What is a Drop-in Childcare Center???

A lot of people come to us at Adventure Kids Playcare and really aren't sure what it is we do. Usually, their friends have told them that they have to come check us out, but they don't really understand why. Everybody knows how a daycare operates (boring!). Everybody knows how Chuck E. Cheese operates (crazy!). But if you've never had a drop in center, chances are you just don't understand how it can change the way you live your life. There are times I feel like I'm trying to explain to a desert nomad how cool and refreshing a summer time swim can be and they look at me like I'm crazy for wasting the water!

Known as AK if you are texting, Adventure Kids Playcare is a child entertainment center that is also licensed as a childcare care center. This means that parents can leave their children with a care provider whose main goal is to make sure the children have a GREAT time while having all of their basic needs met as well. We provide meals and snacks, take care of hygiene, lead arts & craft projects, lead games, read stories & provide an opportunity for kids to meet new friends nearly every day. We provide bus transportation before and after school to several Issaquah schools and make sure the kids are getting their home work done. We hold camps all the weeks that school is out and are always open if it snows.

I think our only limitations are a defined capacity, children who are obviously ill, have a condition that requires one on one attention or threatens other children, and putting the kids to bed for you (although we do try to get the to sleep later in the evening.) The owners are there most of the time & really do listen to parents if there is a concern and try to find a good solution.

The advertising conundrum

What child friendly sites do most parents trust for valuable information? I know of several as they have all contacted me for advertising 'opportunities' on their sites. Most of the now large advertising companies are mostly run by professionals who may or may not have kids of their own. The thing I can't wrap my head around is that for all of their 'authoritative knowledge' of all things kid related, their e-mails and websites are simply paid advertising. The thing is parents don't actually know that because they haven't been contacted to advertise with them and had their events & venues ignored as a result of NOT advertising. There is actually NO information on most of these sites that isn't a result of a paid transaction.

So who is a parent to really trust???

As far as I can tell, by looking at the Facebook posts from some of these sites, there is little content that isn't paid for. I can say that Adventure Kids Playcare of Issaquah has been the recipient of several unpaid posts from Macaroni Kid and Rely Local, which does make me trust their information as more authentic. Parent Map, Red Tricycle and others have yet to do anything that wasn't every expensive for us to place, so we don't do much with them. We tried to place in Red Tricycle's best of contest, but placed behind other companies we know to advertise with them even though we believe we provide a better service based on the comments of our customers.

Adventure Kids Playcare sends out an e-mail every month or so and we try to highlight some parent oriented activities. It's crossed my mind to start charging businesses for this advertising, but I decided that I really don't want to. I want to keep our newsletter as an honest review of what's going on in our area. Of course that only gets read by our existing customers, so attracting new customers this way is a very slow process, which leads us back to advertising. What else is a small business to do? Please see our ads on Macaroni Kid.

Dangerous times!

I'm constantly reminded of the hazards present in my children's lives. No, I'm not obsessing over stalkers or 'bad guys'. I'm thinking of things like the ever present hazard of being last & instantly becoming the dreaded 'rotten egg.' Or the extreme danger one poses to their mother when walking near cracks!

This weekend at Adventure Kids, children were subjected to the dangers of the age of dinosaurs! Luckily, none were injured in any of the activities! The all seemed very happy when they left! I can only assume they were so happy because they had survived the experience.

Coming up this weekend is an Issaquah AKP original theme of Pokemon Party! Kids will begin their training as a Pokemon Master by developing the tools and skills required to weather the hazards of Pokemon battles! How many Pokemon can you name? Make your reservations at www.adventurekidsplaycare.com/issaquah/reservations.html

THEN, in case nobody has noticed, there are more and more spider webs growing in our center and I've seen some VERY large spiders lurking in the office and entry! I'm sure they will start migrating south after our Haunted Adventure on Sunday, Oct 30, but until then, please be very careful when visiting Adventure Kids.

The King 5 Best of Western Washington contest is starting on Monday and we'd really like to see if we can compete with the places nominated for best fun place for kids! There isn't a category for drop in childcare, so we're up against some tough competition! Prizes for voting by phone app have been approved, so we'll have something in place for people who vote by phone app at least!

Back to School week is proving to be quite active for us at AKP! While we're happy to provide service to as many families as possible, we feel terrible when we have to turn families away at the door when we reach capacity. If you've had this experience, we certainly apologize. Providing you the opportunity to pull up and drop off your children is a service that we love to offer. With school getting back underway, we certainly expect things to settle down enough to allow us to get back to this availability.

With some of our staff returning to school, we are starting to look for a couple of replacements to fill the gaps. If you know somebody who has great energy, loves to play with and care for kids, we would love to talk with them.

This week at AKP

Change is in the winds at AKP this week.  With the start of school, etc., it's going to be a happening week!

To celebrate the Back to School week in Issaquah, we're hosting an awesome Back to School pajama party this weekend!  It's the last chance for kids to stay up later than usual and end the summer with a blast! 

We're going to finish next week with camp life before switching to Adventure Kids University and the before & after school program.  Both of which are really good programs that we are quite proud of.  Fliers should be posted on our website shortly for each program.

We had a visit from our state licensor today.  As much as we love her, it's always a stress factor on us and the staff.  Their visit today has prompted Ed to get involved at the regulation level to champion for the drop in childcare industry to help them create the rules & regulations necessary to keep kids well cared for and safe in a fun, exciting environment.

August already???

It's official, July 2011 is completely gone and it's August already.  Thoughts of back to school frenzies, remembering the busy mornings of making lunches & getting out the door at just the right minute to catch the bus, but not spend extra time standing in the rain.  Ugh.

Oh wait, it's still just August!!!  Sunny forecasts for this week & plenty of summer to go!  Adventure Kids Summer Camp theme this week is FEAR FACTOR!!!  Physical challenges, seemingly grotesque snacks & weirdly intriguing arts & crafts. 

We've gotten a few requests for bus pickup after other summer camps & are more than willing to use the bus to pick up kids from other activities as long as it works out with scheduling.  For scheduling or questions, please feel free to contact the office

Ed and Nicole are taking the 24 day Advocare Challenge!  24 days of healthy eating, great tasting supplements (one that's not so tasty) and a good exercise routine.  If you'd like to join us, we'd certainly welcome the company and can hook you up with the Advocare package. 

Week of July 25

This week, our summer camp theme is Young Chef.  We're going to be doing all kids of food oriented games and activities and will be welcoming HappyFamily in for a special snack time as well.  Truth be told, Mr. Jon isn't that great of a cook, so he thought this would be a great week to take a couple days off.  Ms. Maria and Ms. Megan will be leading camp on those days & we're sure they will be great days!  Those are Thursday and Friday in case you want to show your support for them and sign up for their days.  Of course, we'll have our Beyblade Battle tournament on Tuesday evening at 7 - this is the one time we encourage kids to bring in their own toys.  Somehow, the kids all know which Bey belongs to whom & they all get put back in the right place!  The weekend theme for Friday and Saturday is going to be Mad Scientist!  Although we won't be doing any extreme experiments, we have a slew of fun ones that are sure to amaze and entertain our young visitors...  Thursday also marks Ms. Jennifer's return to AKP, only she just might have a different last name as she's getting married this weekend!  Contratulations Jen!

A little reminder about life before AKP

Today my daughter told me she wasn't feeling well.  She didn't have a fever, runny nose, or any obvious symptoms, but I was planning to work from home, so I let her stay with me.  Then, after his sport camp got over, my son decided that he wanted to come home too.  As I attempt to work through the remainder of the afternoon, I get attacked by armed jedi's; field a myriad of requests for snacks, drinks, permission to go outside; (oh, my daughter finally admitted that she wasn't sick...) serenaded with a song, and visited from neighboring children, run some laundry so my son can have his camp shirt to wear again tomorrow. All the while, I'm trying to figure out HOW IN THE WORLD DO PEOPLE DO THIS????  This has got to be the least productive environment I can think of to sit down and get through a few hours of work!  Hat's off to all of the parents we know who have made this situation work, and again to those who realize that Adventure Kids is here to help them through the days when it simply doesn't work.  Bear in mind that while all of this is going on, I'm completely having fun with them & don't mind any of it, but I do still need to get my work done.

AKP is going to be providing childcare in the KID ZONE at the Be Free Expo on home based businesses next month, and the timing of my experience today couldn't be better.  I'm newly reminded of the struggles parents have when they work from home & are trying to have their children there as well.  If you are considering a home based business, this might be a great way to look at a number of options, talk with experts, and even arrange your drop in childcare!

This week at AKP

Well, our summer camp week got off to an amazing start!  We were able to bring in "The Reptile Man' for a special visit this afternoon.  He brought lizards, snakes, an alligator and was so engaging with the kids!  I have to admit, as the owner of the center, I was a little on edge as the last thing I want is for one of the kids to get too close to one of the vipers he brought & get bitten.  I know they don't have their poison anymore, but still the though of just the bite is scary to me.  But I trusted that he's a professional and goes to many child functions without incident and of course everything was fine & the kids had a blast!  They even got to take turns RIDING the tortoise!  (although not a very fast ride!) 

This week is archaeological and we'll be doing a lot of other activities throughout the week as well.

Thursday is the Issaquah Chamber of Commerce's annual Chocolate, Wine & All that Jazz event.  AKP is providing a 25% discount to attendees who can present their ticket when they pick up their kids, so there's no excuse to not go! 

The Swedish Hospital satellite center will be completely secured tomorrow hopefully with the last touch being the alarm on the front gate.  Our visitors from Friday reported back to us that their kids had a GREAT time & actually wanted to go back there instead of the Gilman center on Saturday!   

Welcome to our new blog

In the interest of communicating better with our customers, staff, and interested people, we're excited to start using this blog site!

This weekend is a circus theme at our Gilman Blvd. location.  We'll be having relay races, painting clown faces and much more.  Nicole and Ed are on staff tonight, so we hope to see you all there!

Swedish Medical Center has officially opened with the first ER visit coming at 12:10 am Thursday morning.  AKP lagged a little behind in the 'ready to go' column, but every day works out another set of kinks & we're officially able to safely and effectively operate.  We had our first 5 kids check in on Friday and all 5 had a great time!  We certainly hope that the new Swedish Playcare spot will be a great service to parents and kids who are attending doctor visits, working out work schedules, or just looking for a little bit of freedom.