I offer a very safe and affordable setting for children from birth to 12 years of age. My back yard is set up to cater to the daycare playground. It has a large Rainbow swing/slide/monkey bars. This sits in a fenced in area with 12 inches of pea gravel as a soft fall service. Our small non shedding dog is not allowed to relieve himself in the back yard, so it is clean. We also have an area with a basketball hoop (adjustable for smaller kids). Since I have mixed ages, we don't have much "pre-school" activities, but we incorporate learning into our play time. The children learn their colors, shapes, numbers and letters while we are reading or playing. They learn sign language from the beginning, so we don't have frustrated toddlers who can't figure out the words to say what they want. I have high expectations when it comes to good manners. So they all learn that hitting is not acceptible and to use please and thank you, as well as how to say they are sorry.
I worked for 15 years at UNMC hospital in Pediatrics (both inpatient and outpatient care). Then decided that my small kids needed a mom to take care of them. But I also needed to take care of my grandmother who had had a stroke. I didn't want to put her in a nursing home. She has since died, but I started this daycare 9 years ago while taking care of her after my kids started school. I wanted to keep busy and I had always loved working with kids. I just kept doing it becase I loved it so much.