Balance work and home life can be challenging. Men and women with home based businesses and young children are faced with the challenge of juggling the tasks involved in maintaining their career and successfully running a household.

This issue is one that many daycare providers or those that own childcare centers face.  Fortunately, there are many strategies that can help maintain this balance successfully. Lesley Pyle, founder and president of the National Association of Home-Based Working Moms describes the pros and cons of being a stay at home parent in part 2 of this informative interview.

OwnADaycare: What are some pros and cons of being a stay at home parent versus being in the workforce?

Lesley Pyle: Staying at home has the obvious advantage of allowing moms to be there for her children, having time to do things for your family and your home. You also have the advantage of being the one who has more input into developing your children’s values and morals. You are able to save money on childcare, gasoline, clothing, etc. On the downside, you are sacrificing your ability to earn a salary, business skills may suffer and you likely will have less adult interaction.

Being in the workforce has the opposite pros and cons. Moms who have a job are able to bring in income. They also are not able to spend as much time with their children and give up some ability to shape their morals and values. (more…)

Balancing work and home life can be challenging. Men and women with home based businesses and young children are faced with the challenge of juggling the tasks involved in maintaining their career and successfully running a household.

This issue is one that many daycare providers or those that own childcare centers face.  Fortunately, there are many strategies that can help maintain this balance successfully. Lesley Pyle, founder and president of the National Association of Home-Based Working Moms provides a host of strategies for working parents in this informative interview.

OwnADaycare: What are some suggestions that can help women balance work and home life?  Specifically, how can working women help mornings run more smoothly?  How can they make the most of their time in the evenings? And how can they effectively manage relationships with caregivers and improve school involvement?

Lesley Pyle: Develop a schedule.

• Decide what hours you will work and what hours you will have for yourself and your family. Try to stick to this plan.
• Use a time management planner with to-do lists to plan your day, prioritize your tasks and keep you on track.
• Make sure you plan for time with your kids and plan for time with your spouse. Plan time for at least a couple of date nights with your spouse each month too.

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Home daycare providers can cut costs by finding daycare forms online. Contracts, policies, authorization forms, permission slips, daily reports, and other forms are critical to daycare business administration. Rather than creating forms from scratch, owners of child day care centers can print out important forms and customize them.

Consider the following resources for free and for cost daycare and preschool forms:

Free Daycare Forms

Supporting Providers:  Free forms, pintables, articles, and much more for your daycare business. Forms include business forms, registration forms, contracts, policies, reports, logs, health and medical forms, and authorization forms.

Step By Step Childcare: Step by Step Childcare provides free accident reports, accounting reports, sample brochures and flyers, business cards, contracts, daily reports, and daily schedules.

The Daycare Lady:   A wealth of free daycare business forms in Microsoft Word or PDF format, organized alphabetically. (more…)

A child care contract assures that there are no misunderstandings between you and your clients. It also protects you and your business from potential litigation. The contract states requirements and policies that both you and your clients must follow. A daycare contract form should include at least the following:

Hours of Operation: List the days and hours your child care center will be open for business.  Also detail any holidays you will be closed or any other days that the child day care center will be closed, if applicable.

Fees and Payments:  State the fees per week or month. Be explicit about whether or not sick days, holidays and vacation days are paid days. Some things to consider and disclose: When are weekly and month fees due? What are the consequences if fees are unpaid? (Termination? Suspension? ) How much will you charge for returned checks? How many returned checks will you allow before the client must pay in cash? (more…)

In today’s economic climate, finding quality childcare at a low price is a necessity, but it is also a challenge. For single parents and families in which both parents work, childcare is a necessity. But what do you do if you’re unemployed or can’t afford child care services? A childcare co-op is a good, affordable alternative to sending your child to a child care center or hiring a daycare provider.

What is a Child Care Co-op?

Child care or babysitting co-ops (cooperatives) are alternative child care situations in which participants exchange time and services rather than money. Some child care co-ops are formed from small groups of friends or neighbors, or some may be organized by groups of families that are unfamiliar with each other.

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One of the seemingly easy ways to gain additional income is by opening your own home day care center. With home day care, you only need your own house as the center for kids and some tools needed for caring toddlers and kids. Though it appears so easy, home day care business can be difficult or easy depending on how you set it up. To guide you in establishing this kind of business, here are some of the things you need to consider:
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Having a home day care of your own and operating it as a business isn’t easy. Most of the time you find yourself wearing many hats: nurse, chef, chauffeur, teacher, mediator, counselor, bookkeeper, referee… and that’s all before morning snack!
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One tough choice you have to put together when starting a home daycare industry is what your daily agenda will look like. What hours must you be open? When must you serve snacks and meals? How should you construct your day? These can be hard questions, but this guide can help you think through the factor that should affect these decisions and assist you to establish the right timetable for your method of care.
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Every individual who is able to spend one whole day with not just one child but several of them can definitely be considered to have a pretty brave soul. Even more, those people who decide on starting this type of business is even more worth commending and acknowledging. Although a daycare business is pretty much reputable, what do you think does the IRS think of such type of small business? The IRS looks at daycares as potential cash cows, as how they do with other small businesses out there.
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Crafts and games for children in home daycare that will teach the skills they need for school.

Home daycare activities are necessary in keeping your home daycare running smoothly as well as in ensuring that you are able to educate the children as well as give them a fun time they could definitely enjoy. There are countless ideas when it comes to various daycare activities you can provide your children with and here are some that have be successfully tried out and have created successful impact to children.
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