Private Home Daycares vs Approved/Licensed

There are basically two options when it comes to daycares. Larger commercial daycare facilites and day homes. The day home daycares are either private or managed by a larger daycare centre’s called agencies. We are a private day home.

To be a licensed or approved day home would require us to change the dynamics of what we do drastically. “Approved” day homes are under the management of agencies. Approved day homes have to operate within certain child ratios that require the home to have a mixture of infants, toddlers and some school aged kids.

The current government system of subsidizing daycare placements gives authority to a “licensed family home child care agency” which often mandate that the home daycare maintains certain numbers of age groups such as: 2 infants, a maximum of only 1 toddler, and 3-4 children over the age of 3.  And they often impose on the day homes to take infants.

This ratio of children is not conducive to that atmosphere in which we try to maintain.  Infants require a much larger amount of care and attention, often at the expense of the other children’s attention and care.

Our Approach:

At Ayeshah’s Childcare Services our mission and the way we operate is to prepare young toddlers to transition into pre-school. We work with parents to transition them out of diapers and help develop positive social habits with their peers. So therefore we exclusively look after children ages 20 months at the earliest to 3.5-4 years of age at the oldest. 

This is a definitive age group where the child is learning and developing as toddlers.  We strive to maintain a peaceful atmosphere of learning and play that encourages and enables each toddler to develop their own coping skills, social skills and we encourage their eagerness to learn and prepare them for preschool.  A child that has been with us through their toddler years are more than prepared and ready for preschool.  They will have a knowledge and grasp of colours, counting, shapes, animals and various other knowledge sets that prepares them thoroughly for their journey into the school system. We nurture their independence and their thinking skills. This is much better achieved when the group of children that are interacting together are of the same age group.

It is our experience that caring for children of the same age group, ages 20-36 months, we can provide a nurturing and educational environment for the children with reliable routines and expectations that all the children adjust too.  Toddlers are developing and learning at a much faster rate than children under 18 months.  Keeping the group within this age bracket encourages and improves their social skills and coping skills.  By learning together within their age group, it encourages them to follow routines and learn positive behaviours. 

We believe that children should have a variety of healthy nutritious meals and we do provide healthy snacks twice a day. In our experience in running the daycare, we have found that trying to balance the good eaters from the fussy eaters, the parents expectations and developing good eating habits while trying to provide a common meal for 6 children can be quite challenging.  More often than not 6 fussy toddlers will inevitably mutually agree to eat Kraft Dinner or chicken nuggets 7 days a week rather than explore other food choices. Therefore we have the policy that the parents provide the lunch for their own children.  This also exposes the children to seeing their friends eat a variety of foods and encourages them to make other choices in their preferences. When the children bring their own lunch to daycare, they enjoy that connection they have with home while they eat what mom & dad brought for them. We encourage independence in eating by allowing them to serve themselves (within reason).

Every child has individual tastes and preferences that we simply cannot accommodate when it comes to serving several children, they simply do not like the same meal.  We also find that it is more common nowadays that parents have their own preferences/ dietary restrictions on what they want their children to eat. By packing your child’s lunch, you the parent, knows that their child is getting the nutrition that they regulate and can see how much the child is eating or not eating

So for all these reasons we have found that a lunch from home is much more beneficial for the child. “Approved” home daycares mandate that meals are provided and this goes against what we feel is better for the children and what is also cost prohibitive when it comes to operating a small day home. 

Approved home daycares and Subsidies:

The agencies which approve day homes are licensed by the Department just like a daycare center is. The day homes submit their attendance records to their agency, the agency submits the subsidy claim to the Department, the Department pays the Agency and then the Agency distributes it to their day home.  The red tape and delay in payment means the home daycare does not get paid until weeks after service has been provided.  This type of business methodology often means people take advantage of the dayhome and leave without paying their share at their will.  This is not good business practice and leaves the door open to the childcare provider being delayed in payment and taken advantage of.  Our policies are such that payment for service is paid in advance.

New Early Learning and Child Care Agreements:

There is much confusion on the government’s new initiative to restructure childcare services and provide cheap daycare. The government’s efforts to reduce childcare costs are aimed at low income families and mothers who need to enter the workforce. Reducing the cost of care is a critical goal, but a low fee for parents doesn’t necessarily translate into an enriching experience for children.

It is most likely that the goal of $10 a day child care will be administered through the current approved daycares and private daycares will not be subsidized.   That being said, it is unclear how the government proposes daycare fees to only cost $10.  Will they reimburse all daycares a set amount?  If daycare costs are $35 a day at one daycare and $45 a day at another, how does the government claim that daycare costs will be $10 at both daycares?  Does this mean imposing a cap on what a daycare provider can charge and thus imposing a reduction on their income?
We provide QUALITY care in a quality environment in an area that has a rather high cost of living.  We cannot have an imposed cut on our rates just to qualify and pass on a $10 a day daycare fee.

The New “three-year old early learning program”

The New Early Learning Childcare Agreement has specified that it will be introducing now a 3 year old program in addition to the preprimary for 4 year olds. While this will assist many low income families with childcare, this also pushes young toddlers into a larger institutional setting that is already plagued with supervision problems. At the young age of 3, the children are in much need of one-on-one attention with potty training, naps, and meal supervision. It is our experience that no two 3 year olds are the same, they are all developing at different paces and require individual attention and care.

Childcare Fees are Tax Deductible

Nanny expenses, daycare, summer camp nurseries are all deductible for parents. The tax deduction must be claimed by the parent in the lower tax bracket. The deduction is up to $8000 for each child under the age of 7. This tax deduction lowers your net income on your tax return by the amount claimed. The tax benefit is the largest when both parents work and are in relatively high tax brackets. So as much as 80% or more of your childcare costs can be recovered by claiming it as tax deduction bringing your childcare costs to less than $10 a day.

These are some of the main points on why we are a private and independent daycare vs an approved daycare which we feel will diminish the quality of care we provide.  Although we are not under any family daycare agency, we follow all guidelines carefully, we have full daycare insurance, child first aid certification, police criminal background checks, and vulnerable sector checks for both adults in the home.  

We have a dedicated daycare area that is safe and full of toys, activities, and furniture for your little one to enjoy.  We have a large yard full of playground equipment which is fenced and monitored by security cameras via cell phone at all times by two adults.  

We provide a nurturing comfortable environment for the children, and we go beyond what regular daycares provide by catering to the toddler age and preparing them for their introduction into the school system. 

We have a proven record of happy parents who have left several reviews on our Facebook Page over the years.

Public education is free as well, but there are still private schools that function because there is a need for quality education and better atmosphere for the children. The same goes for daycares.