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You love kids. You not only like to be around children,
you enjoy playing, reading, singing and
talking with children. Could family child care be the profession for you?
Patience,
compassion, you have to have compassion and a
love for children. This is not a money field by any means.
Because people think, do day care providers sit at home? No.
That's not what you do. You work and it's not always the money.
Their little faces light up. You know, the smile,
that has to be an interest for you. If you love it,
it has to be something in you that keeps you going.
Caring for children in your home can be an exciting professional career
opportunity. Does this sound like you? You envision yourself
making a difference in a child's life. You're curious about how children
learn and play. You get excited and can envision your home as
a place where children can play, learn, and grow.
You know there's a lot more to learn and you're willing to learn it.
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As you're
thinking about child care as a profession, there are many things to consider.
Establishing, running, and maintaining a successful child
care business requires more than simply loving children.
The child care is the important thing to us. We always want to make sure we have the right tools
and the right equipment. And create the right surroundings and environment for
these children to learn in. And we don't know all of the answers. If that takes
someone coming in to tell us, or show us, or mentor us, or whatever
we're not afraid of it. We are going to embrace it. Because knowledge is the key to helping
these kids. When I see other people
thinking about going into this business, I want to try to help them along or tell them it's not
as hard as you think it is. There's a lot of things that you have to use forms,
agencies you have to go through, but they're there to
help you. Don't be afraid of it. Some of things you would need to consider
scheduling, you know it is very flexible,
but sometimes families do need full care. So you have to be willing to make that
commitment. I have been very fortunate that I have families
that work around my schedule and I still have a lot of time to be with my children and it allows me
time to home-school. I would just say the commitment
to the business, to the families and the children.
Well I like the business side. I am very organized, I like
paperwork and doing things like that. So that part for me comes
really easily. My thoughts on safety, well that's probably the most important thing.
Is that you have a safe space. There's a lot of resources out there
that can help you make sure that your space is safe. But
that's the number one thing is to make sure that all of the children are safe.
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In the child care profession, relationships
are important. Especially relationships with families.
Positive and frequent communication with families let's them know that you
respect and care about them and that you want the families to be involved in your
child care program.
Every parent is different. If we treat them all differently, then it's going to work
instead of trying to put them all in a box and say I want everybody to be just like this.
That is not going to work. Parent: I was worried about his cold. Did he have a cold?
Did he look like he had a cold at all? Care giver: Yeah a little bit. I think with parents you need
to have a good relationship with parents. From the very beginning
try and be involved. It's really helpful if you have a good relationship because then when things
come up you can talk to parents easier. Whether it's a discipline problem
or an emotional problem. If you have a good relationship I think
the parents are more willing to talk through and work things out.
I talk to the parents a little bit. Tell them what's going to happen that day.
Usually I try to ask them quickly a little bit, I know sometimes they're in a hurry, but
I try to ask them about their day. So I try and be involved and let them know that they're
important and their family is important.
Again we take time to talk about what happened that day. I try and focus
on the positive first. You know if the child had a horrible day,
try and say something good that happened to tell the parent first. Because the last thing they want
to be hit with is all of the bad things that happened that day. If there's
an issue you want to share that, but try and keep it positive with families.
They are in a hurry. So I just try and quickly
give them an overview because I think that it's important for them to know what's going
on. And newsletters is another way. If I have a lot that I need
to share, then I do newsletters or send notes home.
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While children's
family members are the most important teachers, children are also
influenced by other adults in their lives. When children are
in the care of adults who are professional and who understand child development,
children can thrive and become successful learners.
I usually take time on the weekends. I used to plan ahead, but I like
to go more with what the children are interested in. So I find if I do that on a weekly basis,
plus you have to be flexible. Like today we are not on schedule.
We are doing something different. With young children it's good to be able to be flexible,
but still have a plan. I would say we play with purpose.
You look for opportunities to teach no matter what you're doing.
It's very refreshing to see that what I have been doing,
and what I'm now learning, is all coming together and making me a better overall person
to take care the whole child and not just part of his needs,
all of them. By going back to school that put a whole new
dynamic when I'm talking to a child how I converse
with a child, how I help that child. Because a lot of times a child might
need a lot depending on the stages in their life they need a lot of help. And sometimes you got to
step back and let them start figuring things out. How to do things
themselves and that's what's the most important thing with me right now. That I'm figuring out
how these children all develop at each stage in their life. From infancy,
to toddler, to pre-schoolers...I'm learning a lot
more now by furthering my education.
Now I can incorporate more knowledge from what I can do now. They can make me a better
teacher and a provider for these children, definitely.
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I would suggest go to another family
day care provider's house and sit and observe.
And interact with the kids and see if it's really something
you want to do. Before you start
get some books, take some classes, go to
day cares that will give you
some information and ideas. And make a list,
make a list. There is a lot of help out there.
Well you're thinking about starting day care.
Ask a lot of questions. Network with
other people that are doing the same thing. Don't reinvent the wheel. It's already
out there. It's already been figured for you. If you're trying to make a handbook, you don't have to start from
scratch. Call somebody like myself who already knows, network
with a big center, try to find somebody who already has their STARS.
Kind of like piggyback on somebody else and network with them
when you get a minute. Whenever that is. But I just feel
like if it's something you really want to do it's going to happen.
So if family child care is something you really want to do, take
time to think and reflect. To help bring you closer to making a decision,
revisit the ideas as mentioned by these experienced family child care
professionals. And think about, is child care the job for me?
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