Anyone do childminding?

I'm being made redundant and had briefly considered childminding before but discounted it cos we lived in a flat but we're about to move to a bungalow wich has a fab garden and is right next door to a school so am pondering again.  Am just really wondering how you find it, what sort fo facilities you need, how you go about advertising, does it work out worthwhile money wise and anything else you can think that might help really.

Hi SD sorryu to hear about your redundancy,i amd a CM in N.Ireland and i just contacted my social services and they sent me forms etc, simple to do took long though about 5 months to complete regsitration.

i love it i am a qualified teacher and just felt so bad about being away from LO that i decided to give it a go and now it is bloody hard work, this morning i got 4 kids aged 1,1,2,5 in and out of the car 5 times!!!! thats hard work, but its fun,. LO is getting so much better at sharing and playing with others its great, and there are some months i earn well over what my OH does for teaching!

i have great enclosed back garden and a separate playroom but you dont need to have that, as long as your prepared for other kids to come into your house and for it to be messy during that day

good luck, any other questions just email me

Howlin Husky:

Hi SD sorryu to hear about your redundancy,i amd a CM in N.Ireland and i just contacted my social services and they sent me forms etc, simple to do took long though about 5 months to complete regsitration.

i love it i am a qualified teacher and just felt so bad about being away from LO that i decided to give it a go and now it is bloody hard work, this morning i got 4 kids aged 1,1,2,5 in and out of the car 5 times!!!! thats hard work, but its fun,. LO is getting so much better at sharing and playing with others its great, and there are some months i earn well over what my OH does for teaching!

i have great enclosed back garden and a separate playroom but you dont need to have that, as long as your prepared for other kids to come into your house and for it to be messy during that day

good luck, any other questions just email me

Thanks HH, we'll have a small playroom in the new house too which will be good.  What about naps?  Do you need somewhere seperate for them to nap?

we have a spare room where the twins nap, if you had access to a spare room use it, i like ours becasue its really dark and hels the twins sleep. when we were renovating i just put thme in the travel cot in our room.

HTH

The think that put me off the idea of childminding was the idea that I'd have all the older kids full time during school holidays

What about photography? as you know I now do wedding videos and it's a nice wee earner - not loads of money but this year I've earned not too far off what I'd have got going back to work by the time I'd paid for the boys to be in nursery.  The advantage is I can pick and choose when I work, I usually only do Saturday weddings and can then edit in the evenings while the boys are sleeping. If I have to do a Friday wedding then H takes a half day holiday from work to watch the boys

ebee:

The think that put me off the idea of childminding was the idea that I'd have all the older kids full time during school holidays

 

What about photography? as you know I now do wedding videos and it's a nice wee earner - not loads of money but this year I've earned not too far off what I'd have got going back to work by the time I'd paid for the boys to be in nursery.  The advantage is I can pick and choose when I work, I usually only do Saturday weddings and can then edit in the evenings while the boys are sleeping. If I have to do a Friday wedding then H takes a half day holiday from work to watch the boys

Yeah I'm still not sure I'd cope with other children when mine are a nightmare some days

I really don't think my photography is good enough to make any money out of it, plus while I like the idea in theory I'm not sure how I'd handle taking photos for other people rather than just me iyswim.

a wee bounce in case there are any other chilminders about x

My sister is a childminder but she does not have children during the school holidays, I am a teacher so no problem for me but also means I dont have to pay for the holidays, plus the other child she childminds accepted the terms of not in school holidays.

So possibly childminding during term time only could be a consideration?