Making A Change

Four Years ago I made the decision to throw my life into utter chaos by opening my home and starting a daycare. Anthony and I decided that we needed the extra income, and I would really only need to take 2 kids in. Plus I had 3 kids of my own at the time and I wanted to still give them the attention they would need.

I was happy to take 2 little girls. One had just turned 1 year old( Addy), and the other was 6 months( if I remember right). They were sweet little girls...when they were not wailing. They were both screamers/ criers...which I got used to, and which diminished after they got used to being at my house. The youngest little girl didn't stay long...but before I knew it 2 more kids had taken her place. Hunter and Olivia. I am good friends with their mom and who wouldn't like to make a bit more money. No prob!

Then Addy's mother got pregnant...what was one more, right? I actually did not have any second thoughts about this. It was only natural that I would watch the baby because he is a sibling. Plus I was baby hungry for another kid, so I thought that might fix my yearnings to have another baby. Maddox joined our zoo here and was such a good baby...I loved to hold him! BUT...the baby cravings did not go away. I just knew I wanted another one.

So here comes Matteo!( by this time Hunter and Olivia were in school full time so I only watched them occasionally) This was the first time I stared questioning the whole daycare situation. Anthony had just started his new job and was going to be sent away for 3 months to train. This would leave me with my 4 kids plus Addy and Maddox. Oh...but it gets better. One of our neighbor's kids( Joslynn) was going to be in Tui's pre-k class and another of their kids was in Haylie's class ( Jalynn). Their parents wanted to know if they could just come to my house after school because they would not be home from work yet.

Hmmmmmm...what to do, what to do? It would only be for the afternoons and the two babies would be napping, so....why not. Well Jalynn and Joslynn have a little brother who was going to a different in-home daycare, but some bad things were happening over there and they wanted him to go somewhere safe.

Again...it is a sibling. It makes sense right? So now I have my 4 kids, Addy and Maddox, Jalynn and Joslynn and AJ. It is officially a zoo! But what is a zoo without a few more monkey's. Another one of my friends has two daughters. One that goes to school with Sydney, and one that goes to school with Tui. They needed before school care because their mom had to be to work before the bus came. So how many is that now?

By this time, I had come to realize that things had changed from my initial plan of opening a small daycare, to being outnumbered 11-1. Time to make another change. It was not an easy decision. a lot of thought and prayers went into deciding what my next step was. 8 of the 11 kids would be in school full time next year, and two out of those would only be in the morning, so really, I COULD keep going. We need the money...Teo will have kids to play with all the time...we need the money. You know what...it doesn't matter how much I tried to make it sound good, I just didn't want to do it anymore. It was not by any means because I didn't like the kids. I love kids! I love to play with them and see them learn and grow, but I was Not playing with them anymore...I was not as fun as I used to be.

There were a lot of reasons why I was ok quiting. My house was never clean! (tidy...but not deep down clean!) There were things I wanted to do with my house but never could because there were always kids around ( like tear up my carpet and refinish the floors, paint, etc). My own kids would ask me to do things with them after school, but I was always " kidded out" and needed some mommy time. The looks of disappointment on their faces killed me! Our summers were spent watching other kids instead of taking my kids to the pool or to the park or on vacation. ( my van can barely fit my family). There were twice as many germs coming in my house...it was a revolving door of germs...one kid gets better just to have another one get sick. I was going through lysol like crazy. Mostly I just was tired.

Regardless of the reasons I quit, I do not regret one bit of running an in-home daycare. My kids always had someone to play with and grow up with. We did make lots of fun memories going to the park or playing in the pool. I love those kids dearly and I'm glad that I was able to provide a safe and happy place for them to go.

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School 2010-2011
This was a very busy and very rewarding year!

Sydney and Haylie started a new year at a new school. I transferred them to a school that was not on the SINA list ( school in need of assistance). I just felt that my children needed more than what they were able to get at their regular school. Not that I blame teachers...they have their hands tied in these situations. My kids were having to relearn things they had previously learned because the rest of their class was not able to keep up ( yes I am bragging..hehe). Both Sydney and Haylie are above their grade level for reading( Sydney is actually above her grade level for all her classes...way above! Some days I don't know what to do with her!), and their school was just not able to offer them the extra work to keep them interested in learning.

At their new school, they were both put into the ELP class( extended learning program) where they were able to progress and learn new concepts and do some fun things that made learning fun for them ( instead of being bored in class). Their teachers were wonderful and they were able to make new friends. It turned out to be a great year!( Haylie even came off the bus in tears because she was going to miss her teacher. They love school!)

Tui started pre-k this year. I was really torn about putting him in or not since his birthday is on the cut off date for registration. He was the youngest child in his class. I was worried about him being able to adjust later to being the youngest...like in high school, when all of his buddies would be dating and driving and he wouldn't be. I have heard that emotionally, boys that are younger in school have a hard time.

I thought that the first day of school would be a day full of tears and hugging my leg...begging me not to leave him there. Boy was I wrong. Tui couldn't wait to get in his class room. Anthony walked him to school with his little backpack and that was it. He only cried one time the entire year. That is until the last day at the pre-k graduation party. He had a little run in with another kid and got bumped on the head. Well, you would think the world was ending. It ruined the entire day!

Regardless, he had a wonderful year also. He got to go on field trips ( on a bus..yay!), had many class pets and wonderful teaches to start off his school experience. He is going to be as smart as the girls. They gave him his kindergarten test to see how ready he is for kindergarten...40/40...the kindergarten teaches were quite surprised. The only thing he is behind in is his fine motor skills ( writing)....it's no wonder though considering I never gave him pencils or makers or scissors for fear of what he would destroy!

Before and after pics.