You may be wondering, “What kind of day we have as a home daycare provider!” Each day is pretty much the same schedule and/or routine, but of course children can have their ups and downs. Some days kids want to participate and other days they don’t. Which is fine! I will break it down with how I am able to run a home daycare out of my house.

Morning Routine/Schedule

I open at 6:30 am during the school year (7:30 am during the summer) and I allow the children to have a free play while other children arrive. Around 7:30 am we have breakfast and have to be cleaned up by 8:00 am to take our school-age friends to school. I do have a preschool bus that picks up in front of my house that comes right before we have to head off to school for the bigger kids.

When we get back from school drop off, it is normally around 8:30 am and I have a couple more friends that join us. We get our hands washed, diapers and potty breaks done, so by 9:00 am we are ready for circle time. I tend to do circle time, arts & crafts (our theme crafts) and our books read/number/letter we are learning for the week done within the hour (9:00 am- 10:00 am).

Once we are done with most of our learning for the day, we get ready to head outside. This way we get to get all of our energy out and hopefully soak up some vitamin D. I usually allow the kids to play outside for up to 30 mins depending on the weather for that day. We come inside around 10:45 am to wash up and get ready for lunch. I have my meals planned out for the week ahead of time so I know what I am making. To make for an easy clean up from lunch, I do use paper plates (you can write those off on t.

After lunch around 11:30 am we get our hands washed, diapers changed, and potty break done. I allow the kids to pick a couple of books to lay down with on their cots until noon. Then the quiet music gets turned on.

Afternoon Routine/Schedule

The kids have nap time from 12:00 pm until 2:30 pm (during breaks and summer time I won’t wake them up if they’re still sleeping). After naptime we will check diapers and do potty breaks and have a quick snack before we have to leave to go get the school-age kids from school. We are usually back from picking the kids up from school around 3:30 pm and I let the big kids have snack, while the little kids get out a free choice to play with.

Afternoons after 3:30 pm are big pick up times for my kids. Most of them go home by 4:15 pm. If I have any left after that time, if the weather permits we will go outside again to soak up some vitamin D and get some more energy out. If the weather doesn’t permit for them to go outside then we will rotate some afternoon toys or games to play with. Kids like to have options, so changing things up is good. Don’t keep everything out all day long. That’s how they get bored and begin to act up.

Conclusion….

I do believe that kids need a routine/schedule to follow. It needs to stay consistent. Not only does it help with behaviors, but it helps when you enroll a new child to follow a long and get into the groove. The other kids that you have there can help out because they know what is next to expect.

Always give out a warning (5 minutes to clean up, 5 minutes to get ready to do XYZ). Kids like to be prepared and know ahead of time. That is why they ask 21 questions about something new. Just be patient and know that sometimes a child may not want to participate or may not want to be in a good mood. Those don’t happen everyday, but they do happen.

If you keep a schedule too, parents will tend to follow it and make sure they drop off and pick up around the same time everyday. They like to see their kids have a good day and have good behaviors from it. Running an in home daycare isn’t easy and it isn’t for everyone. But, I do think having a good, consistent schedule to follow does help!

To find out how to budget for an in home daycare, check out my link.