The first thing you should do if you want to start a daycare, before even soliciting working mothers, is to check your local education department for licensing requirements and insurance needs. You should, by yourself, be able to care for up to ten children at one time. To keep the children happy and occupied you should have a supply of children’s books and games, and, if possible, outdoor equipment like slides and swings. Small classified ads promoting your service in the local newspaper should be enough to draw a number of inquiries. The usual charge for this kind of service comes to about $2 or $3 per hour per child. This means you could gross as much as $30 an hour with almost no overhead. Working mothers will be expected to bring their children to your home in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon. You may provide lunch for the children, but many small, private day care centers ask that children bring their own lunch, and this has not proven to be too much of a hardship for the working mothers.

Once you have a “full house,” you will be in a position to earn anywhere from $300 a week on up. Of course, you have to like children and children will have to like you. It is not easy to supervise a group of children. You will probably be tired at the end of the day. Your business could grow from a home day care center into a larger number of centers with a staff that you train. The idea is to keep your fees reasonable enough so that it is worthwhile for a working mother to pay to have her child watched and still earn money from her own work.

An important feature of your business, especially at the beginning, should be a willingness on your part to watch children for as little as an hour or two at an hourly rate of $3.00 while the parent shops or keeps an appointment. Don’t commit yourself only to full day watching of children. Be flexible, be understanding, and make the environment you are creating one which children will want to return to whenever their parents must go out. Bear in mind, of course, we are talking about preschool children, so that it will not be a necessary for you to offer any kind of classroom instruction. The degree of versatility you are ready to offer will really depend on how much energy you wish to put into the center itself.

Keeping kids safe when they leave the house for school every day is on every parents mind this time of year, here are some lessons your child needs to learn, before they head for the classroom. Your child should carry a maximum of 15% of their body weight in their backpacks. Check the pack for unnecessary items, consider having a second set of supplies at home so pencil cases, crayons, and other supplies do not need to be toted back and forth. Children riding the school bus should wait for the bus on the sidewalk and not approach the bus until the driver has come to a complete stop and has extended the stop arm. When getting off the bus and crossing the street, stay well in front of the bus so the driver can see that the child has crossed safely before they close the stop arm and proceed.

Many children who have their own cell phone have parents’ and emergency telephone number programmed as speed dials. While this is an important safety precaution always using speed dials mean that many children do not know their parents contact numbers. It is important that children have those numbers memorized in case their cell phone is not available and they need to contact you in an emergency. Most schools have implemented a program requiring guests to wear a visitors’ badge. If your child sees an unfamiliar adult in the school without a badge they should report it to a staff member.

Emergency drills at school need to be taken seriously. Your child needs to know where to go and what they should do in the case of an emergency. Many schools now practice lockdown drills in addition to fire and other emergency drills. Talk to your children about these drills to emphasize how important they are. Children who are home alone after school, no matter for how long, need to follow the rule “Never open the door”. When they arrive home, all doors should be locked behind them, and stay locked until a parent arrives. If someone comes to the door, no matter who it is, the door should not be opened.

School bullying is a serious safety issue that many parents have difficulty dealing with. If your child tells you they are being bullied, or about another child that is being bullied get involved. Don’t assume that it is just typical playground behavior that will work itself out. Make the school aware of the problem, it they do not deal with it request a meeting with the principal and the parents of the bully. If no action is taken, contact your local police station for advice.