Things for me - opening home daycare
A daycare in your home also means great tax writeoffs when doing your income tax in the spring. Start keeping receipts now for all kids toys and equipment you buy and for sure all improvements to your home, as you are getting ready to start a business in your home.
I made my own contract with my policy and pay requirements, behavioral management policy, hours etc. I also had pages for parents to fill out about their child. Name address birthdays medical numbers doctors name allergies emergency contacts other ppl who can pick up child from daycare.
Why would someone not want their kids in a licensed daycare?
Well, a licensed daycare is regulated in its rates by the government and all parents are charged the same whether the government subsidizes some of the kids or not.
A private daycare can charge its own rates, which are usually less. They can also charge different rates to different parents if choosing to do so for the same service.
Also, there are many government regulated rules and regulations (like posting a daily menu) that licensed daycares follow but private daycare providers do not have to follow. When I was licensed not one parent ever checked what their child ate that day at my home. But, I had to keep the menus posted each week and then file them later.
BTW, one drawback to being private is that a private daycare cannot get any grant money from the government for upgrading its facilities or buying toys or playground equipment for the yard. Only a select few of the licensed daycares can get grants for those items.
ANY licenced private day care can access the operating grants offered by Manitoba Child Day Care. Some opt not to take those grants because if you do, your day care is bound to charge the Manitoba Child Care rates, and those, in addition to the grants, may not add up to as much as rates you charge on your own (you CAN be a licenced day care and charge whatever you want: you just don't get the grants if you do).
Valleyrimgirl is correct abot the rules and regs involved with being licenced: there are many and they will drive you crazy. The drawback with not being licenced is that you can only take a maximum of four children, including your own (i.e., if you happen to have two daycare-aged children, then you can only legally take on an additional two, and if you're doing home day care to make money, you won't with only two children). As a licenced day care, you can take up to eight children, again, including your own. There are some age limitations with this (# of preschool or infants within that eight), but at least there is some opportunity to make a go of it.
Manitoba Child Care Program - A Basic Guide to Licensing Requirements for Family or Group Child Care Homes
Last Verified: December 17, 2010
The Department of Family Services and Consumer Affairs regularly offers orientation meetings for individuals interested in becoming licensed child care providers. The licensing requirements are outlined in full in The Community Child Care Standards Act and Regulation. The following is a brief overview.
Summary
DEFINITION
A licence for a family child care home is required if the provider is caring for more than four children, including the provider’s own children. A family child care home is a home in which child care is provided:
to not more than eight (8) children
including a maximum of five (5) children less than six (6) years of age
of whom no more than three (3) are less than two (2) years of age
and which include the children of the provider with the condition that they are included in the above total number of children under care.
BASIC PROCEDURES
Persons interested in becoming family or group child care providers usually follow the process outlined below:
First Orientation: The first orientation provides an overview of licensing and is an opportunity to learn more about becoming a family child care provider.
Documentation: After the first orientation, any persons who wish to become licensed family child care providers must then complete a licence application package.
First Licensing Visit: Following submission of the application package and satisfactory Criminal Records Check, Child Abuse Registry Check and Prior Contact Check, a Child Care Co-ordinator will visit the home. They will provide the applicant with a copy of the Licensing Manual, and another package of resources and forms for the operation of their family child care home.
Second Orientation: The second orientation allows the applicant to review and formalize their family child care resources and forms.
Subsequent Licensing Visits: The Co-ordinator will carry out a series of subsequent visits, during which time, the applicant will be advised of any licensing requirement that must be met. The Co-ordinator will also conduct a personal assessment and complete an inspection checklist, while observing the program.
Required Training
Effective January 1, 2003, all applicants must provide evidence that they have, within the previous eight years, successfully completed 40 hours of course work that is relevant to early childhood education or family child care. The course must have been offered by a publically-funded post-secondary institution, or approved by the Director of the Manitoba Child Care Program.
If the applicant has not completed the course work, the applicant will be granted a licence subject to the condition that the course work be successfully completed within 12 months following the date of the licence. An annual training grant is available, up to a maximum of $350 per provider.
Provisional Licence
If some of the regulations are not met, but the operation of the child care home is not considered hazardous to children, a Provisional Licence may be issued to allow time for the home to come into compliance with the licensing requirements. All new child care homes will receive a Provisional Licence for a period of time upon opening in order that the Child Care Co-ordinator can complete the necessary observational visits to determine compliance with program requirements when children are in attendance.
Regular Licence
If a child care home complies with all the regulations, a Regular Licence is issued.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
The licence to provide family child care is issued by the Department of Family Services and Consumer Affairs.
It is renewed annually if the standards for family child care have been maintained.
The licence states the number of licensed child care spaces in the facility.
Any changes that would call for revision to the licence must be reported to the Child Care Co-ordinator for approval.
Parent Responsibilities
There must be open communication between the parent and the child care provider. Beliefs, attitudes, values, expectations must be discussed in order that the parent has an understanding of the kind of person who will be caring for his/her child and also in order that the provider becomes aware of the child's home environment. Cultural difference must be acknowledged and accepted when providing a service.
Hours
Family child care providers determine their own hours of operation. Hours of care may differ from one child to the next based on mutually agreed upon contracts between the parent(s) and provider.
Income Taxes
Family child care providers are classified as self-employed people and must report their income on an income tax return each year. Records must be kept of receipts for expenses such as food and utilities to determine the net income on which taxes are to be based. (Canada Revenue Agency's Using Your Home for Day Care brochure can assist providers in calculating net income.)
Liability Insurance
Family child care providers shall obtain and maintain comprehensive general liability insurance coverage for children enrolled in the family child care home. An amount of up to $3,000,000 is recommended. The provider's insurance agent should be contacted to ensure that the appropriate coverage is received for family child care. Liability insurance is available through individual insurance agents or some child care associations.
Child Care Co-ordinator Responsibilities
Child Care Co-ordinators are employees of the Province of Manitoba, and function as a primary contact for family child care providers. The Child Care Co-ordinator will:
assist family child care home applicants in becoming licensed providers .
interpret the legislative and policy requirements to family child care providers and parents requiring child care.
assist providers when problems are identified regarding parents or children.
assist providers wishing to enhance their programs by discussing and supplying resource material for use in homes.
assist providers who have children with additional support needs enrolled in their programs.
Using a contract that includes four weeks notice and care paid in advance helps. It is also beneficial to maintain a waiting list for upcoming clients. Strong networking connections with other caregivers will often provide you with new clients when you have a spot opening up. Great advertising helps as well. Good money management to cover any dry spells helps alleviate stress around losing a daycare client.
You can write off a portion of your home, car, and grocery bills.
-You will eliminate commuting costs.
-You will drastically decrease personal costs such as clothing purchases, dry cleaning, salon visits, etc.
-You will be eating lunch at home and therefore saving on daily restaurant and coffee shop expenses.
-You will have time to plan and prepare nutritious home cooked meals and therefore will decrease your reliance on fast food and expensive take-out meals.
Most people look for child care when they are returning to work after their maternity/paternity leave. Therefore, the greatest pool of potential clients are young babies. It’ is wonderful to start with a young baby and then have them in your care all the way up to school age. The downfall of young babies is that they require more time and assistance than older kids. Figure out how many young babies you feel you can handle. None? One? Two?
I would recommend getting insurance and finding out from your insurance company how many children are covered under your policy. Depending on where you live, there are different regulations as to how many children you are allowed to care for by law. A quick search on-line about your geographical location should give you the answers you are seeking.
Often when caregivers are first opening their home daycares they post lower rates because they are unsure of their skills. Remember you can raise your rates each year by a little bit as you gain experience and confidence.
Hours
What should your daily hours be? This decision depends on your personal schedule. There will be caregivers in your area who are open from the crack of dawn to dusk. Caregivers who are only open 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. Caregivers who offer shift work hours. Caregivers who offer half days or part time schedules. The longer your hours the better chance you will be able to accommodate more parent’s work schedules. However, be careful of burnout. You only need to find a handful of daycare clients.
There are families out there that can alternate drop off and pick up to shorten the hours their children are in care. Your closing time will more than likely get pushed an extra half hour. So choose a closing time and then schedule to close your doors a half hour before. Then you won’’t be frustrated when your daycare parents are late 15 minutes, AGAIN.
Good luck in your home daycare decisions. Don’t worry too much about what you decide because you are your own boss, you can change your hours and rates and age of clients whenever you choose!
Your home is no longer just your home, it is also your business. People will be coming into your home five days a week and your home will show the ‘wear and tear’ of hosting a group of children day after day. Children don’t intentionally damage your furniture and home but accidents happen and toddlers don’t realize their own strength. Your walls will get dents in the drywall. You will need to repaint. Your couch will show the activity it sees every day. So will your carpets and floors.
Does being your own boss sound appealing?
You are thinking about starting your own business and that means you will be your own boss. Being your own boss has many benefits. Everything is up to you to decide! It also has some downfalls. Everything is up to you to do! Here are some pros and cons to being the director and the sole employee of your home daycare.
Cons:
Each client has their own needs that they want you to accommodate, this can become a juggling act.
You will have to manage all aspects of the business; advertising, enrollments, interviews, child care, menu planning, meal preparing, cleaning, parent communication, teaching, taxes, tracking payment, etc.
sometimes clients will leave unexpectedly because they are moving, having another baby, or are experiencing job loss themselves. You will need to be financially savvy and plan for the unexpected.
Pros:
you decide on your hours and rate of pay.
you decide on vacation time and sick day policies, age of children you will care for and how you will organize your day.
you don’’t have someone else dictating to you how you should run your daycare, you make your own decisions and your own policies
Since you are at home, you will have the opportunity to accomplish little tasks during the day (dishes, laundry, or garbage) and thus reduce the list of chores for the weekends. Simply being home to let in the furnace repair man saves a spouse from taking the morning off work.
Normally if you had a dentist appointment or your car needed to go into the shop, you would take a day off work. When you have your own home child care business it is hard for you to take days off because you could have several different families relying on you for care. It is sometimes easier to have a friend or family member take your car in or watch your own children after work while you go to a late dentist appointment.
This person could meet and talk to the parents so that they are familiar and feel comfortable with this person. It is stressful for parents who have limited time off work to take a day off unexpectedly, they appreciate it when their daycare provider has a backup system to ensure reliable care.
You could include:
-Daycare highlights of the month (outings, crafts, creative play, etc)
-Lunch/snack recipes that everyone enjoyed
-Upcoming family community events
-Request sections (reminders about bringing sunscreen or hats)
-Policy Review (state your sick day policy or late pick-up policy)
-Cute comments that children said in the last month
-Celebrate Wall- post recent achievements (ie. Lisa can put on her own coat now!)
-Craft Materials request (please save yogurt containers for next month)
-Milestone Checklists -give general milestones for each developmental phase so parents know what is coming up next for their child
-Share relevant articles or helpful parenting tips
-Outline planned activities for the upcoming month
Kinderloop has designed a system that saves time for the caregiver and makes it easy for the parents to access the photos through a password account. I inputed the names of my daycare children and the email addresses of their parents. Once my daycare account was set up, it was easy for me to send photos with comments with a touch of a few buttons. If a child is being especially cute (which always happens!) then I grab my ipad and snap a photo. Then I click into my Kinderloop account, choose the photo and add a comment if I wish, and the app sends it out to the correct parents of the child in the photo-easy! I can send a bunch of pictures or just one. I can add lots of comments or none. Parents can also comment on the photos they receive.
I made my own contract with my policy and pay requirements, behavioral management policy, hours etc. I also had pages for parents to fill out about their child. Name address birthdays medical numbers doctors name allergies emergency contacts other ppl who can pick up child from daycare.
Why would someone not want their kids in a licensed daycare?
Well, a licensed daycare is regulated in its rates by the government and all parents are charged the same whether the government subsidizes some of the kids or not.
A private daycare can charge its own rates, which are usually less. They can also charge different rates to different parents if choosing to do so for the same service.
Also, there are many government regulated rules and regulations (like posting a daily menu) that licensed daycares follow but private daycare providers do not have to follow. When I was licensed not one parent ever checked what their child ate that day at my home. But, I had to keep the menus posted each week and then file them later.
BTW, one drawback to being private is that a private daycare cannot get any grant money from the government for upgrading its facilities or buying toys or playground equipment for the yard. Only a select few of the licensed daycares can get grants for those items.
ANY licenced private day care can access the operating grants offered by Manitoba Child Day Care. Some opt not to take those grants because if you do, your day care is bound to charge the Manitoba Child Care rates, and those, in addition to the grants, may not add up to as much as rates you charge on your own (you CAN be a licenced day care and charge whatever you want: you just don't get the grants if you do).
Valleyrimgirl is correct abot the rules and regs involved with being licenced: there are many and they will drive you crazy. The drawback with not being licenced is that you can only take a maximum of four children, including your own (i.e., if you happen to have two daycare-aged children, then you can only legally take on an additional two, and if you're doing home day care to make money, you won't with only two children). As a licenced day care, you can take up to eight children, again, including your own. There are some age limitations with this (# of preschool or infants within that eight), but at least there is some opportunity to make a go of it.
Manitoba Child Care Program - A Basic Guide to Licensing Requirements for Family or Group Child Care Homes
Last Verified: December 17, 2010
The Department of Family Services and Consumer Affairs regularly offers orientation meetings for individuals interested in becoming licensed child care providers. The licensing requirements are outlined in full in The Community Child Care Standards Act and Regulation. The following is a brief overview.
Summary
DEFINITION
A licence for a family child care home is required if the provider is caring for more than four children, including the provider’s own children. A family child care home is a home in which child care is provided:
to not more than eight (8) children
including a maximum of five (5) children less than six (6) years of age
of whom no more than three (3) are less than two (2) years of age
and which include the children of the provider with the condition that they are included in the above total number of children under care.
BASIC PROCEDURES
Persons interested in becoming family or group child care providers usually follow the process outlined below:
First Orientation: The first orientation provides an overview of licensing and is an opportunity to learn more about becoming a family child care provider.
Documentation: After the first orientation, any persons who wish to become licensed family child care providers must then complete a licence application package.
First Licensing Visit: Following submission of the application package and satisfactory Criminal Records Check, Child Abuse Registry Check and Prior Contact Check, a Child Care Co-ordinator will visit the home. They will provide the applicant with a copy of the Licensing Manual, and another package of resources and forms for the operation of their family child care home.
Second Orientation: The second orientation allows the applicant to review and formalize their family child care resources and forms.
Subsequent Licensing Visits: The Co-ordinator will carry out a series of subsequent visits, during which time, the applicant will be advised of any licensing requirement that must be met. The Co-ordinator will also conduct a personal assessment and complete an inspection checklist, while observing the program.
Required Training
Effective January 1, 2003, all applicants must provide evidence that they have, within the previous eight years, successfully completed 40 hours of course work that is relevant to early childhood education or family child care. The course must have been offered by a publically-funded post-secondary institution, or approved by the Director of the Manitoba Child Care Program.
If the applicant has not completed the course work, the applicant will be granted a licence subject to the condition that the course work be successfully completed within 12 months following the date of the licence. An annual training grant is available, up to a maximum of $350 per provider.
Provisional Licence
If some of the regulations are not met, but the operation of the child care home is not considered hazardous to children, a Provisional Licence may be issued to allow time for the home to come into compliance with the licensing requirements. All new child care homes will receive a Provisional Licence for a period of time upon opening in order that the Child Care Co-ordinator can complete the necessary observational visits to determine compliance with program requirements when children are in attendance.
Regular Licence
If a child care home complies with all the regulations, a Regular Licence is issued.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
The licence to provide family child care is issued by the Department of Family Services and Consumer Affairs.
It is renewed annually if the standards for family child care have been maintained.
The licence states the number of licensed child care spaces in the facility.
Any changes that would call for revision to the licence must be reported to the Child Care Co-ordinator for approval.
Parent Responsibilities
There must be open communication between the parent and the child care provider. Beliefs, attitudes, values, expectations must be discussed in order that the parent has an understanding of the kind of person who will be caring for his/her child and also in order that the provider becomes aware of the child's home environment. Cultural difference must be acknowledged and accepted when providing a service.
Hours
Family child care providers determine their own hours of operation. Hours of care may differ from one child to the next based on mutually agreed upon contracts between the parent(s) and provider.
Income Taxes
Family child care providers are classified as self-employed people and must report their income on an income tax return each year. Records must be kept of receipts for expenses such as food and utilities to determine the net income on which taxes are to be based. (Canada Revenue Agency's Using Your Home for Day Care brochure can assist providers in calculating net income.)
Liability Insurance
Family child care providers shall obtain and maintain comprehensive general liability insurance coverage for children enrolled in the family child care home. An amount of up to $3,000,000 is recommended. The provider's insurance agent should be contacted to ensure that the appropriate coverage is received for family child care. Liability insurance is available through individual insurance agents or some child care associations.
Child Care Co-ordinator Responsibilities
Child Care Co-ordinators are employees of the Province of Manitoba, and function as a primary contact for family child care providers. The Child Care Co-ordinator will:
assist family child care home applicants in becoming licensed providers .
interpret the legislative and policy requirements to family child care providers and parents requiring child care.
assist providers when problems are identified regarding parents or children.
assist providers wishing to enhance their programs by discussing and supplying resource material for use in homes.
assist providers who have children with additional support needs enrolled in their programs.
Using a contract that includes four weeks notice and care paid in advance helps. It is also beneficial to maintain a waiting list for upcoming clients. Strong networking connections with other caregivers will often provide you with new clients when you have a spot opening up. Great advertising helps as well. Good money management to cover any dry spells helps alleviate stress around losing a daycare client.
You can write off a portion of your home, car, and grocery bills.
-You will eliminate commuting costs.
-You will drastically decrease personal costs such as clothing purchases, dry cleaning, salon visits, etc.
-You will be eating lunch at home and therefore saving on daily restaurant and coffee shop expenses.
-You will have time to plan and prepare nutritious home cooked meals and therefore will decrease your reliance on fast food and expensive take-out meals.
Most people look for child care when they are returning to work after their maternity/paternity leave. Therefore, the greatest pool of potential clients are young babies. It’ is wonderful to start with a young baby and then have them in your care all the way up to school age. The downfall of young babies is that they require more time and assistance than older kids. Figure out how many young babies you feel you can handle. None? One? Two?
I would recommend getting insurance and finding out from your insurance company how many children are covered under your policy. Depending on where you live, there are different regulations as to how many children you are allowed to care for by law. A quick search on-line about your geographical location should give you the answers you are seeking.
Often when caregivers are first opening their home daycares they post lower rates because they are unsure of their skills. Remember you can raise your rates each year by a little bit as you gain experience and confidence.
Hours
What should your daily hours be? This decision depends on your personal schedule. There will be caregivers in your area who are open from the crack of dawn to dusk. Caregivers who are only open 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. Caregivers who offer shift work hours. Caregivers who offer half days or part time schedules. The longer your hours the better chance you will be able to accommodate more parent’s work schedules. However, be careful of burnout. You only need to find a handful of daycare clients.
There are families out there that can alternate drop off and pick up to shorten the hours their children are in care. Your closing time will more than likely get pushed an extra half hour. So choose a closing time and then schedule to close your doors a half hour before. Then you won’’t be frustrated when your daycare parents are late 15 minutes, AGAIN.
Good luck in your home daycare decisions. Don’t worry too much about what you decide because you are your own boss, you can change your hours and rates and age of clients whenever you choose!
Your home is no longer just your home, it is also your business. People will be coming into your home five days a week and your home will show the ‘wear and tear’ of hosting a group of children day after day. Children don’t intentionally damage your furniture and home but accidents happen and toddlers don’t realize their own strength. Your walls will get dents in the drywall. You will need to repaint. Your couch will show the activity it sees every day. So will your carpets and floors.
Does being your own boss sound appealing?
You are thinking about starting your own business and that means you will be your own boss. Being your own boss has many benefits. Everything is up to you to decide! It also has some downfalls. Everything is up to you to do! Here are some pros and cons to being the director and the sole employee of your home daycare.
Cons:
Each client has their own needs that they want you to accommodate, this can become a juggling act.
You will have to manage all aspects of the business; advertising, enrollments, interviews, child care, menu planning, meal preparing, cleaning, parent communication, teaching, taxes, tracking payment, etc.
sometimes clients will leave unexpectedly because they are moving, having another baby, or are experiencing job loss themselves. You will need to be financially savvy and plan for the unexpected.
Pros:
you decide on your hours and rate of pay.
you decide on vacation time and sick day policies, age of children you will care for and how you will organize your day.
you don’’t have someone else dictating to you how you should run your daycare, you make your own decisions and your own policies
Since you are at home, you will have the opportunity to accomplish little tasks during the day (dishes, laundry, or garbage) and thus reduce the list of chores for the weekends. Simply being home to let in the furnace repair man saves a spouse from taking the morning off work.
Normally if you had a dentist appointment or your car needed to go into the shop, you would take a day off work. When you have your own home child care business it is hard for you to take days off because you could have several different families relying on you for care. It is sometimes easier to have a friend or family member take your car in or watch your own children after work while you go to a late dentist appointment.
This person could meet and talk to the parents so that they are familiar and feel comfortable with this person. It is stressful for parents who have limited time off work to take a day off unexpectedly, they appreciate it when their daycare provider has a backup system to ensure reliable care.
You could include:
-Daycare highlights of the month (outings, crafts, creative play, etc)
-Lunch/snack recipes that everyone enjoyed
-Upcoming family community events
-Request sections (reminders about bringing sunscreen or hats)
-Policy Review (state your sick day policy or late pick-up policy)
-Cute comments that children said in the last month
-Celebrate Wall- post recent achievements (ie. Lisa can put on her own coat now!)
-Craft Materials request (please save yogurt containers for next month)
-Milestone Checklists -give general milestones for each developmental phase so parents know what is coming up next for their child
-Share relevant articles or helpful parenting tips
-Outline planned activities for the upcoming month
Kinderloop has designed a system that saves time for the caregiver and makes it easy for the parents to access the photos through a password account. I inputed the names of my daycare children and the email addresses of their parents. Once my daycare account was set up, it was easy for me to send photos with comments with a touch of a few buttons. If a child is being especially cute (which always happens!) then I grab my ipad and snap a photo. Then I click into my Kinderloop account, choose the photo and add a comment if I wish, and the app sends it out to the correct parents of the child in the photo-easy! I can send a bunch of pictures or just one. I can add lots of comments or none. Parents can also comment on the photos they receive.