Head Count?

[BumbleBee]

Yup! Only time I don't catch myself doing it is if I only have 1 or 2 kids.

The last time my licensing consultant was here she says "wow, busy day here today! How many do you have today?" (she was nice, not accusing or anything. I had a very busy group and it sounded very busy because it was!)

I completely blanked. We had 11, then one got picked up so that was 10, then 2 got dropped off so we were at 12, then 3 got picked up so I was at 9. All of that happened in the hour before she arrived so my brain was not in tip top shape.

I'm standing there going "um....uh...." and the 4 year old looks up and goes "there's 9 here right now. 2 girls and 7 boys."

Licensor looks at me, I just say "yeah, she's right. 9 kids right now."

[hwichlaz]

Mine are all in a gated room together, . I have to open and close the gate for them, so I don't count when we're inside.

[flying_babyb]

11 kids most days. Count them once leaving classroom, call ALL their names (and some respond) then repeat when we get to the hallway before outside, then a headcount on the playground. Each time we have to put a mark next to the child's name. On the playground I count at least 10 times in a hour cause we only have a half fence between the blacktop (2 and 3's playground) and the woodchips (4+ playground) and the grass (1.5 and under). I swear my kids try to sneak over to the big kid side at least once a hour.

[daycare]

My rule is that every time the door opens we do another head count. Also any time we go from inside to outside. I have 12-14 kids

[Buttercup]

Yup, it was my center's policy to do head counts every time we went from one room to another, or inside/outside. We also had to know how exactly how many children were in our room at all times. There's no way I'll be able to break that habit when I start my own daycare

[CeriBear]

All the time!

[DaveA]

Yes- especially when we're outside or on a trip somewhere.

[sharlan]

All. The. Time.

When we go on outings, I count every 15 minutes, every time we get in or out of the car.