Most child care providers have limited space to dedicate to daycare. Most of the time the family's living room is a daycare during the day and a living room at night. How does one deal with this?
When our living room was our daycare's main play and sleeping space, I gated off all other areas (gates are very important--they set boundaries for the children, give them freedom and the provider piece of mind). On one hand I wanted it to look like a normal living room when I was not working, but on the other hand, we needed space for toys, centers, play pens, and other equipment.
Take a good look at your daycare/living space and think about if there's any way you can arrange it to suit your needs better? Move some furniture and stretch your imagination. Try different layouts. Think about the children during the day and ways to "hide" daycare equipment in the evenings. For now, just think. . .
With the limited space you can dedicate to daycare (one wall, a corner, dining room or ?) make the most of it by rotating toys and equipment. My best example of this is Plan B Curriculum. You can store most of your daycare toys and equipment in the garage, storage shed or closets and bring them out a couple at a time. This makes things fresh and easy clean up throughout the day.
Now for some visual ideas....Check out my photos on Pamm's House Set Up.
