Advice Please!!!!

[Lperry2124]

So i am thinking about doing ages 2 1/2 - up i want to run it like a school readiness program(play included ) during the school year August -May and then do a summer camp almost with my same students and of course any additional students i may get. Has anyone else done this before or heard of anyone doing it??? Any advice? Also i will be doing this all as a home childcare center.

[Preschool/daycare teacher]

I worked with a lady who owned her own home daycare and we ended up doing this. She started out with all ages, but eventually we moved into a full day preschool program for ages 3-5 (all of the current kids were preschool age or older at that time so it was the perfect time to change to preschool only). We also allowed school age before and after school and summers. It worked out really well for awhile and was a good selling point to the parents of preschool age children, but it ended up in her area there wasn't enough need for preschool age only and she couldn't continue to keep enough children. Since the parents couldn't bring younger siblings to the same place and our preschool age children went on to school so much sooner than if we'd taken them from baby/toddler then we ended up not being able to continue doing that. But I know others on this forum have had a lot of success doing it that way, and I have a friend in the next town over who also does that. I wanted to do that when I moved here and I tried it for a few months to only enroll preschool age and older, but there are too many preschools around (including public preschool which is free) so there is pretty much no need for preschool age care in my town
You might want to find out how many preschools you have around you, if the public schools offer it for free, and how many other home daycare providers offer preschool only care.

[Unregistered]

I always wonder when these posts talk about free preschools, are these open to everyone? Are they based on income? We don't have free preschool except if you qualify for a childcare program and you have to have an extremely low income to qualify for that. We have a very high demand for all child care, infant and preschool here.

[spedmommy4]

I always wonder when these posts talk about free preschools, are these open to everyone? Are they based on income? We don't have free preschool except if you qualify for a childcare program and you have to have an extremely low income to qualify for that. We have a very high demand for all child care, infant and preschool here.

Sometimes they are based on income. Head Start and First 5 offer income based programs in my area. I believe the First 5 programs are universal, but they still charge on a sliding scale. A few states have adopted universal free preschool for all four year olds, but they are typically very academic.

[Josiegirl]

We have universal free prek here. The downside of that is when the dcfs want their former dc back and it's full, which is a situation I've run into. I've had to turn down a dck because I was already at ratio during the school days off.

[Lperry2124]

I worked with a lady who owned her own home daycare and we ended up doing this. She started out with all ages, but eventually we moved into a full day preschool program for ages 3-5 (all of the current kids were preschool age or older at that time so it was the perfect time to change to preschool only). We also allowed school age before and after school and summers. It worked out really well for awhile and was a good selling point to the parents of preschool age children, but it ended up in her area there wasn't enough need for preschool age only and she couldn't continue to keep enough children. Since the parents couldn't bring younger siblings to the same place and our preschool age children went on to school so much sooner than if we'd taken them from baby/toddler then we ended up not being able to continue doing that. But I know others on this forum have had a lot of success doing it that way, and I have a friend in the next town over who also does that. I wanted to do that when I moved here and I tried it for a few months to only enroll preschool age and older, but there are too many preschools around (including public preschool which is free) so there is pretty much no need for preschool age care in my town
You might want to find out how many preschools you have around you, if the public schools offer it for free, and how many other home daycare providers offer preschool only care.

Thanks that helps alot i will see in look into it in my area

[kendallina]

I have an in-home Preschool (ages 3-up, unless I have a 2-1/2 year old that I personally know and think they'll fit in) between August-May and run a Summer Camp (up to age 6) during the summer months.

I love it. It works very well in my area as we have very few preschool options and parents like the kind of preschool that I provide. I do a hands-on, play-based preschool and incorporate all of our school readiness learning within that. Definitely research your area to see if there's a need. Best of luck!

[Thriftylady]

Not to hijack, but those who do summer camp type care, what do you offer for the kids in summer? I am asking because I will be full with SA kids unless something happens and my try this.

[Preschool/daycare teacher]

Not to hijack, but those who do summer camp type care, what do you offer for the kids in summer? I am asking because I will be full with SA kids unless something happens and my try this.

I don't have time to message you tonight, but remind me and I will as soon as I get a chance. We did all kinds of fun things with our preschool and school age kids when I was working at that home preschool/daycare I was talking about in this thread. If you have all older kids, there is so much stuff you can do in the summer I enjoyed summers so much when we had just older kids! And the best part: Some of them would actually fall asleep and nap right along with the preschoolers