Daycare Room Question

[littlemonkeys]

The earlier thread of the daycare room pictures got me to thinking about how everyone's daycare room is setup? I have a few of my older dck's turning two this Summer and right now our dc room is more like a dc playroom with toys and a reading center. My dc room is also our only living room in our house and at night the room looks more like an actual living room with toys . I would like to find a way to setup my dc room to be more like a preschool setting and still have the ability to have a living room at night. I know I'll never have a daycare room like the one posted in the other thread (although I'd love to), but I'd like to have something that might be more appealing to parents of older children and still have that homey look. KWIM?

Any ideas? Anyone else do dc out of their only living room?

[DBug]

I won't be much help, but I'm looking forward to other people's ideas too.

Right now our living room is completely converted to daycare use. We don't have a functional living room and we end up doing all of our hanging out and relaxing in our unfinished basement with all of my kids' toys. And when we have friends over on the weekend, the only presentable place to sit and chat is at the kitchen table. Definitely not ideal, but a new house isn't in the budget right. I'd love to have a way to hide the daycare stuff and make my living room back into a living room, at least for the weekend.

[Michelle]

I know how you feel, I used to have alphabet charts on the walls ,tons of toys , lego tables and cots in my living room when I first started.
At night I just looked at it all and got this feeling that I was still at work.
So I am fortunate enough to have an enclosed patio and moved it all out in there, but in your situation I would just get toddler tables and chairs , a pre school work book(you can get them at walmart) parents are usually impressed by these , get those cool toddler paints, and just keep it simple ....less is more

[SandeeAR]

I do Daycare out of my den. The toys are on one side of the room and the sofa on the other. They kids beds are all in one of the bedrooms. It is just my DH and I, so it is our den at night. The baby using the exersaucer is only here 2 days a week, so when he isn't here, the saucer is in the nap room.


Pic #1 is from just inside the door, facing the "very small" play area.
Pic #2 is from just inside the door, shows my desk with computer and changing table
Pic #3 is of the toy area. They red baskets on the bar hold the colors, baby toys, flash cards, kids dvds, non hard board books.

On the weekends, if we have company coming, I can easily move the "ball toys" (in front of the tv), the swing and saucer to the nap room. Then it becomes pretty much adult friendly. IF I really needed to, I could move all the baskets too, for a party or such.

[SandeeAR]

Here are the other two pics. Of the kitchen area and the nap area.

[cillybean83]

i'll post some pics of my new set up when the babies wake up

Sandee...we have the same furniture!!!!!!!

[SandeeAR]

BTW, the chairs don't match my table right now. My kids built me the wooden table I wanted for Christmas, but the chairs are from the old table. Gotta get free time to go to the flea markets and find some chairs to paint!


The changing table and toddler table and chairs can all go to the nap room if necessary. In about 45 minutes I can have my den back to normal and the kid stuff hid. I don't do that on a regular basis, just as needed.


Hope I didn't give you too much info. Hope some of it helps!


PS, I would love to have a large daycare room too!

[littlemonkeys]

Yes Sandee, that totally helps and loved seeing the visuals. It looks great! What is the age range of your dck's?


My living room looks somewhat of the same as yours. I have all the dck's nap in my 17 month olds room. I think I just need to get some sort of a table so the dck's can do preschool activities instead of using my kitchen table. :: I don't mind the fact that we always HAVE toys in the living room since we have a 17 month old. Like you said, it's easy to clean those things up for certain occasions.

[SandeeAR]

Yes Sandee, that totally helps and loved seeing the visuals. It looks great! What is the age range of your dck's?


My living room looks somewhat of the same as yours. I have all the dck's nap in my 17 month olds room. I think I just need to get some sort of a table so the dck's can do preschool activities instead of using my kitchen table. :: I don't mind the fact that we always HAVE toys in the living room since we have a 17 month old. Like you said, it's easy to clean those things up for certain occasions.

Mine are all part time: 2.5 y/o dcg and 5 mo dcb, siblings...every Mon &
Tues, e/o Friday.

1 y/o dcb....Mon., Tues. & Friday one week,
Wed. and Thurs. next week

9 mo dcg....Mon-Thurs

All come 7:20-7:40 and leave 4:45-5:30


So as the babies grow, the swing, saucer etc. will go into the attic, until the grandkids come along.

[Unregistered]

I used to use my living room also for my daycare, and it is a room that was used for everything as we have no family room. I have a formal dining room that I have converted to my daycare room now. We added onto our kitchen a few years ago and it is actually bigger now than my dining room is, so we do all our entertaining in the kitchen area now. So my dining room was just being a wasted space,we never used it anymore. So I decided to make that my daycare room and it works out beautifully. I have toys in there and there is space for the kids to play now. It is their room and the are so proud to have their own room for just them to play in. If any of you have an extra room your not really using, try using it for your daycare room. It really has saved my living room and my furniture!

[Michelle]

Here are the other two pics. Of the kitchen area and the nap area.

Absolutely love your nap room!

[SandeeAR]

Absolutely love your nap room!

Thanks that was one advantage of moving this month to this new house. I lost den/play space, but gained a room just for the kiddos to sleep! My previous house had hardwood floors on a crawl space, so I did toddler beds (CL for $30 with mattress and bedding). I felt it would be to cold on the floor with nap mats.

[busymomof2]

I am fortunate enough to have a room dedicated to daycare- my formal living room. I have attached some photos of my main daycare room. One shows my circle time area. Another shows the shelves with boxes that hold the toys. This might be good for you to hide the toys in your living room. They are all labeled with a photo so the children can easy put them away. The other photo shows my display wall. Where I display crafts, the schedule, holiday or seasonal bulletin boards, and a toy box. The last photo shows the kids lounge area, library, and parent board. My kids nap in my tv room on nap mats and eat on a bench in my dining area/kitchen. My husband would throw a fit if the whole house was taken over by the daycare. I also have upstairs that is daycare free. LOL.::

[SandeeAR]

Those of you with dedicated daycare rooms, must have larger homes. Mine is only about 1200 sqft. Den, Kitchen, 3 bdrms, and 1 1/2 baths.

[Candyland]

I am fortunate enough to have a room dedicated to daycare- my formal living room. I have attached some photos of my main daycare room. One shows my circle time area. Another shows the shelves with boxes that hold the toys. This might be good for you to hide the toys in your living room. They are all labeled with a photo so the children can easy put them away. The other photo shows my display wall. Where I display crafts, the schedule, holiday or seasonal bulletin boards, and a toy box. The last photo shows the kids lounge area, library, and parent board. My kids nap in my tv room on nap mats and eat on a bench in my dining area/kitchen. My husband would throw a fit if the whole house was taken over by the daycare. I also have upstairs that is daycare free. LOL.::

Your animal art in the first picture are absolutely adorable!