"Don't buy my child a gift. They're here at your house more than they are at home. They'd probably just bring it here anyways." It was Christmas time and in my first year of doing in-home childcare. I had every intention of buying each daycare child a toy and I had ideas for each of the children. First I wanted to ask each parent if their child had that toy at home before I bought it. This was a parent's response when I asked. At first I was a little shocked, but after a little consideration I totally got it.
Most kids are with me 8-10 hours a day 5 days week. It did seem rather pointless to give them a toy to take home when they played with the toys here more than their toys at home. I had never once considered this line of thinking before and if this parent hadn't brought it to my attention, I probably never would have.
I was reminded of this conversation last week when a fellow daycare provider posed the question "what should I get for my daycare kiddos for Christmas?" After that important conversation several years ago, I came up with my own daycare gift giving idea. Instead of buying each child I care for a present, I buy daycare a new toy (or two) each week, beginning Thanksgiving week each year and lasting until the week of New Year's. I make sure to buy one new toy for each age range, 1 new game (this year they're getting a magnetic dart board that will hang on the wall), (at least) 1 educational toy, 1 experiment kit, and 1 thing that has something to do with food (last year's was a new Mickey Mouse waffle maker, the year before was a new set of cookie cutters).
I do get each child a treat bag and a coloring book, but this unique daycare gift giving has been a hit with both the kids and their parents. It's also a great way to break up the winter at daycare. All new toys to play with for our long days indoors. After five years of doing this, we now have an impressive (and slightly embarrassing) amount of toys and do a toy rotation every couple of weeks.
One of my favorite daycare Christmas gifts: a new playhouse. It took 2 hours to construct, we kept it in the living room all winter, and then when spring came we realized it was too big to fit through the doors so we had to take it completely apart. Good times.
This type of gift giving really works for me and my daycare. One of my favorite things about our Daycare Christmas Gifts is that it promotes sharing. All of the kids know these gifts are for ALL of them. They still feel (at least from what I can tell) just as excited about the gifts as if they were just their own. I plan on continuing our giving daycare new gifts each Christmas as long as I'm doing daycare in my home.
What does your daycare give your children? Or if you're a provider, what do you give your daycare children? I'd love to hear other's creative ways of celebrating the season!
Want to know what daycare is getting this holiday season? Here's a quick rundown:
- Magnetic dartboard
- Texture balls. Great for teething babies.
- Character ice packs. These will come in handy this summer for scraped knees or a wiffle ball to the face.
- New Barbie items
- Squishy Human Body. So far this is their most favorite toy this year and the top educational toy I've ever bought.
- Mickey Mouse Duplos
- Mickey Mouse Little People
- Dino Dig
- New Kinetic Sand
- Chocolate fountain. The big kids were talking about one last summer. I didn't need too much convincing to buy one because, c'mon, chocolate!