Binney
20-01-2013, 09:51 PM
Hello! I have my home visit coming up soon and I am just trying to finalise the layout of my setting. I will be caring for 0-5s and am very fortunate to have a decent amount of space to work with. To give you a brief overview - I have a lounge/dining room (used to be two rooms but wall knocked through) and a conservatory adjoining it. I figured I'd use the lounge area for quiet activities - there's a little table and chairs and a play pen in there too. Dining room - dining table for meals and baking/cooking activities as well as a home corner with a play kitchen and a reading corner with a bookshelf and beanbags, etc. Conservatory is the main playroom - toys, play tent, art easel etc with adjoining WC and doors leading out in to the garden - sand and water table, slide and I'm going to get a playhouse, swing and start a growing patch too.
I also have a spare bedroom upstairs and was wondering whether or not to use it to enhance the service I provide. I initially thought it would make a lovely little sleep room - I could use black out blinds, put up cots, etc. I'd intended to have travel cots that I'd put up in the living room at nap times and take down afterwards. But if I had a 'sleep room' it would be separate from the play areas and designed to be calm and relaxing, assisting better sleep. Plus my son is on one nap a day but if I had a younger child on two or more naps a day, then I could make sure that they wouldn't wake each other. Cons - having to go up and down the stairs to check on them (its my policy to check them regularly for health and safety reasons) and negotiating differing floors with children napping at different times also. Perhaps it would be impractical?
I have also considered having it as a messy room used for specific activities like painting, messy play, etc.
Or, perhaps it would be better to keep the business contained downstairs and not use any of the upstairs rooms at all - would save having to negotiate stairs with the little ones and extra risk assessing and safety proofing?
I want to offer the best I can to potential clients, but also don't want to over-complicate things either.
I was hoping to get a few opinions/suggestions. If you're already registered, how do you handle differing nap times and where do the children in your care sleep? Do you use as much of your house as you can for the business, or contain it to a certain area?
Also - I will not be offering overnight care.
Sorry it's such a long one! Thanks in advance for your assistance.
I also have a spare bedroom upstairs and was wondering whether or not to use it to enhance the service I provide. I initially thought it would make a lovely little sleep room - I could use black out blinds, put up cots, etc. I'd intended to have travel cots that I'd put up in the living room at nap times and take down afterwards. But if I had a 'sleep room' it would be separate from the play areas and designed to be calm and relaxing, assisting better sleep. Plus my son is on one nap a day but if I had a younger child on two or more naps a day, then I could make sure that they wouldn't wake each other. Cons - having to go up and down the stairs to check on them (its my policy to check them regularly for health and safety reasons) and negotiating differing floors with children napping at different times also. Perhaps it would be impractical?
I have also considered having it as a messy room used for specific activities like painting, messy play, etc.
Or, perhaps it would be better to keep the business contained downstairs and not use any of the upstairs rooms at all - would save having to negotiate stairs with the little ones and extra risk assessing and safety proofing?
I want to offer the best I can to potential clients, but also don't want to over-complicate things either.
I was hoping to get a few opinions/suggestions. If you're already registered, how do you handle differing nap times and where do the children in your care sleep? Do you use as much of your house as you can for the business, or contain it to a certain area?
Also - I will not be offering overnight care.
Sorry it's such a long one! Thanks in advance for your assistance.