Hello!

I am a SAHM and am going to start babysitting other children in order to keep staying home with my 4 year old daughter, but still make some money. I am really looking forward to starting this, not only because I love children, but because it will give my daughter someone to play/interact with too! I already have a couple potential parents referred to me by friends.

I have been trying to find Home Daycare Forms on the internet to alter and print off (i.e. Agreement, Medical Release, Emergency Contact, etc.), but I haven't found any good ones that don't want $39.95 for them.

Can anyone refer me to a good website that I can obtain the forms I need for Free?

I would also like to find a good website that offers activity ideas for infants and pre-schoolers.

Can some of you tell me if you're using a Home Daycare for your children...
Approx. how much you're paying?
Did you have to put down a deposit?
Do you get a discount for more than one child?
Are meals included?

Thanks you so much for your help!
Kari

a good website would be abcteach.com
if you type in free teacher samples it will give you a list of good websites and cant remember them all i use to go to school for this and i found these very heplful

I provide home daycare for two families, and I can at least answer your last few questions! I can also tell you that it is 110% worth your investment to follow through with making sure all the paperwork is signed by both you and the parents. It saves SO many headaches!!
For pay...a lot on the board say I am cheap, but I get paid $20-25 a day. That is a little less than average, but my deal is that I do not claim it on taxes this way. Plus, both parents are good about bringing in snacks to share once in a while, etc. I provide a morning snack, lunch, and an afternoon snack. Make sure you do say that they provide ALL diapers, wipes, formula, babyfood, etc. for little ones...and then once they hit big kid food, add in $5 a week more to their fee to cover some of the food costs. I do not charge a desposit at all. I do give a discount for more than one child...$10 off for the second child, $5 off for the third. However, right now, I am keeping two "only" children.
HTH...and feel free to ask any questions. I did this as a licensed provider for 5 years, keeping 6 kids full time and 6 more afterschool! I would not ever do it again to that extreme, but I cannot complain about bringing in $200 a week while also being able to stay at home with my own!

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I made my own forms so I can't refer you to a website for it. BUT www.enchantedlearning.com is the best website out there for free printables.
Also I'm in NOVA too, prices are higher here than in other parts of the country. I get paid $40-50 a day for the 1st child $30-40 for the 2nd child (higher range is for babies). I include meals, they provide baby food/formula/wipes/diapers if needed. Right now I'm watching 2 preschoolers so we don't need any of that.
I did not charge a deposit although some do. I also don't charge them for when they don't come or sick or vacation, although most providers do charge anyway a flat fee per week. I get paid every two weeks and if they miss a day then we just subtract that from the next payment. I have been licensed before but I'm not now. I am updated on all CRP/First Aid certifications and if you have more than 6 kids in your home in VA you HAVE to be certified. I'm only watching 2 for a friend so I didn't deal with that. I provide curriculum, which since we homeschool I already had, so that works out well and I already have a huge awesome playroom since I have 3 kids. It works out very well for me and the kids! Good Luck

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A woman is like a teabag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.-Eleanor Roosevelt

I also am also starting home daycare come summer. That is when we are moving. I also have referrals from friends. I am charging $25/day for one kids full time, $10 before and after school and if they have additional kids I will negotiate with them. I figure that alot of them I will be able to work with them on price.
I never thought about a contract of some type since I am not doing it as licensed. But that might not be a bad idea. Meals/snacks I was going to include except for babies. They would then provide formula and baby food and of course diapers! Mine is still in the works too. Feel free to contact me about anything. I would love to have someone to discuss this with especially when I get into a loophole!

Good Luck!

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~~Sonja~~

My 3lynns~ Ashlynn-8, Brooklyn-4 and Kaylin-3

Hi Kari,
I also provide childcare from home, but I'm not licensed because of the number of kids I have-I don't need to be. I actually just got off the phone with my accountant about deductions, etc. for the use of my house. I AM taking taxes out, per request of the parents I have as clients. The upside is that I can deduct a lot from my household expenses, utilities, car, food, etc. in a percentage format.

They are actually both friends/former co-workers and are teachers, so the hours are pretty good (7-4:15). I do get paid for vacations, and took Christmas week off. They will bring their kids here, sporadically, during the other two vacations this year. I also get paid for days they opt not to bring their kids, whether they're sick, or other reasons. Most places are like that, so it's not unusual. I did come up with a contract, it's fairly basic, but I'd HIGHLY recommend one. I think I just Googled Home Daycare or something like that, and got a few great sites. I just can't think of them right now. I know I printed a contract off that I based mine on.

I charge by the week and give a discount for siblings. I also do not charge a deposit, I provide breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack. They provide diapers, and add to our "community" wipes supply. I still have to figure out what I'm going to do about charging for the summer, as the kids will be at home, but will return in the fall. Another teacher friend of mine (in rural Vermont) pays full tuition at a home for the summer, but doesn't bring her two kids at all. Some people don't charge at all. I just don't know. It would be a HUGE change to NOT have an income for two months!!! I just don't have enough $$ saved to get by for the summer....I'm thinking about charging half. Plus, I will not have one of the girls, as she (and my dd) will go into K in the fall!

Enough for now, I hope this helped a little and I'll look for more to add or read about soon!

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~Jenn~

Your rates are right in the range of what I was thinking to charge, so I'm sure glad I received all of these replies, because I just got off the phone with a man looking for daycare for his 16 month old son (he was referred to me by my neighbor). He needs someone from 6:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m. and said he is currently paying $100/week. He said she supplies lunch and snacks and he supplies diapers, etc. Is that insane or what??? For a 12 hour day, that only comes out to about $1.66/hour or $19.92 per day. That seems incredibly low to me!

Thank you all for your replies and great advice! I'm going to keep working on the necessary forms and spreading the word to neighbors and friends (we're from Michigan, so we don't have family here) that I am looking to babysit and hopefully something better will develop.

I thought about posting an ad in the local newspaper, but personally I wouldn't answer an ad for someone to watch my daughter, so I didn't think this would work well.

Any more tips would be greatly appreciated!
Have a wonderful day!
Kari

I don't use daycare anymore but I did when the girls were little. I have said that I thought the ladies on the board charge really cheap rates but thats only because my girls are 14 and 16 and I paid over a 100.00 a week per girl over 10 years ago. BUt with that said I do live across the country and I guess we pay more here! Not a big surprise there!
When I was looking for daycare we would go through a referral service provided by employer(Big Corporate Bank) I believe a lot of corporations do this. To me it just gave me a starting point. We only went with liscenced cuz at that time that was the only way we could deduct our daycare costs. I don't know if this is true or not anymore.
My daycare was wonderful (as I am sure the ladies on this board have) She was warm and caring and was a grandma so I was always able to get good advice and helpful hints from her. She even made their halloween costumes and halloween bags. The girls adored her and we were sad when we moved farther out and didn't see her anymore.
I know my thoughts probably weren;t as helpful as those from the ladies that have daycare, but I wanted you to think about calling other daycares so you get an idea of a prevailing rate in your town, I'm sure I would have paid more even then to keep our daycare lady. She was that wonderful!

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Karen

I'm not a childcare provider, but I just started using one and I am in Mechanicsville, VA, so I thought I would tell you what pay...

The place I take Kaylee to has 2 adults and about 10 kids. They are licensed. They provide wipes, cribs/matress, meals/babyfood. I provide diapers, breastmilk (or formula), era clothes and a blanket. It is $145 for a week for an infant and I think it decreases when they get older. The large child care centers are $180 and up.

I didn't have to pay a deposit, but I had to start paying the weekly rate to get the spot. (Which I didn't see as a big deal as I could take her a couple of days to get errands done and get used to being away from baby.) She takes two weeks unpaid vacation and a I think 7 or so major paid holidays. I pay for a whole week no matter if the child is there or not. Also, I don't think there is a discount for having more than one child, although the large centers had one.

Oh, and I chose licensed because I could use a Dependent Child Care account through my work using pre-tax dollars.

I think my SIL used an un-licensed childcare provider off of Nuchols Rd and it was $150 for her infant but she took her child out as they had too many kids. They weren't keeping a close enough eye on him. They allowed him to crawl to a swing with a baby in it, stand up, and bite the child....he was a biter, but didn't have nearly as many incidents at the next daycare she took him too as they watched him pretty close.

Hope this helps!

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Mom to Kaylee (10/2006)
Waiting on our second bundle of joy to arrive January 2009!

Oh, and I don't know if this will help but this is a link to the forms used by licensed centers in VA

http://www.dss.virginia.gov/facility.../fdh/forms.cgi

My contract that said when hours were, what I would pay, sick policy, etc was just something that the care provider typed up with a signature and date line at the bottom.

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Mom to Kaylee (10/2006)
Waiting on our second bundle of joy to arrive January 2009!