How to Work at Home as a Child Care Provider
Why Start a Family Home Child Care Center?
If you have small children or enjoy working with children, starting a home daycare may be the ideal job for you. You will have the benefits of working at home. In your home child care center, you can earn money and be there for your kids at the same time.
Home daycare is one of the most lucrative home based businesses for a mom with small children. It costs money to work outside the home. Daycare is expensive, especially if you have more than one child. Not everyone is eligible for a child care subsidy. Transportation to and from work can be costly, as can buying clothing for your job. Many women feel that they do not make enough money to cover the cost of daycare. Why not stay at home and make the money that you would have paid out for child care?
You will be performing a valuable service to your community. You will also meet a lot of nice families, and get some new playmates for your children.
You do not need a lot of money to start up a daycare. In fact as home based businesses go, childcare is an inexpensive one to start if you have children already. Your home is already childproofed and you have lots of toys and equipment to share. If there is anything else you need, most baby and toddler items can be found at garage sales and thrift shops. You can also borrow or rent what you need.
Of course, taking care of other people's children all day is not for everyone. Take this quiz to see if you are suited for this line of work:
Would you make a good home child care provider?
view quiz statisticsHow to Start Working as a Home Child Care Provider
So how did you do? If the quiz revealed that you should give daycare a try, and you agree, there are a few things you will need to do before you get started.
The first thing I recommend is to affiliate yourself with your local Child Care Society, if there is one in your city. You will get good advice on how to begin. Each province has its own rules and regulations on what you must have to run a daycare in your home, and your Childcare Society will know what you need to do.
Here in British Columbia, (I am sure it is similar everywhere) you need to do the following things before you can get registered to provide daycare:
- be at least 19 years of age
- get your first aid certificate
- have your home inspected for safety
- have your yard fenced in
- get two character references
- get a health reference signed buy your doctor
- criminal background check for you and anyone 12+ living in the house
- commit to at least 6 hours of training per year
Once that's done, you will officially be a Registered License not Required (LNR) childcare provider. You can now take in two children, plus your own. If you want to go all the way and become a fully licensed daycare, there are more hoops to jump through. I am not sure of them all, as I have not taken this final step, but I know it involves getting a business license, more inspections and more paperwork. It can take anywhere from 6 months to a year to get fully licensed. In the meantime you can try it out with two children and see how it feels.
And that is how you can start to work at home as a childcare provider.