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Jenjo 07:47 AM 02-22-2011
Do you ever feel like some kids expect you to just sit and entertain them all day?
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nannyde 07:55 AM 02-22-2011
No

I don't believe in adults playing with kids. They have each other for that.
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melskids 08:44 AM 02-22-2011
ugh! i have a 4 year old (who attends preschool full time and is just here afterschool). she follows me around like a lost puppy. i can totally tell the cram every moment of her day at school with something. she can't do anything without direction. i have taken to nannyde's saying....

GO PLAY TOYS!!!!!
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daycare 08:50 AM 02-22-2011
I teach here, but even during free play it is still organized play. I make sure that they have something to do... one day it will be all about blocks during free play another maybe about water, or kitchen play. I set the tone and they run with it....



I set up the tables for them to play and let them go at it...
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countrymom 10:21 AM 02-22-2011
Originally Posted by nannyde:
No

I don't believe in adults playing with kids. They have each other for that.
i totally agree. I find the ones that need so much directions are the ones that have difficulty making friends that are their own age.
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littlemissmuffet 11:48 AM 02-22-2011
My kids keep themselves pretty busy and entertained for the most part. When I find they are becoming bored I redirect them to another activity to peak their interest.
I spend a good portion of the day actively "playing" with the children, and I'd like to know why PPs do not?? (TIA)
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nannyde 12:35 PM 02-22-2011
Originally Posted by littlemissmuffet:
I spend a good portion of the day actively "playing" with the children, and I'd like to know why PPs do not?? (TIA)
My kids don't need an adult in their play. They are PHENOMENAL toy players from the time they are mobile till they are five. We stay out of their play and allow them to have a childhood of excellent toys and excellent friends.

I love just watching kids from age one to five just PLAYING with each other. They can play with kids older, younger, same age... flow from one toy to the next... they don't fight... they don't have conflict... they just PLAY.

I was raised in the sixties and believe me it didn't cross my parents and relatives MINDS to play with little kids. We had each other and far less toys than my dck's have and we did GREAT. These guys are so fortunate to have such a massive and varied toy collection to play with and seven mates who they have grown up with to play with.

It's a great gig for all and I wouldn't change a thing.

May I ask why you play with your kids? I'm always intersted in knowing how other providers do it. (I ask that sincerely... I'm interested when I hear providers saying they spend the day playing with kids. I can't imagine doing that.)
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Zoe 12:42 PM 02-22-2011
I feel a little bit better now. I don't actively play all day with my dck's too. I just sit back and monitor them, do some crisis management if necessary, and redirect them to another activity if they need some assistance with it. They should be playing with other kids. That's why I opened my daycare. So that my kids could have playmates! Sure, I'll play board games with them occasionally or do some teacher-directed activities and crafts during our "school time". But for the most part, the kids have free play and do an excellent job playing with each other and making their own play decisions!

I used to have 2 SA's who expected me to entertain them for every minute of the day! It was so exhausting and with their low attention span, I ran out of things for them to do! Thankfully, I am SA-free now and don't have to worry about that.

Anyway, you aren't the only one who expects the kids to play with each other. They don't need you to entertain them all the time!
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daycare 12:52 PM 02-22-2011
Originally Posted by nannyde:
My kids don't need an adult in their play. They are PHENOMENAL toy players from the time they are mobile till they are five. We stay out of their play and allow them to have a childhood of excellent toys and excellent friends.

I love just watching kids from age one to five just PLAYING with each other. They can play with kids older, younger, same age... flow from one toy to the next... they don't fight... they don't have conflict... they just PLAY.

I was raised in the sixties and believe me it didn't cross my parents and relatives MINDS to play with little kids. We had each other and far less toys than my dck's have and we did GREAT. These guys are so fortunate to have such a massive and varied toy collection to play with and seven mates who they have grown up with to play with.

It's a great gig for all and I wouldn't change a thing.

May I ask why you play with your kids? I'm always intersted in knowing how other providers do it. (I ask that sincerely... I'm interested when I hear providers saying they spend the day playing with kids. I can't imagine doing that.)
I am in the middle on this one... Yes i believe 100 % that the kids need to learn to lead themself and allow for one of the children or several of the children to be a leader to their friends, while still playing activley with their peers.

However, there are often times I will also get super silly put on a puppet show, get on the floor and play house or allow the kids to be the leader and just play with them. I feel it is important to connect with them while they are in my care and it helps me build that special bond that I have with each and every one of them. Sometimes they will come and ask me to play with them and this melts my heart, as I know that they not only see me as the adult in charge, but their friend.

I would say that I may play with them about an hour total through out the day, not including teaching time...
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nannyde 01:00 PM 02-22-2011
Originally Posted by daycare:
I am in the middle on this one... Yes i believe 100 % that the kids need to learn to lead themself and allow for one of the children or several of the children to be a leader to their friends, while still playing activley with their peers.

However, there are often times I will also get super silly put on a puppet show, get on the floor and play house or allow the kids to be the leader and just play with them. I feel it is important to connect with them while they are in my care and it helps me build that special bond that I have with each and every one of them. Sometimes they will come and ask me to play with them and this melts my heart, as I know that they not only see me as the adult in charge, but their friend.

I would say that I may play with them about an hour total through out the day, not including teaching time...
And that is AWESOME. You do what YOU think is right for YOU and your kids.

I love that!!!!!
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countrymom 01:14 PM 02-22-2011
I also don't intervene when there is a problem. On our report cards, one of the criteria is problem solving and playing with others. If I continuely played with the children how would they learn to problem solve among each other.
I understand playing a game or teaching them something, but to get down and play my little pony isn't happening.
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nannyde 04:19 AM 02-23-2011
Originally Posted by countrymom:
I also don't intervene when there is a problem. On our report cards, one of the criteria is problem solving and playing with others. If I continuely played with the children how would they learn to problem solve among each other.
I understand playing a game or teaching them something, but to get down and play my little pony isn't happening.
I use a buddy system of play where the kid with the greatest skill with whatever toy collection we have out is teamed up with the kid or kids with lesser skill. That way the kids teach the kids. I have enough of each set to have many kids playing with the same thing at the same time in almost all of our sets. I have enough "key" pieces to give everyone enough to go to town.

Right now my 22 mo old dcg is freakishly good at castle building. We have a quadruple set of these: http://www.melissaanddoug.com/castle...googleshopping and she can build pretty elaborate structures. Since she's the best at it... whenever she wants to get her "castle" on I team her up with one of the other kids. They learn from her and then they pass it to the next one.

Whatever they are good at they teach. This keeps the adults OUT of it other than calling the kids who aren't so good at it over to the kid who IS good at it.

We do this with all of our main sets. We have enough toys to really DO "go play toys" so they can get really good at many different types of self play.

The ones who are great toy pickeruperers are teamed with the ones who aren't so great. They are the ones who make sure it's a team effort. The oldest kid on each side of the rooms is responsible for checking to make sure everything is back in it's place and it's done properly before they say they are done. The oldest in the house checks the younger kids side.

We have six right now with a new baby coming in a couple of weeks. The six kids are 22 mo to 4.5 years old. They can all talk and they can all clean. They rotate around each other and can be mixed and matched at the drop of a hat to do anything with any of the other kids. They have grown up together and usually by the end of the day they have all been teemed up with each of the other five kids for some type of play.

That system works for us. I don't allow best friends or selective friends as play mates. I want them all to play with same age... older.. and younger. If one of them starts preferring one kid over the other then we keep them apart for a week or two and get them in the swing of things with the other kids. Preference to one child weakens our system and shows a weakness in that child so we don't allow it. It almost always means the preferred child is the most entertaining (usually the oldest) to the one who is preferring. We don't want their play choice on them being entertained. Once they want to be entertained we rotate them to the child or children who is the least entertaining to them so they learn to be the ENTERTAINER. Being the entertainer strengthens the child and their play and makes our system work.

It sounds like it may be time consuming for the adults but really the whole adult interaction to make the system work is two/three minutes a day total. My staff assistant and I can see and correct in seconds and know when the right time is to switch things up. It requires so little adult involvement that the kids net a full day of calm broad play with all of the kids in the house.

They don't need an adult actually playing with them but my group does need an adult supervising and conducting their play so it flows without a hitch and everyone gets a great day of play under their belt by the time they go home. While we are supervising their play we can get everything done that we need to do for the business and for my home. As soon as the kids go down for a nap or walk out the door at the end of the day we are completely done with everything we need to do because we have time to get everything done while they are up.

If we played with them we would have to do a lot of the non direct care tasks while they were sleeping or gone and that would require higher fees. Our system nets happy adults, happy kids, EXCELLENT students when they go off to school and everything gets done day after day... week after week... decade after decade..

I hear about the "I play with kids" approach and really wonder how many providers survive past the first few years of doing day care. I've never tried it and know I would fail miserably at it immediately. I have read that the turnover for home day care is pretty high and the average provider only lasts a couple of years. I wonder how entertaining/playing with the kids relates to burn out and the short life span of the average home provider.

I know "I' couldn't last six months doing that. I'm almost to my second decade of doing home care and if my job was to play with the kids I would burn out within weeks. I don't have the skill set to play with kids.

I have mucho appreciation of the "professional child care providers" who do DAP and play and educate kids. I'm just better at being a babysitter. Deciding to just be a babysitter has been the single most important business decision I have made in my child care career. It's what's made me last for SO long in this business when the odds are so highly stacked against long term success.
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SilverSabre25 05:30 AM 02-23-2011
So, nanny, may I ask what you and your assistant are doing while the kids are playing? Do you guys stand around and monitor the activity, or...? I'm curious because I don't play with my kiddos much (except to intervene in squabbles and suggest alternatives when someone's having troubles) but I find that I get very mind-numbingly bored out of my gourd if I just stand/sit and watch them for hours on end...
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melskids 05:33 AM 02-23-2011
Originally Posted by littlemissmuffet:
My kids keep themselves pretty busy and entertained for the most part. When I find they are becoming bored I redirect them to another activity to peak their interest.
I spend a good portion of the day actively "playing" with the children, and I'd like to know why PPs do not?? (TIA)
i keep my kids pretty busy as well. and i DO play with them, teach them, and enjoy them, because I want to do it.

but i also agree with nannyde's method of playing.

the example in my first post should have been more clear i guess. the 4.5 yr old i talk about cannot play for even a minute without being completely directed by ME. it takes alot of time, energy, and attention away from not only the routine tasks i need to complete (diaper changes, preparing lunch), but attention from the other children as well, and thats not fair to them. no one else can have my attention, or even sit on my lap, as she interjects herself. she expects 100% of the attention to be on her. i have tried repeatedly to engage her in many different activites, (for months) only to have her follow me as soon as i walk away. i cant even change a diaper without her whinning that i need to play with her. at 4.5 yrs old, i do feel she is too old for that type of behavior, and will continue now to tell her to "go play toys". she will be in kindy come fall, in a class of 20, not the 6 i have here. she needs to learn she's not the only one in the "group". i still pay attention to her, engage her, and love her up. but i'm not going to allow her to take that away from the others.

besides, my lap is big enough for everyone.
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DCMomOf3 05:34 AM 02-23-2011
Nan - have you ever had twins? I have a set right now that won't stay out of each others pockets but also are more apt to be rough with each other. I don't have a set up with nice small play areas it's more of an open concept. I separate but they just go back like magnets.
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nannyde 05:40 AM 02-23-2011
Originally Posted by SilverSabre25:
So, nanny, may I ask what you and your assistant are doing while the kids are playing? Do you guys stand around and monitor the activity, or...? I'm curious because I don't play with my kiddos much (except to intervene in squabbles and suggest alternatives when someone's having troubles) but I find that I get very mind-numbingly bored out of my gourd if I just stand/sit and watch them for hours on end...
We get stuff done. We do food program, prep food, do laundry, clean toys, do sewing for our picking shirts/sweatshirts, do receipts, clean out velcro, sharpen pencils, brush the brown pup and the white pup with one black eye, rotate toys, text parents, take video, work on photo section of the website, check stock for consumables, check safety of the toys (visual inspection of all surface areas of ALL toys) ....... whatever needs to be done for the household or business. Every day is different.

We want to make sure we get everything humanly possible done while the kids are up playing so we can have breaks when they are not here or sleeping.
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nannyde 05:58 AM 02-23-2011
Originally Posted by DCMomOf3:
Nan - have you ever had twins? I have a set right now that won't stay out of each others pockets but also are more apt to be rough with each other. I don't have a set up with nice small play areas it's more of an open concept. I separate but they just go back like magnets.
No

For the cost of paying me for two babies they could have a nanny. I rarely get sib groups. I have only had one private pay sib group in my career that lasted more than three months. I don't take State now so it would be odd for me to have two kids from one family.
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littlemissmuffet 07:18 AM 02-23-2011
Originally Posted by daycare:
I am in the middle on this one... Yes i believe 100 % that the kids need to learn to lead themself and allow for one of the children or several of the children to be a leader to their friends, while still playing activley with their peers.

However, there are often times I will also get super silly put on a puppet show, get on the floor and play house or allow the kids to be the leader and just play with them. I feel it is important to connect with them while they are in my care and it helps me build that special bond that I have with each and every one of them. Sometimes they will come and ask me to play with them and this melts my heart, as I know that they not only see me as the adult in charge, but their friend.

I would say that I may play with them about an hour total through out the day, not including teaching time...
This is pretty much where I am with this as well.
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Jenjo 07:30 AM 02-23-2011
Thanks for all of the comments. I agree with all of you children need to work through their own play and not be entertained. I do use the "go Play toys" and find it does work quite well most of the time. The hardest are my SA kids. Only three more months and then no more SA kids.
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MyAngels 07:30 AM 02-23-2011
Originally Posted by nannyde:
No

For the cost of paying me for two babies they could have a nanny. I rarely get sib groups. I have only had one private pay sib group in my career that lasted more than three months. I don't take State now so it would be odd for me to have two kids from one family.
I think I'm thread-jacking, sorry , but I'm curious, are all of the kids that you have only children, or do their sibs attend a different daycare? I've had endless rounds of siblings through the years, and occasionally wish that was not the case.

To answer the OP - the older the kids get it seems the more they want to be entertained, which I've never understood. I'm with Nannyde, though, I provide a great play area and good supervision, but rarely "play" with the children in my care.
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nannyde 07:58 AM 02-23-2011
Originally Posted by MyAngels:
I think I'm thread-jacking, sorry , but I'm curious, are all of the kids that you have only children, or do their sibs attend a different daycare? I've had endless rounds of siblings through the years, and occasionally wish that was not the case.

To answer the OP - the older the kids get it seems the more they want to be entertained, which I've never understood. I'm with Nannyde, though, I provide a great play area and good supervision, but rarely "play" with the children in my care.
only children mostly

Once the second child is born they either leave or leave after three months of day care payments.

I've had a number who thought they could afford two but about the third month they realize they can have private care for that amount.

I've only had one full time private pay sib group that lasted more than three months.
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Sprouts 07:34 AM 04-12-2011
Originally Posted by nannyde:
I use a buddy system of play where the kid with the greatest skill with whatever toy collection we have out is teamed up with the kid or kids with lesser skill. That way the kids teach the kids. I have enough of each set to have many kids playing with the same thing at the same time in almost all of our sets. I have enough "key" pieces to give everyone enough to go to town.

Right now my 22 mo old dcg is freakishly good at castle building. We have a quadruple set of these: http://www.melissaanddoug.com/castle...googleshopping and she can build pretty elaborate structures. Since she's the best at it... whenever she wants to get her "castle" on I team her up with one of the other kids. They learn from her and then they pass it to the next one.

Whatever they are good at they teach. This keeps the adults OUT of it other than calling the kids who aren't so good at it over to the kid who IS good at it.

We do this with all of our main sets. We have enough toys to really DO "go play toys" so they can get really good at many different types of self play.

The ones who are great toy pickeruperers are teamed with the ones who aren't so great. They are the ones who make sure it's a team effort. The oldest kid on each side of the rooms is responsible for checking to make sure everything is back in it's place and it's done properly before they say they are done. The oldest in the house checks the younger kids side.

We have six right now with a new baby coming in a couple of weeks. The six kids are 22 mo to 4.5 years old. They can all talk and they can all clean. They rotate around each other and can be mixed and matched at the drop of a hat to do anything with any of the other kids. They have grown up together and usually by the end of the day they have all been teemed up with each of the other five kids for some type of play.

That system works for us. I don't allow best friends or selective friends as play mates. I want them all to play with same age... older.. and younger. If one of them starts preferring one kid over the other then we keep them apart for a week or two and get them in the swing of things with the other kids. Preference to one child weakens our system and shows a weakness in that child so we don't allow it. It almost always means the preferred child is the most entertaining (usually the oldest) to the one who is preferring. We don't want their play choice on them being entertained. Once they want to be entertained we rotate them to the child or children who is the least entertaining to them so they learn to be the ENTERTAINER. Being the entertainer strengthens the child and their play and makes our system work.

It sounds like it may be time consuming for the adults but really the whole adult interaction to make the system work is two/three minutes a day total. My staff assistant and I can see and correct in seconds and know when the right time is to switch things up. It requires so little adult involvement that the kids net a full day of calm broad play with all of the kids in the house.

They don't need an adult actually playing with them but my group does need an adult supervising and conducting their play so it flows without a hitch and everyone gets a great day of play under their belt by the time they go home. While we are supervising their play we can get everything done that we need to do for the business and for my home. As soon as the kids go down for a nap or walk out the door at the end of the day we are completely done with everything we need to do because we have time to get everything done while they are up.

If we played with them we would have to do a lot of the non direct care tasks while they were sleeping or gone and that would require higher fees. Our system nets happy adults, happy kids, EXCELLENT students when they go off to school and everything gets done day after day... week after week... decade after decade..

I hear about the "I play with kids" approach and really wonder how many providers survive past the first few years of doing day care. I've never tried it and know I would fail miserably at it immediately. I have read that the turnover for home day care is pretty high and the average provider only lasts a couple of years. I wonder how entertaining/playing with the kids relates to burn out and the short life span of the average home provider.

I know "I' couldn't last six months doing that. I'm almost to my second decade of doing home care and if my job was to play with the kids I would burn out within weeks. I don't have the skill set to play with kids.

I have mucho appreciation of the "professional child care providers" who do DAP and play and educate kids. I'm just better at being a babysitter. Deciding to just be a babysitter has been the single most important business decision I have made in my child care career. It's what's made me last for SO long in this business when the odds are so highly stacked against long term success.
This is awesome, I love how you explain it so clearly! U need to gather up all of your advice and write a how to book, SERIOUSLY
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AnythingsPossible 08:32 AM 04-12-2011
Originally Posted by nannyde:
only children mostly

Once the second child is born they either leave or leave after three months of day care payments.

I've had a number who thought they could afford two but about the third month they realize they can have private care for that amount.

I've only had one full time private pay sib group that lasted more than three months.
Do you have extremely high turn over rate, or does it just work out that your families don't have multiple children? In 9 years I have only had 2 families that had only one child, or had their multiple children spaced out enough to only have 1 in daycare at a time. If it were my daycare, I would be losing families every 2 years!
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nannyde 08:34 AM 04-12-2011
Originally Posted by AnythingsPossible:
Do you have extremely high turn over rate, or does it just work out that your families don't have multiple children? In 9 years I have only had 2 families that had only one child, or had their multiple children spaced out enough to only have 1 in daycare at a time. If it were my daycare, I would be losing families every 2 years!


No I don't have high turnover rate. The average kid here is here for 3 years eight months. Many of my kids are here from birth to five but sometimes we loose one to moving.

I had sibling groups when I took state paid but finding private pay that can afford my rates is pretty tough.
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MsMe 09:53 AM 04-12-2011
We have two sometimes three hours of free play a day. The rest of the time is story-time, group activites. I don't one on one play with the kids but I am normaly directing an activity or leading educational projects. I am burning out after seven years. I felt this way once before @4 years. I scaled back my involvment for a few weeks and took a nice long tropical vacation. I see another in my future very soon It is my policy NOT to do laundry, paperwork, or extra work during daucare hours. I assumed doing so would upset the parents. So not only and i open 50 hours a week I do no less than 2 hours of daycare 'work' outside of work a day.....it makes for a LONG week.


On another note I have almost all sibling groups. Full time ones at that. I sometimes feel bad when I take a check for nealry $300 a week from families, but they never complain and one family is tring to have a thrid that they will also send full time (oldest will be in Kinder but then) I only have one only child out of 12 families and they informed me this week they will start trying this summer for a 2nd! I LOVE siblings bc it is job security!
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cheerfuldom 09:59 AM 04-12-2011
I have never had anything but only children in my 4 years of daycare. I don't know that I have ever even interviewed for a sibling set. My own two girls (soon to be three) are the only siblings here. Sometimes I feel bad for adopting the "go play toys" method but this thread makes me feel better about that. I do a lot of multi tasking and all the kids are very independent from an early age. It is very against what the current parenting style is or so I have noticed. I think all of my current kids are very fussy and needy and clingy at home but they aren't like that here (well maybe a little on Monday morning). As soon as the mommies walk thru the door, even the 2.5 year old wants to be picked up, wants the binky, starts sobbing dramatically and acting like they can't follow a simple direction.
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nannyde 10:47 AM 04-12-2011
Originally Posted by LLD:
It is my policy NOT to do laundry, paperwork, or extra work during daucare hours. I assumed doing so would upset the parents. So not only and i open 50 hours a week I do no less than 2 hours of daycare 'work' outside of work a day.....it makes for a LONG week.
It is my policy to do laundry, paperwork, and any extra cleaning work not only when the kids are here but specifically when they are UP and playing. That way naptime and as soon as they leave we can be done.

I do cook during nap and on the weekends for the day care and for my family. I don't mind doing that. I like to have all the meals done in advance.

Whatever the kids can do we have them do. They all have chores in the house and one of them is folding laundry. We start them out folding bibs (one fold), then rags (two folds), then if they are REALLY good at it we graduate them to "sock sorter". That's a highly sought after position in my house. The oldest in the house if the GOPHER.. they go for everything we need between the two levels in the house. The oldest is also the supervisor of the toy clean up in all the toy areas. The oldest also helps the littles with their coats, shoes, socks etc.

They also wipe toys down, set the table, stock diapers, clean up the table, run dishes, pour cups of liquids, peel carrots, dusting cabinets, etc. As soon as they are old enough to walk steady they work. They understand WE have to work too and play alongside us working without a hitch.

We are a "pack" and the pack has to work. To me, it's good for the kids to be a part of that work and to see us work. I think it's good for them to know when we need them to tend to themselves so we can do stuff they can't do.
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cheerfuldom 11:24 AM 04-12-2011
If a parent got upset about me doing laundry, paperwork or cleaning during daycare hours, they can go to another daycare. I did have one family give me the eye about this type of thing, needless to say, their child was most spoiled child I have ever cared for and he ended up getting termed. A lot of what I am doing during the day IS for the kids, the rest of it is just normal household chores. If they have a problem with that, then they have a problem with me. That said, I don't cook elaborate meals with all the appliances running because that does take away from the kids and I do plan things around when I know they will be happily occupied. Its not like they are neglected so I can shampoo the carpet or something.
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Sprouts 10:00 AM 04-13-2011
Originally Posted by nannyde:
It is my policy to do laundry, paperwork, and any extra cleaning work not only when the kids are here but specifically when they are UP and playing. That way naptime and as soon as they leave we can be done.

I do cook during nap and on the weekends for the day care and for my family. I don't mind doing that. I like to have all the meals done in advance.

Whatever the kids can do we have them do. They all have chores in the house and one of them is folding laundry. We start them out folding bibs (one fold), then rags (two folds), then if they are REALLY good at it we graduate them to "sock sorter". That's a highly sought after position in my house. The oldest in the house if the GOPHER.. they go for everything we need between the two levels in the house. The oldest is also the supervisor of the toy clean up in all the toy areas. The oldest also helps the littles with their coats, shoes, socks etc.

They also wipe toys down, set the table, stock diapers, clean up the table, run dishes, pour cups of liquids, peel carrots, dusting cabinets, etc. As soon as they are old enough to walk steady they work. They understand WE have to work too and play alongside us working without a hitch.

We are a "pack" and the pack has to work. To me, it's good for the kids to be a part of that work and to see us work. I think it's good for them to know when we need them to tend to themselves so we can do stuff they can't do.
do you prepare alll of the meals for the week? if so do you freeze them? what types of foods....i love the idea of everyone having a job it makes children so much more independent, i told my husband that is why we have kids!
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nannyde 10:28 AM 04-13-2011
Originally Posted by Mstein:
do you prepare alll of the meals for the week? if so do you freeze them? what types of foods....i love the idea of everyone having a job it makes children so much more independent, i told my husband that is why we have kids!
Yes I freeze bags of stews... meat, veggies, rice stews.

I also put up fruit sauce, veggie puree, etc.
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morgan24 10:30 AM 04-13-2011
I don't entertain either but I will move in and out of their play. If they are having a tea party I will join for a little bit or I'll build with the blocks with them. I also do my paperwork, laundry, cook, clean sometimes they will help a little. I agree they need to see these things being done.

I volunteer at the school when I have the day off. I'm usually in the lower classes. Their are so many kids that can not do simple tasks for themselves or when they are doing centers they haven't a clue how to get started. The one class has 4 of my former dcks and when it's time to move on to the next thing they all do it smoothly and when it's time to get ready to go home they can pack their bags and put coats and boots on with out being directed. Most of the class needs help. We work on being able to do things for themselves from the time they start with me.
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PitterPatter 06:42 PM 04-28-2011
I do play with my DCKs. Not all day but I do interact with them a lot. Circle time I do the exercises right along with them. We learn a new song and steps every month and we usually make up the steps together. Music, same thing I use the rhythm sticks with them to teach dif beats and such. Blocks I play along to teach how to build and steady them for height. Even the cars I play with them showing how to build ramps and roadways set up stop signs etc. They love it when they are traveling down the road and I bring in the fire truck and sound the siren telling them to pull over. Sandbox teaching them the dif between wet and dry sand so they can build better and sift better. Even when I had older kids I helped with hopscotch and turning the jump rope etc. I don't think there is an activity where I haven't participated in. Back when I only had 1 kid in care he would have been bored to death had I not sat and played with him. Also I am a single Mom to an only child so if it wasn't for me getting on the floor and playing with him in his early years he wouldn't have had much fun or interaction.

I too do the food program, that takes me 5 minutes to do online. I do that and most of the cleaning, toy swaping, fixing etc all when the kids are gone. I will spot clean if a spill occurs and do lunch dishes when kids nap but other than that the big stuff like sweep and mop, dust, and vaccume all wait until evening. I guess that's why I am always so late to bed.

As for doing my own things during daycare time, I was actually told by the state monitor that my crocheting while children are in care would be frowned upon if I was actually caught doing it during daycare hours. He saw it laying on the couch when he came in. I explained I only do it while napping or after hours. He said they are "paying me to provide quality child care not knit blankets". It was CROCHET! I wanted to correct him just to be smart. lol
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