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Lyle Jameson

How To Make Your Daycare Program Stand Out
Advice, Tips & Information for Husbands
By: Lyle Jameson - M.Ed in Adaptive Special Education

Lyle shares ideas, tips, and advice on building a successful program and advice for husbands of family child care operators. Lyle teaches high incidence adaptive special education and partners with his wife Jessica at their own respected home child care business.

Create the best

While creating the best childcare program available for your market is a significant challenge, the upshot is worth the effort. Being the best gives you peace of mind that your business will always be in great demand because success and momentum feed off of each other.

For most parents, leaving their child in someone else’s care is always unsettling, however, having the child in a space where they get the most home-like experience eases the fear of being away from them for long periods of time. Family childcare centers are the most professional alternative and closest parents can get to provide their child with the most natural home experience.

Shopping around for quality care that offers all the components they consider necessary for their child is not an option, it is a necessity. Their child will spend exceedingly large amounts of time, during impressionable years in your care, therefore you need to make sure that it is a decision they feel great about and would recommend to anyone, and what’s best is they will! Information sharing and recommendations drive small local businesses like yours.

Daycare programs come in many forms and the characteristics that distinguish one program from another vary depending on size, the atmosphere they want to create the available service and experience, and the professional policies providers stick to. Although programs vary a parents expectations do not. Parents need to feel assured their children are cared for in a home that provides an opportunity to learn new skill sets and assists with reaching developmental milestones. Parents want to know their child is benefitting from the opportunity to interact, and develop their capabilities in social settings. More so, you want the childcare operation that you offer to instill confidence of your ability in the families who use your service.

Doing it right

You need to provide an excellent daycare experience that incorporates all the values of well-respected, established business models. It has to be a unique program, one that you have been very deliberate in crafting which creates an excellent experience for the families who use your service. You have to be guided by a sense of passion and see to it that your childcare operation is the best available, and the families find value and benefit in your service.
One resource for creating a unique program is setting up a greenhouse facility or garden, from which the children have the opportunity to learn and engage through planting, nurturing and harvesting vegetables. More than that another unique way to stand out is to raise chickens. The opportunity you provide to participate in light farm duties adds tremendous value to your service and a rich memorable learning experience for the children. To add to that, the foods grown from the same greenhouse are the best source of highest quality, low-cost nutritious meals. This experience is also useful for teaching ecofriendly responsible practices to the next generation.

Plan to provide a comprehensive and balanced pre-school curriculum which can be supplemented with additional low-cost teaching aids. Be sure to share with parents what skills you’re working on and send the finished products home. A great inexpensive resource is a journal for each child. Each day spend a couple minutes and provide the child with an idea, a color, or shape to draw or doodle about. When the journal is filled up send it home.
Another unique program feature that you can incorporate into your daycare experience for the kids is field trips, to complement the rote learning. If you can, plan for visits to parks, zoos, nature centers, science museums, and libraries. Bring your group as close as possible to the experiences that they’re seeing and learning about in books. Visiting community places and educational sites your town has to offer is usually inexpensive but most parents don’t mind budgeting for the field-trips because they see the value their child gets from them.

Never compromise on the list and quality of engaging and mentoring activities as well as fun learning moments you provide. Find new opportunities and toys for the children, even if that just means rotating your toys, or trading with other providers. Try to find toys and activities that match lessons in the curriculum you are teaching. Maintain professional cleaning practices to surpass basic hygiene and safety standards.
The best childcare facilities foster learning, create stations aligned with early childhood development recommended by the National Association for the Education of

Young Children to include:
1. Dramatic play center
2. Music center
3. Sand & water center
4. Art center
5. Block center
6. Science and nature
7. Manipulatives and table toys center
8. Book center

Don’t merely set up an environment that keeps the children busy or distracted, create a program that is rich with quality and value. Take into account the child’s need to reach new milestones, and gain new skills during critically impressionable years.

The business side

Create or outsource a website to showcase your program and service. A web presence is a useful tool for advertising your business and getting found in local directories. Be sure to provide information about yourself and what makes your program unique, and the best. Create an email sign up for families to join a waiting list when a spot becomes available. You can draft a single email to the list of potential families interested in your service and fill the spot effortlessly. Another component of an impressionable daycare is to liaison with a provider network which gives you a place where you can easily refer families needing care. Being the best doesn’t always mean you can enroll every family who contacts you, but you will benefit in the long run for taking a moment to refer them to other quality childcare options, who will do the same in return.

When meeting with prospective families let it be known that it is a mutual interview for them and you. Be willing to inform them whether you think their child will be a good fit for the environment and culture of your childcare home. Be clear and honest in advising parents of your policies and expectations. Everyone has a limit to what they can provide to their clients and you have your own, make sure they are understood in the interview. Let the parents know there are individual things for each child you are unable to do that perhaps a 1:1 nanny could. Although you have limitations make it known the level of care you provide is still superb. Their parents will thank you for your honesty.

Establish and maintain a consistent code of conduct and policy engagement with the kids and with the parents. The contract you create serves an important purpose for you and the families, make sure to follow your contract without exception. The modern family childcare provider is a highly organized professional entrepreneur. Be confident of your abilities and professionalism, it goes a long way to instill confidence about you in others and advance the professionalism in the field of childcare.
Following an outline of these practices will earn your program a reputation for quality so you can enjoy long waiting lists for a coveted spot in your care.

Also Read:

Starting a Daycare Business
A Husband's Role in Daycare
How To Make Your Daycare Program Stand Out
Grants For Your Daycare Program
Communication in Stressful Situations


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