hour. This would have to cover any curriculum I purchase (because I know myself, and I'm not ambitious enough to organize it all myself and make all the copies, etc., etc!)

So is that enough money? I guess it depends on how many kids I get, but again, I'm in a small town over saturated with providers and pre-schools. I have my doubts that I can even pull this off, let alone attract 6 kids or so, which I think would be a perfect class size.

So correct me if I'm wrong on what I'm assuming here with the math. It just doesn't sound like enough? I looked up a website of 2 local ladies who do pre-school in the converted garage portion of one of the lady's homes. One of my (now) Kindergarteners went there last school year, and I picked her up several times, which means I saw their program firsthand. Now, they are a lot more "school-like" than I would be. There are 2 of them, and they are run a lot closer to a commercial pre-school than I would be. Anyway, their cost for 3 days/week is $125 per month, which comes out to $1,125 per school year. I don't think I could get away with charging as much as they do, given how theirs is closer to a commercial school, but maybe I could meet in the middle somewhere? Your suggested cost was $80/month, they charge $125/month -- could I get away with $100 per month???

Also, I just noticed that their program goes for 2 1/2 hours per day. What is yours?

I think that it would work. You won't be supplying food/snacks, you wouldn't have to diaper,etc. Basically teach them a little something and allow some free play... I personally think it's really do able. The curriculum costs may make or break it though. Honestly, I think if you purchase a curriculum, you should be able to reuse it year after year. In most cases you'll probably have some turn over from year to year considering most of the kids would age out and go to kindergarten - and then hopefully become an after schooler? If you are continuing to provide after school care, I think it's do able if you can work out the curriculum. You'd still have the SA income too...

You could also have a school supply list at the beginning of each semester or the beginning of the school year and have the kids bring some kleenex, crayons, construction paper, etc. I don't think that's out of line to have them supply those types of things. Any other school would require it. This would help with costs too.

[butterfly]

Preschool here goes from 8:30am to 11am or 12:30 to 3pm

[Lucy]

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, since your time is limited, you can do a younger class (like 2 year olds maybe) from 10:30 to 12:30.

Or even market it as a "mothers morning out" on those days. Or even a "Mommy and Me" class...if you can handle the mothers hanging around. LOL

I love the idea about the shorter session for 2 year olds!! That gives me a whole new idea to consider! Thanks. As for the moms hanging out, LOL

I think that it would work. You won't be supplying food/snacks, you wouldn't have to diaper,etc. Basically teach them a little something and allow some free play... I personally think it's really do able. The curriculum costs may make or break it though. Honestly, I think if you purchase a curriculum, you should be able to reuse it year after year. In most cases you'll probably have some turn over from year to year considering most of the kids would age out and go to kindergarten - and then hopefully become an after schooler? If you are continuing to provide after school care, I think it's do able if you can work out the curriculum. You'd still have the SA income too...

You could also have a school supply list at the beginning of each semester or the beginning of the school year and have the kids bring some kleenex, crayons, construction paper, etc. I don't think that's out of line to have them supply those types of things. Any other school would require it. This would help with costs too.

Some excellent points! Having a supply list and having them rotate on bringing snacks would definitely cut down on costs. This is awesome!

Preschool here goes from 8:30am to 11am or 12:30 to 3pm

Ok, I thought so. At first I was thinking 3 hours, but then I realized my Kindergarteners only go for 2 hours 40 minutes!! Then I looked up that local place and discovered theirs is 2 1/2 hours. So it's looking better and better!

I will most likely have more questions as the planning goes along. So you think I should start making and posting my flyers now? Get the buzz going, so to speak? I could have them say something about making your pre-school plans NOW for Fall term.

One thing is... as I've mentioned above, small town / over saturated with providers and preschools.... what if I only get like 2 kids? Can I scrap the whole thing if enrollment just isn't there? How much notice would you give and what would you tell them? I'd feel awful! Would I want to warn them ahead of time that if I don't get decent enrollment it might not happen???

[butterfly]

I love the idea about the shorter session for 2 year olds!! That gives me a whole new idea to consider! Thanks. As for the moms hanging out, LOL



Some excellent points! Having a supply list and having them rotate on bringing snacks would definitely cut down on costs. This is awesome!



Ok, I thought so. At first I was thinking 3 hours, but then I realized my Kindergarteners only go for 2 hours 40 minutes!! Then I looked up that local place and discovered theirs is 2 1/2 hours. So it's looking better and better!

I will most likely have more questions as the planning goes along. So you think I should start making and posting my flyers now? Get the buzz going, so to speak? I could have them say something about making your pre-school plans NOW for Fall term.

One thing is... as I've mentioned above, small town / over saturated with providers and preschools.... what if I only get like 2 kids? Can I scrap the whole thing if enrollment just isn't there? How much notice would you give and what would you tell them? I'd feel awful! Would I want to warn them ahead of time that if I don't get decent enrollment it might not happen???

I'd advertise now and get some interest going as long as you have enough planned to be able to answer the parents' questions when they call/interview. I guess it's up to you, but I think I'd try it out with just a couple if that's all that enrolls. It would give you a chance to get your feet wet with the whole idea and maybe that'll end up being more referrals for additional kids. I think as time goes on you'd gain more and more interest, once the word gets out. But it depends a lot on your motives for doing preschool too. If you really are doing it because you need it financially, then you'll have to see if it actually makes you enough to survive or if there is something else you can do during that time to make more money.

A smaller enrollment would make it easier to do some field trips if you desire too...

I love preschool age and I'm so excited for you!!

[AmyLeigh]

I think that sounds like a great idea! I would love to do something like that too, but I think the competition is pretty steep here. Four private preschools and Four Head Start preschools in just my town of 50,000 not counting the private in home care providers.
Anyway, I wanted to let you know that our dc rates are about the same, but the preschools that offer 2-3 hour programs 2-3 days a week run about $300/350 a month with a $100 non-refundable registration fee. Plus, a registration fee could cover your curriculum and supply costs.