Would you be willing to pay a little more per week, in a home childcare situation, for infant/toddler care only for your child? Is this something that might be attractive to parents and worth the additional cost? Knowing the group would never be larger than, say 5 or maybe 6 children (I am not sure what the license specifications are)....but only 2 would be 0-12 mos..and maybe 1 or 2 would be 12-24 mos (again, I am not sure of the difference in the license categories). Children would need to move on to a full time preschool situation, or other care, at age 3.
Would this be worth an additional amount a week ? Somewhere between the average for a home daycare and what a center charges?
Its just an idea I have wanted to do for many years, as I love working with infants and toddlers, but licensing (for obvious reasons!) limits the amount of them we can care for at one time, so I would need to charge more to maintain my income. But I would love to be able to specialize. I am also well known for toilet training my crew between 24-28 months, so I can have that well in place for families before the preschool transition age comes up.
All thoughts are welcome!
Good replies so far.....
To Gamma...there really would not be a difference here in MN....now I am licensed for up to 10 children...8 of which can be under school-age. Of that 8, 3 can be under age 2...of those I can have 2 infants under age 1. Right now I have a 9 mos old, a 10 mos old and a 22 mos old. Plus I have 4 others, the oldest of which are newly turned 3 year olds. I have had all of these children since they were infants themselves, so the group has grown together. It would not create more small children really...but severly lessen the amount of the older ones who run and play harder in the same space, etc and simply do have different needs for learning, napping and energy levels.
This difference is that I would not have all those children age 3 or older. I could get a license that only allows 2 infants (1-12 mos), and 2 toddlers (12-24 mos). Or keep my current license and simply limit myself to no more than one or 2 of the children over age 24 mos and let them know up front they would need to leave at the 3 yr mark (or thereabouts)
I think that would be a great setting for parents with just one child. Personally, I have three kids (11month, 3 and 6 years) and a big factor in choosing care was that they could all be together. I don't want to do multiple drop offs and pick ups.
i personally would not pay extra for that. money is tight for a lot of people and i have 2 kids and would not want them at separte daycares just because one was 4 and one was 1. my kids are in an inhome daycare we LOVE and she has babies to school age and they are all like a family. plus when my kids start school i dont want to have to switch daycares for thier days off either. i think you may loose buisness that way because people dont want to have to swith their kid from a place they like just because they are 3 now. not everyone does preschool and most preschools are not everyday. that is just my thoughts though.
No, I would not pay more for infant and toddlers only. They need more individualized care and more of their age group takes away from the time you could spend with my child if the other kids were older. When the older kids are playing and having their lunch you could be giving attention to a baby or feeding a toddler one on one. With only that age group it limits the time for each one in everything.
I hope so. When I get to the place in my age and physical being that I don't want to go on field trips anymore, this is my plan. I will specialize in infants and I'll cut my kids off at 2. I'll help the parents find a nice bridge between my infant program and a good preschool. I've always heard of people doing this. I want to set up a whole soft room with those big vynal covered foam blocks and all kinds of infant toys. It sounds kind of enticing even now :) But it also depends on what happens with my grandchild and future grandchildren. It wouldn't make sense if I needed older children to be around for them.
I would definitely send my son to a home like that and pay more. Like the previous posters said, you might be limiting yourself to those mothers with only one child (me) or those that have their older children in school, but since you would only need 4 kids, I don't think it would be much of a problem. I specifically chose a center for my 17-mo old now because I didn't want him in a home where the other kids weren't his age, but would have loved to have the option of a home that just had other infants/toddlers.
Sabine makes sense - but there are lots of moms with toddler that have kids in school or no others yet. I'd say go for it.
