3 Tips For Managing Your Childcare During The Holidays

During the holiday months, you may notice that parents will keep their children home, and without proper sign up systems, it will cause a fluctuation in your enrollment during major holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New years.

With this fluctuation, you may wonder exactly what would be financially beneficial for your childcare business, and if you should keep your business open or closed, during those times. Not all parents have the pleasure and leisure of having their children stay home so in today’s blog I want to share with you how to get the most out of your holiday.

Here are a few tips and strategies for program management and ideas what you can do during this time of the year.

Many childcare owners send their staff home early, combine classrooms, and have fun times for the students, and/or work the classroom hours themselves. Now, I’m not saying that you can not do that, but I do believe there are better ways that you can manage your program, during the holiday season.

#1 I believe that, during this time, you should get things done that you just haven’t had the time for all year round. Look throughout your childcare program and look at the playground, classrooms, kitchen, front desk area, office area, hallways, all areas of your childcare program. Determine if you’ve over looked areas that can be upgraded, cleaned out, mopped, polished, dusted, vacuumed, scrub. Whatever it is, there’s so much that you can do, during this time,to get things done.

#2 Staff training. Instead of sending your staff home, this would be a great time for them to have on-the-job staff training. During this time your staff will have more time with you in your office, or conference room, or in your classrooms, listening to your plan objectives for the next year. Always, take this end of the year season to train your team on your vision and your goals for the next year. One of the main key points that we focus on, during this time of the year, is customer service.

#3 Invest Time. During the holiday season, spend time with your team showing them the areas in their classroom that you want them to improve and upgrade. Here are my strategies for accomplishing that; one day before or early morning the day of, when the holiday event begins, I walk throughout my childcare program with very little to say, but my clipboard is in my hand.

Along with my clipboard, I keep a marker and an eye for excellence. I label each form for the classroom that I’m going into, and I identify areas of the classroom that will need the teacher’s attention. I look through cubbies, shelving, storage, storage bins, storage closets. plus, I look through their desk, and I give them instructions on removing clutter.

I also give them instructions on organizing their classroom storage units, closets, and storage bins. One of the things that I notice that happens in this childcare industry is paper accumulation. Paper accumulation causes bugs, it causes the room to hold odors, and it just causes disorganization. The next thing that I do is I look on my walls for my bulletin boards. I instruct my team to upgrade their bulletin boards for the new school year, for the new holiday season.

Then, I take a look at the floors. I look at the carpets. This is the time where we carpet clean, we spot clean, we take our carpets out, we get the carpet cleaner, and we spot clean our carpets. We clean-up under our shelves. We relabel our cubbies. We relabel our tables. We assess our cubby labels. We make sure that all summer clothing was sent home and winter clothing are back in the cubbies.

Finally, I go throughout the classroom and check shelving for materials. I check the shelving to make sure that the materials are organized and that the materials are in the appropriate center. I check to make sure that the centers are labeled that way the classrooms are prepped and ready for when school reconvenes, after the holiday break.

There is so much that you can do, during this time of the year, besides sending staff home early or closing your childcare program. Use this time to implement better management strategies throughout your school. Again, this would be an awesome time for your on-the-job staff training, and this would be an awesome time to go over your customer service policy with your staff. If you’re looking for the systems to really grow your business and take it to the next level, I highly suggest that you join me in my 8 Week System Creation Program.