Holding an annual Open House is a great way to invite the parents to tour your program/classrooms; open up your program to the community and introduce a back to school theme!
So let’s start planning for a fun, exciting, enriching and informational open house.
1.Get Organized/De-clutter
Several weeks before the open house, start to De-clutter classrooms and office space. This includes, dusting, removing items that does not need to be seen by visitors. When families tour a childcare program, they look at every detail. Be sure to post Lesson Plans!
2.Create a Festive Flyer
Using Microsoft word or office publisher, create a flyer that announces your open house including the date, location of your program, time, activities and events. This will also be a great to time promote enrollment specials, such as: Free registration or 50% the first week. Invite parents to help plan the open house and volunteer to help serve food or issue information about the program.
3. Signs/Banners
Creating a banner to place inside and/or outside your home or center draws attention to the event and compels parents and kids to come to the Open House. Yard signs also catch the eyes of traffic driving by your business. Hanging colorful Balloons on the fence surrounding your playground or signs draws attention to the Open House event.*Check with your local municipality regarding signs.
4. Open House Activities
The night before open house add pencils, back packs with school supplies, toy school buses, books about school and back- to- school bulletin boards to the environment. This will create a Back to school environment. When the children arrive, invite them to find all the new back to school items. *Here is a link to back to school Coloring pages to enhance the back to school theme.
5. Give-a-ways
To liven up your open house, give away prizes every 15-20 minutes of the Open House! Some of the prizes could include: toys for the kids, books, tuition coupons for parents and donations made by local businesses in the community. * 30-60 days before the Open House, invite other businesses in the community to donate give-a-ways for the families.
6.Information for Parents
Open house is the perfect time to show parents every aspect of your program, from daily schedules, toys in the play areas. Having a self guided tour check list for parents is a sure way to get the parents to view all areas of your program. Be sure to issue parents any new policies, parent handbooks, calendars, enrollment forms (for new families) and fundraising information. ** This is also a great time to incorporate new Tuition Policies!
7. Serve light refreshments
Refreshment ideas include: Lemonade and cookies or Cake and Fruit Juice. You will also need plenty of plates, napkins and cups to serve the refreshments to the families.
Have a Great Open House!
Shiketa Morgan
Download a Sample Open House Check List
At the end of every year, I begin to prepare childcare totals for each family. Then in January, I send home a statement for each family that indicates the amount of childcare expenses paid to me for the previous calendar year. In fact, I believe it is vital that you issue childcare tax statements in a timely manner (preferably by January 31st), so that parents can file their child care expenses on their tax return. A tax statement does not have to be a fancy document. However, it must contain the following information for tax purposes:
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