Accepted Ages

[Play Care]

I recommend against taking SA kids, especially ones that haven't grown up in your care. I've had a major issue with the one DCG I had like that.

In general I find if you are set up for certain ages, taking ages outside that generally doesn't work well.

[Angelsj]

I would say if you are setting up/geared towards toddlers then have a cut-off age of 5 years old (believe me we all understand start up and it can take months to fill spots).

If you get one kid way out of age range from your others that child will never be happy & neither will you because some of what they need or want to do, you might not be able to do with littler ones. I stopped doing SA by my 2nd year of childcare. I dropped to under 5's, then under 3's and now stick to under 2's only (since 2005).

Where do your kids go when they age out? What about siblings? I considered doing babies only for a little while, but I can't imagine parents bringing you one child and not the older one.

[nannyde]

School aged kids require intense supervision. They eat a lot. They don't nap. They are quite powerful with their parents and can land you in a lot of parent conferencing and negotiations to keep the child happy. Many are addicted to screens. They can do a significant amount of damage to your home. They are poor historians when recounting events that involve them and ones they were privy to. They can easily harm infants and toddlers with carelessness. Their entertainment expectations in home care can be quite high. In Center care the expectations for the adults to entertain them is much lower.

Often parents choose home child care for summer care for lower rates. The parents believe the care is easier than infant or toddler care and that the child is self sufficient. This is not true for the most part. Many providers take them because their ratios allow for more kids if they are school aged but most take them because there are younger siblings in the daycare.

If there are younger sibs taking full time year around slots in the child care there is a lot of pressure on the provider to take the school ager even if she doesn't want to. Once comfortable in the daycare and the newness wears off after the first three weeks, the older sib senses the providers need to keep him happy, the school ager becomes much more demanding and reports of his unhappiness and ANYTHING he sees that is conflict with the younger sibs starts to wear on the relationship between the provider and parent. As I said previously, the school ager is a poor historian so his perception of what happens and what really happened before, during, and after the conflict can be vastly different from what happened. The provider and parent conferencing about it with the school agers input empowers him even further. Each incidence of this threaten s the "anchor" child's full time year around slot.

It's a tough cycle to get through and can force the provider to do whatever it takes to keep the school ager happy.

Now some providers here like school agers but I think most have small groups to start with. Not all. I think maybe one in ten providers here take school aged kids who don't have an anchor sib in the daycare. (My guess after being here for a minute). I would advise starting a thread asking specifically about providers who care for school aged kids who don't have younger sibs in the daycare how they manage as you won't have year around sibs to start. If you get offers to get a full time anchor kid IF you agree to school aged kids over the summer, don't do a discount for the school ager and be prepared for the family to leave once the summer is up and they got thru with home care for the school ager. Build a contract that locks the anchor kid in well after school starts so you can make sure they aren't just using you to get cheap school ager care with the promise of.full time year around care of the younger kid. That scam is often.ran on providers when there is two or more school aged sibs.

[Leigh]

School aged kids require intense supervision. They eat a lot. They don't nap. They are quite powerful with their parents and can land you in a lot of parent conferencing and negotiations to keep the child happy. Many are addicted to screens. They can do a significant amount of damage to your home. They are poor historians when recounting events that involve them and ones they were privy to. They can easily harm infants and toddlers with carelessness. Their entertainment expectations in home care can be quite high. In Center care the expectations for the adults to entertain them is much lower.

Often parents choose home child care for summer care for lower rates. The parents believe the care is easier than infant or toddler care and that the child is self sufficient. This is not true for the most part. Many providers take them because their ratios allow for more kids if they are school aged but most take them because there are younger siblings in the daycare.

If there are younger sibs taking full time year around slots in the child care there is a lot of pressure on the provider to take the school ager even if she doesn't want to. Once comfortable in the daycare and the newness wears off after the first three weeks, the older sib senses the providers need to keep him happy, the school ager becomes much more demanding and reports of his unhappiness and ANYTHING he sees that is conflict with the younger sibs starts to wear on the relationship between the provider and parent. As I said previously, the school ager is a poor historian so his perception of what happens and what really happened before, during, and after the conflict can be vastly different from what happened. The provider and parent conferencing about it with the school agers input empowers him even further. Each incidence of this threaten s the "anchor" child's full time year around slot.

It's a tough cycle to get through and can force the provider to do whatever it takes to keep the school ager happy.

Now some providers here like school agers but I think most have small groups to start with. Not all. I think maybe one in ten providers here take school aged kids who don't have an anchor sib in the daycare. (My guess after being here for a minute). I would advise starting a thread asking specifically about providers who care for school aged kids who don't have younger sibs in the daycare how they manage as you won't have year around sibs to start. If you get offers to get a full time anchor kid IF you agree to school aged kids over the summer, don't do a discount for the school ager and be prepared for the family to leave once the summer is up and they got thru with home care for the school ager. Build a contract that locks the anchor kid in well after school starts so you can make sure they aren't just using you to get cheap school ager care with the promise of.full time year around care of the younger kid. That scam is often.ran on providers when there is two or more school aged sibs.

Take SA's only if you WANT to be an 8 year old's BFF all day in addition to caring for your regular group. If you LOVE the words "I'm bored", "What can I DOOOOOO?", and "Why can't I use your computer/tablet/TV/lipstick/nail polish etc.?". If you want to validate a child's feelings every 5 minutes and listen to stories all day long about their last daycare provider being evil, about what Mom & Dad had a fight about last night, about EVERYTHING they consider themselves experts in...take a SA. If you want someone to "help" you with things you don't need help with and refuse to help you with things you DO, take a SA.

They're not bad kids, but they really don't "fit" into infant/toddler/preschool care.

[LysesKids]

Where do your kids go when they age out? What about siblings? I considered doing babies only for a little while, but I can't imagine parents bringing you one child and not the older one.

If a mom is preggers again before their munchkin is say 12-13 months then I would consider keeping family on because I hate to break up siblings, but it's the exception… My kids move into a Toddler or Montessori situation between between 18-21 months.

BTW, Most of my parents love the idea that there aren't older kids that could trample babies learning to crawl and walk - I've been doing infants only for awhile so I'm good at it (I also trained as a Postpartum doula)

[TwinKristi]

0-4. I will only ever have one infant in my care. I'd rather the rest be toddler to preschool age.

Yep! Me too! I accept 6 wks to 4yrs. Most 3-4yr olds go to preschool here, even 2 yr olds! But my ideal age range is under 3... Less sass, less tattling, less drama. I would actually love to have all infants.

[TwinKristi]

Where do your kids go when they age out? What about siblings? I considered doing babies only for a little while, but I can't imagine parents bringing you one child and not the older one.

I'm not who you quoted but I have the same age group. My kids go to preschool when they age out of my childcare, and I haven't had many sibling sets at this point. I had one FT and his sister as a drop in when her preschool was closed. And this mom did bring 1 to me and 1 to another preschool. Eventually she pulled DCB and put him in the preschool her DD went to, but now her DD is going on to Kindy and she'll have 2 locations again. She wants a 3rd baby so she would then have 3 locations to drop off/pick up from.

[MrsSteinel'sHouse]

I do infant-5. I don't "do SA" either. However, if I have raised them, I have their younger sibling and I can accommodate then I will consider B/A school for them. I live right across the street from the school so this is generally easy. But, I haven't had one of those in years. I will not do summer SA though. I am just not set up for it any more (when dd and ds were in that age group I was) I strongly suggest they contact the YMCA or two other facilities that do summer "camps" for SAers. They just have more fun than I can do.