Common Questions

WHAT’S GREAT ABOUT THE JOY SCHOOL CURRICULUM?

Joy School is a highly-acclaimed and developmentally appropriate preschool curriculum for three-, four- and five-year-old children. Based on the book Teaching Your Children Joy by New York Times best-selling authors, Richard and Linda Eyre, the Joy School preschool program has had over 250,000 participants since its inception over 30 years ago. Until recently, the Joy School curriculum was primarily available only to those families who put together do-it-yourself co-op preschools where parents took turns teaching each other’s children using the Joy School materials. But now the Joy School curriculum is being used in more and more regular preschools throughout the country.

Common Questions

What are Joyschool Operators Saying?

“I did a Joy School with each of my 4 older children and loved the curriculum but I couldn’t find a group to do Joy School for my fifth little guy. Everyone wanted to send their kids to a preschool. I was going to do the same – but my husband said ‘Joy school has been the best thing for our kids – please just do it one more time!” So I kept trying – and after showing the curriculum to several other mothers, they were really excited about it, but didn’t feel confident in their teaching abilities and asked me if I could just be the teacher and they’d pay me. I was so glad when I found that I could do Joy School this way. Now I’ve got a nice little group of 5 kids and I’m making a little extra money while giving my son exactly the preschool experience I want him to have.”

Common Questions

What are Parents Saying?

“I went to Joy School when I was little and I still remember a lot! I especially loved the unit on Spontaneous Delight and remember when the teacher let the air popper pop popcorn all over the room while we danced around in glee. It was so good for me to see that there’s a time and a place for doing fun, silly things. And I’ll never forget the time we went to sing to some elderly disabled people during the unit on Sharing and Service. Our teacher prepared us well and we were so excited to see the smiles on the faces of those sweet ‘grandmas and grandpas’! ”

Common Questions

What does the Joy School Company Provide?

The Joy School Company provides everything that you need to start up and run an effective Joy School in your home or in a traditional preschool setting. We provide:

A full set of registration forms, a parent handbook, and recruitment materials that you can personalize and use to market your program and get started
Suggested supply lists and templates for making the items you’ll use again and again in your Joy School
Overall instructions and tips for running an effective program
Ideas for using existing space in your home to create effective Joy School areas
Introductions to every Joy that offer training and guidance
Lesson plans offering simple instructions for great crafts, activities, stories, snack ideas, professionally-recorded music, visual aids, templates, and everything else involved in the lessons
Parent materials: The parents/family of every child in Joy School will have access to the introduction for each Joy plus access to all the music so they can reinforce what their child is learning at Joy School in their homes
Ongoing support to help you with problems that arise

Common Questions

What Education and Experience Do I Need to Run a Joy School?

The best Joy School teachers are those who’ve had considerable experience teaching and caring for young children. Many in-home commercial Joy School teachers are former elementary or preschool teachers. Some have taught Joy School as a co-op with other mothers and got their teaching experience that way. Some have had experience teaching children in church or other settings. The most important qualifications of a Joy School operator are:

an understanding and appreciation of the Joy School curriculum
experience working with children and a good natural rapport with children
an ability to work well with parents
good organizational skills and basic computer skills
a sincere desire to provide a wonderful preschool experience to children and to involve their parents in their preschool education

Common Questions

What sort of space do I need to run a Joy School in my home?

We suggest that in-home Joy School teachers have a large enough home so that they can set up a dedicated area for their Joy School (a spare bedroom, basement area, converted garage, etc.).

It can work to set up and take down Joy School materials every time you do Joy School, but it’s easier and gives more of a sense of a “real” preschool experience to the children if you are able to dedicate one room or area to Joy School. In this area, you’ll need space for a rug or circle time mat for children to sit on and wall space for hanging the Joy School calendar, weather chart and other materials. You can make your “Joy School room” very welcoming and cheerful with inexpensive posters, a chalkboard or dry-erase board, etc. You’ll probably also want to use other areas of your house.

Common Questions

What would be my start-up costs?

We charge you a one-time application and start-up fee of only $200 (or $100 if you are a pre-existing preschool). This provides you with the our start-up manual of instructions, registration forms for your students, a parent handbook template, advertising and marketing materials, etc. All materials are delivered electronically so that you will be able to have immediate access to them once your application has been approved and you’ve paid your fee. Click here to see what’s included in the Start-Up Kit.

Common Questions

What costs are involved after the start-up costs?

Once you’ve paid for your one-time start-up fee and have paid for your lifetime lesson plan access, you’ll owe us nothing further!

Each year that you run your Joy School, you’ll need to pay a Joy School Family Membership fee for each participating family (but, of course, you pass this cost along to the families so it shouldn’t be out-of-pocket for you).

Should you decide to purchase our Kindergarten Readiness supplement, that would be an additional cost. But once you purchase it, you will have it forever.

Common Questions

How much could I make by running my own in-home Joy School?

What you could make varies based on what you charge for tuition.

If you charge children $65/month (a very good deal for parents in many areas) to come to Joy School two mornings a week and have 6 children enrolled in your program, you’ll receive $390.00/month or $3510 for a 9-month school year. After you subtract out your $250 one-time start-up fee and lesson plan access fee, you’d gross over $3250 for your first year. And this is for working just 6 hours a week (Joy School typically runs 2.5 hours, two mornings a week and it typically takes an experienced teacher about ½ hour to prepare each lesson).* Unlike many new businesses, you’d make a good profit after expenses in your first year. Then your next year, since you don’t have to pay your startup fee or lesson plan access fee again and since you’d likely increase your group size, you’d make more money.

Common Questions

What are the benefits of running a Joy School versus just making up my own curriculum?

You get to use the Joy School name. Joy School has been around for over 30 years now and over 250,000 children have participated in a Joy School program. Joy School is a well-respected name and the curriculum has been tried and tested by thousands of satisfied families. By attaching the Joy School name to your program, it will probably be easier for you to recruit participants for your preschool.

Common Questions

Do I need a special license? Insurance? Special permission?

License: In most areas, you need to obtain a “family day care provider” license in order to run a preschool in your home. There is no separate category for preschools, so you have to meet the requirements (which are generally quite simple) for holding a daycare in your home. Some states only require that you get a license if you have more than a certain number of children or if they will be with you for more than a certain number of hours a day. You may not need a license if you state that you’re providing an educational program (like music lessons or dance lessons), not day care. If your city or state does require you to have a license, don’t worry, the fee per year is usually less than $100 and the requirements typically involve attending a 2 hour meeting, filling out some forms, and sometimes having someone visit your home to be sure it meets basic safety standards. You’ll want to carefully check out the requirements in your area by visiting your city and state’s website and searching for “family day care license” or “preschool license” before you apply to become a Joy School. We strongly urge you to ensure that you understand the requirements in your area before launching into starting your own Joy School.

Common Questions

Can I use Joy School in my existing preschool?

The Joy School curriculum can be added into just about any preschool program very effectively. Many preschools find that they’d like to enhance their existing curriculum to make their program more attractive to parents and/or to refresh things for teachers who feel that they need something new. Joy School is an excellent way to re-invent your program and add some new and exciting components.

Through a series of fun and meaningful themes, the Joy School curriculum teaches children important social skills and reinforces basic values and positive character traits. We supply you with detailed, tried-and-true lesson plans plus fun songs to go with each theme. We also supply ideas and parent materials to encourage parent participation and understanding of the Joy School curriculum.

Common Questions

What if I want to take a break from running my Joy School?

No problem. Many Joy School operators need to take a break for various reasons (new babies, moving, just needing a rest, etc.). During the time that you are taking a break from Joy School, you don’t pay your franchise fees or dues. When you want to start up again, you don’t have to pay your start-up fee again. Instead, you just pay a $50 restart fee (pays for the lesson updates and new forms, newsletters, etc. that have become available in your absence) and resume paying your franchise fees and dues semester by semester and getting the support and materials you need from the Joy School Company.

Common Questions

Who runs the Joy School Company?

Jared and Saren Loosli run the Joy School Company.

Saren is the daughter of Richard and Linda Eyre, best-selling authors of parenting books (including Teaching your Children Joy upon which Joy School is founded) and founders of Homebase and the original Joy School co-ops. Saren did her Masters degree in Education at Harvard University, focusing on curriculum development with a focus on character education and social skills development. She ran a company in Boston providing educational character-based programs for schools and went on to develop and conduct training conferences across the country for people working in schools, preschools and after school programs. She now co-directs the website, Power of Moms, which provides resources for moms and partners with The Joy School Company in providing the Joy School curriculum to Joy School-based preschools.