Day Care Plus...

                                 
                                                           


I started my home based daycare business in early 1990 when my oldest son was just 3 months old. My husband and I decided I would give it a try in order to stay home with our family.  I was so shocked when I learned how expensive daycare would be for us when we had Christopher.  I knew someone that worked with my husband that was going back to work and wanted a home based daycare for her baby.  I agreed to watch their little one. That's how Day Care Plus started...

I was certified after a couple of years in order to add kids to my daycare. I watched several kids and found for me the more the better I liked it. After a year or so I decided I could do this and bring in a pretty good salary while being at home with our kids as they grew up. Home based daycare is not for everyone - you have to love kids a lot and be able to work with parents as well. 

We had a ranch home with 3 bedrooms and a full basement.  At first I used the main level and would nap the kids throughout the bedrooms.  We had 3 boys of our own and I had several little munchkins running around as well.  Our yard was fenced in for safe outdoor playtime. Over the years we finished our basement and we moved the daycare to lower level only.  I had it sectioned off for nap time and playtime. I did daycare all day all year for 10 years in that house.  

We moved when my oldest was 10 to another town about 30 minutes from our first home. Of course, as we were looking for a new house I was scoping it out for daycare space as well.  We found a 4 bedroom colonial that would fit our family well and had a finished basement as well.  I could see daycare down there very easily.  We moved at the end of a school year so that our kids would finish school and the daycare families I was leaving behind would start fresh in the summer at their new daycare facilities.  After a couple of years we added a bathroom and kitchenette to the basement rec room which then allowed me to move the daycare to the basement.  I was licensed to do daycare in the basement after we added the regressed window.  I have done daycare for 10 years in the basement when I decided to go part time with daycare (meaning before and after school only). Now my daycare is run on my main level kitchen and family room. 

Benefits to running my home based daycare:

• be there for my kids they came home from school
• be there when they were sick
• available to do homework with them right after school so we could have our evening with daddy when he came home
• able to see what they were doing all day 
• control the amount of tv, computers and game devices during the day
• got to see all the "firsts" as they developed 
• got to take care of many many precious little ones over the years!

I have been blessed over the years with many little lives to care for and great relationships with the families. I have been asked would I do it again if given the chance? You bet I would!  I love kids and really enjoy watching them grow up!

Porky Beaver is Back!!

   

     The porky beaver is back!    Yes, I said porky beaver.   Several years ago my youngest son was outside by our shed getting his bike jumping ramp out. As I watched him from the window I noticed him pick up the ramp, drop it and run!  A few minutes later he was back with our neighbors kid (who mind you was several years younger).  He was encouraging him to grab the ramp from the side of the shed.  All of a sudden they were both running for the house. 
      Finally Tim came in and announced that there was a "porky beaver" in the back yard.   A what?   A porky beaver you know it's brown with a big tail.  He then proceeded to go to the computer to look it up to show me.  After quite a while of me just smiling at him and waiting to see what he was talking about I finally googled a picture of a ground hog.  Yep that's it!  



     Over the past few years the "porky beaver"  has lived under our shed,had babies,and every year we see a couple of them in the back yard. He stands on his hind legs and stretches to look around, but when he hears a noise he scoots quickly back to his den.