School Schedule?

[Sparkles]

Does anyone follow a school schedule? I'm really wanting to do this. I only have a couple kids who belong to teachers, but I'm so burnt out and hating getting up in the morning I have so much going on with our other business, family life, etc. that it's very overwhelming to run a daycare, too. Between fussy kids, frustrating clients, I'm just ready to downsize and fade out 😅

[Annalee]

Does anyone follow a school schedule? I'm really wanting to do this. I only have a couple kids who belong to teachers, but I'm so burnt out and hating getting up in the morning I have so much going on with our other business, family life, etc. that it's very overwhelming to run a daycare, too. Between fussy kids, frustrating clients, I'm just ready to downsize and fade out 😅

I follow the school schedule with Holidays; I close half-week for spring/fall break; I close weather-related according to the school, etc. but I do NOT close for the summer....just take my own vacations/holidays for summer. My pay is 52 weeks per year for teachers or whoever is enrolled here!

[GirlMomma]

I follow some federal holidays the school takes,
I close for snow days, not two hour delays, and I close a week for Christmas break.

Federal holidays are paid, my vacations and Christmas break are not. It’s not common in my area - but I plan to go to a 52 week paid program in the next few years.

[SandBox]

I don’t. My area is a lot of medical and office or computer/IT/software engineer workers. It seems I get the 3 of those the most. And they just don’t get off much. Just the typical holidays and 1 weeks a year of vacation. It would be a real pain for most of the families I’ve had if I went by school schedule.

I think you can still do it though if you want. They will figure it out. I’ve heard of lots of providers taking a long break in the summer months.

[Blackcat31]

We have several providers in my area that are only open during the school year and follow the school calendar. They cater to mostly school teachers as there aren't many regular child care providers that are willing to take school teachers because...well because of many reasons. I am one that won't take school teachers if I can avoid it. I've never once had one follow through and stay/pay all summer and 99.9% of them complain about having to pay during any school break even though they knew it was a requirement when signing on. Also IME, most school teacher kids/parents are right up there on the annoying level of nurses/doctors and therapists kids/parents.

[BaileeB]

THIS!!!! Lol I have 2 DCMs that are teachers. One is 8th grade math and she’s the one I’m always complaining about. The other is a preschool teacher for 3+. The preschool teacher is super sweet and appreciative and always bringing donations from my wishlist but she still doesn’t seem to like my policy about paying for breaks and my vacation days 😬

[BeeNature]

Hi, I've been visiting this site for awhile, but just now registered. I thought I would reply since I've been gradually following the school calendar more and more each year. I have 4 teacher families now and will hopefully be able to go to the academic calendar full time including this coming up summer. My two oldest just don't jive as well with the young kiddos like they used to, and I'm tired of being stuck at home the whole summer. This last summer I took Fridays off as well as a weeks vacation and it was so nice. I also didn't have any young infants to care for which helped. If I'm open this coming up summer I will probably just watch my two oldest kids friends, who are school age and we can be able go places. I just need the frequent breaks throughout the year now to keep from getting burned out. I plan to keep doing daycare at least until my youngest starts kindie in 4 years. With teachers I only charge for days they are required to work, whether their child is here or not. They pay $5 more per day($25 more for a full week) compared to the other families to help compensate the loss of income for the breaks. I just figure up how much I need to make a year and that's what I base my rates off of. If you are able to switch to an academic calendar I wouldn't hesitate to try it out. I figured I needed to either swing to an academic calendar or go to a 4 day work week to keep doing this line of work, as I've been feeling overwhelmed with the lack of free time I have for myself and my family. There are a few providers in my area who provide care for teachers and seem to be able to stay in business. The teacher families I've had have been wonderful to work with!