On this page, you will find information that explains what well-known experts have to say about quality childcare.  I will explain my experience and knowledge of current policies and procedures in the field, and I will explain the advantage of enrollment here at Little Tot’s.

Personal interaction is by far the most important aspect to take into consideration when choosing a childcare environment.

“It is the everyday relationship between the teacher-caregiver and the child –the greeting in the morning, the comments made when the child has drawn a picture, the affection and respect demonstrated – that is the single most important determinant of quality” (The Preschool Years, Galinsky & David).

In their new book titled Relationships, the Heart of Quality Care, authors Baker and Manfredi-Petitt advocate the wonderful virtues of family childcare.  The book is published by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, the world's largest organization working on behalf of young children with nearly 100,000 members, a national network of over 300 local, state, and regional Affiliates, and a growing global alliance of like-minded organizations.  Within the pages of the book, you learn how imperative it is that childcare centers adapt the family model of care, to put relationships first, business second.

“High-quality family child care can teach us a great deal about care that is relationship based.  In family childcare homes, relationships tend to resemble those in an extended family.  Parent-caregiver connections are broad and enduring.  The children in care generally get to know the provider’s own children, her husband and other family members.” 

“In family child care, no other adult stands between caregiver and parent; the provider is owner, director, and teacher.  Families and providers sustain their relationships as long as the child is in care, and often beyond.  Children who come to a family childcare provider as babies often remain in care until they begin kindergarten, and any return to the caregiver’s home before and after school and over school breaks.  When a baby brother or sister is born, that child often follows the older one’s footsteps into the provider’s home.  The parent-caregiver-child relationship can continue for a decade or more, depending on circumstances.  Friendships develop; some last a lifetime.”

Stable nurturing care is a quality that is constant in my home.  Children are enrolled at birth, and have the same caregivers for their entire time enrolled.  My staff and I are sincerely blessed to be able to form loving relationships with each child.  We learn not only about the child’s obvious traits, but we strive to form a personal connection with the child’s family too.  Children enrolled here at Little Tot’s are welcomed into my home as family would be.  With this closeness, we get to know the children so well, that we know what toys and activities they most enjoy, what might cause a temper tantrum, what foods they love the most, what to do or say when they are having a sad day, we honestly know them as if they were our own family. 

One sad circumstance of center-based care is the practice of moving children from room to room, as they reach certain ages.  Regardless if the room is within the same facility, this is of no condolence for your child.  Imagine if you will the sorrow your child experiences each time they loose not only their caregiver, but their total environment and their friends too!  Children are expected to be resilient and not be concerned about these situations.  On the surface it may not seem like a big deal to adults, after all, it’s still the same center, but for the child, you might as well have moved across the state!  This unfortunate transition is a reality for children in center-based care, and it happens as many as five times during the most impressionable years of life.  Your child’s length of time within each room largely depends on the center that your child attends.  Most centers move children for each year of their age, for example a room for infants ages 0 to 1year, a young toddler room age 1 to 2 years, toddler room ages 2-2.5, young preschool room ages 3-4, and preschool ages 4-5.  That is five rooms in five years.

“Heartbreakingly, a few children never adjust emotionally to a change in caregivers.  The five transitions before age 5 that are typical in center care can add up to something like a years worth of adjustment (child observations concluded that each transition takes on average 8 weeks before the child has adjusted) during critical periods in a young child’s life.  Even when the transitions appear relatively smooth, children may be learning a personality pattern of easy disengagement that could be difficult to access or undo later” (Baker & Manfredi/Petitt).

At Little Tot’s all children, regardless off age are cared for in the same environment from infancy to school age.  Nearly every family who enrolls here at Little Tot’s stays from the date of enrollment until their child starts Kindergarten, so friendships between children are nurtured and stable for the entire length of their time in my care.  Of course, my children and I will always be a part of Little Tot’s (try to tell my 9 year old that there is something wrong with having ‘preschool’ friends).  And, thankfully, the average length of employment for my staff is over 5 years!

Another benefit of care at Little Tot’s is the mixing of age groups.  When young children are cared for in the same environment as children whom are older, they aspire to reach the developmental milestones of their friends.  The skills they strive to learn in order to be more like the older children range from walking to feeding themselves, being able to build a tall tower to potty training. 

Preschoolers and school aged children benefit from the relationships formed with younger children in a variety of ways.  They learn valuable life lessons of compassion, turn taking, empathy and self-regulation.  When they compare themselves to the younger children, they then understand that they are not their parent’s babies, but capable young people able to make their own decisions. Older children then begin to see themselves as very competent; they want to be thought of as ‘big kids’ they want to please and to be helpful.  These moral skills are essential for proper development, and sadly do not happen in most childcare arrangements. 

Care

“Children learn in the context of important relationships.  The best way to help very young children grow into curious, confident, able learners is to give them warm, consistent care so that they can form secure attachments to those who care for them” (Rethinking the Brain by Rima Shore).

“Our field of early care and education is just beginning to understand the family model of child care and its emphasis on close, caring relationships.  In too many centers the business and elementary-school models still dominate, with their focus on hierarchy, productivity, efficiency, and inclination to define people by their “jobs’ rather than by how they relate to others.  In the business model, the director’s job is to make sure the center meets licensing regulations and is fully enrolled.  She supervises staff and puts out each day’s inevitable fires.  Teachers receive direction from the director and are expected to follow regulations, attend training, and perform duties assigned to them in the classroom.  Parents are the consumers; their role is to pay for services provided.  Children and their needs take a back seat to financial and staffing considerations.  Relationships are secondary, cordial but formal.  This model may be good for business, but it is inappropriate for raising young children.  Research and experience show that if we want young children to thrive, they must be in places were the adults care about them and about one another.”

Benefits of the family model:

• For children in the family model of care, long-term connections rather than short-lived ones are the norm.  Important relationships that are sustained over a period of years enable children to develop and function at their highest level and give them a lasting image of what it is like to be a part of a community that cares. 

• For families in the family model of care, relationship-based centers are comfortable places where parents can go to enjoy the company of their own children, the children of friends, and other adults with whom they can share childrearing’s joys and challenges.  Caring connections forged with staff members and their authentic bonds of community contribute to everyone’s mental health.

• For caregivers - High-quality caregivers thrive in the family model.  The caregiver’s natural tendency to bond is valued and supported.  Strong, healthy connections are encouraged between caregivers and parents, as well as among coworkers; community is the norm” (Baker & Manfredi-Petitt).

In center-based childcare, your child is assigned to a room based on his or her age.  If it is a more progressive center, your child may have a primary caregiver within this room.  What this means is that your child will have one adult that is supposed to provide most of your child’s care throughout the day, playing with, holding, educating, feeding, changing, etc.  Within this room are multitudes of children assigned to all different staff members.  If your child is so lucky to be assigned to a staff member that has been with the center for a long period of time, he or she will for the most part be able to form an attachment to this one person for at least the short period of time your child meets the age requirement for that room.  I used the term for the most part because, although some centers claim to have a low staff turnover rate (one of the most challenging problems to overcome in this field), nearly every center moves staff members to accommodate ratio’s on a regular basis (floating).  What this means is that your child’s caregiver may be asked to move to another room for a day or more to cover someone else’s shift, leaving your child in the care of a different caregiver.  Substitutes and new staff members further the lack of consistency of care.

Our ratio’s (number of teachers to the number of children) are unparalleled in this field (1-4), and our group is quaint (12 children).  Children are raised within the same environment, by the same caregivers, with the same children for their entire early life.  Because care is never interrupted, children feel safe and secure.  If one of our teachers or assistants should happen to leave, which they sometimes do, your child will still be raised in the same environment, will still have all of their friends and will still have the connection to myself and the other caregivers.

It is a sad fact that staff turnover is alarming in this profession; the average length of employment is less than a year.  Unfortunately, wages for childcare workers are traditionally lower than the wages paid at fast food restaurants, grocery stores or gas stations.  Low wages, unrealistic responsibilities and the rotating of staff are the three most common reasons for employee burn out in the early childhood field.

Here at Little Tot’s I hire my employees in on a sliding scale based on their experience working with young children and their education in the field.  The lowest wage that I hire in at is nearly $2.00 above minimum wage.  Upon hire, all my employees are given two weeks on the job training.  I want to be sure that they feel comfortable, confident, and not overwhelmed in their new position.  Furthermore, I generally care about my employees, their families and their happiness.  I welcome these women into my home and want them to enjoy their time here; maybe this is why they stay so long!

I strongly believe in the importance of family, and preserving the family structure.  For families enrolled here at Little Tot’s, family unity is respected.  Older siblings learn right alongside their little brothers and sisters all day long.  Children eat, play and sleep close to their siblings.  On several occasions throughout my career, I have had siblings as well as cousins, neighbors and close friends all enrolled at the same time.  I have been fortunate enough to watch unrelated children raised together since birth form loving friendships that have lasted long after their time at Little Tot’s is through.  I liken this experience to the ‘olden’ days when extended families spent countless hours together, and children played side by side.  Many years ago, the family structure was solid, and extended families were just as common within the household as immediate family.  It is my hope that by promoting strong bonds between siblings and families that I can help influence a change in the present way of caregiving.  I have witnessed family unity, the difference that truly close family relationships make in the learning, growth and behavior of young children, and have never found any other influence in a child’s development as strong.

The separation of children from their siblings and other family members is not natural.  It is one thing if your little one is an only child.  It is yet another to place children of the same family each individually in different rooms, where they will be right down the hall from each other, but have no contact or ability to connect with their brothers or sisters for the entire day.  Now why, with all the knowledge, we have gained about stress and the way it hinders ones learning ability would we take away a child’s siblings?  It seems to me that the answer is because center ratios require that children be grouped by age accordingly.  Centers are largely run by corporations.  Childcare is a huge industry.  The corporations that own the childcare establishments are concerned about the bottom line, not the preservation of family.  One doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out how to accommodate ratio’s while keeping families together, it just isn’t done because it would cost the childcare industry to much money in staff wages.

Some may argue that siblings will be separated later in elementary school.  However, from a child development stance, this analogy is like comparing apples to oranges.  Older children have the ability to understand that they are in classes with other children to learn skills based on their age.  By this stage in development children are secure, autonomous young individuals that have developed the confidence to be independent from their families. 

A heartbreaking story comes to mind when I think about the separation of siblings:

During the fieldwork for my Practicum course (our last course prior to degree completion); I was required to spend a day in eight different childcare facilities.  I researched eight of the most commonly used childcare and preschool facilities in our area, four chain centers, two private facilities and two state funded programs.  I chose what I thought would have been the best facilities in the area because truthfully I wanted to learn.

I can honestly say that one and only one of these places was a good quality childcare setting.  Three provided the minimal standards, and to put it mildly I could write a book on what I learned from the four centers during my visits. 

Now mind you, the staff at these facilities knew I was coming, I had arranged for my observations long in advance of my visits.  Although I have nothing heinous to report, I can truly say that what the fancy company literature and center director claimed I would see, and what actually took place was so completely different that one would have thought I was at different place.  I do not wish to rehash my griefs with all of the injustices, but I would like to point out one particular event that I witnessed that happens each and everyday in childcare centers.

During this beautiful sunny day, many classrooms went out to play on their individually fenced-in  playgrounds.  Each class playground was a square fenced area with a small strip of grass a sidewalk and a climbing toy.  In each play area there were between 20 and 30 children.  The teachers interactions with children were few, they were mainly standing around the door area chatting with each other while watching the children play.  What caught my eye were the two children standing on opposite sites of the fence from each other, two beautiful little girls about a year apart in age clutching each other’s arms and trying to hold onto each other through the fence. The memory still brings tears to my eyes. The older girl was trying to comfort the younger child, who was sobbing uncontrollably, by hugging her through the chain link fence.  As I looked around trying to make eye contact with the teachers on her side of the fence, I noticed that I was apparently the only one concerned.  I walked to the fence and crouched down to the little girl, who sadly explained that the younger child needed her.  I lifted her up, and politely called to the teacher on the other side of the fence to lift up the younger girl so that the two children could hug each other.  Thankfully, the teacher did as I wished, but explained to me that this happened every time they took the children outside.  The girls were sisters and were new at the center, having only been enrolled 3 months.  The teacher confided that she frequently witnesses this type of distress in other children enrolled in the center. 

This center is a huge chain that thousands of families utilize across the nation; their facility is bright, cheery and appears outwardly to be lots of fun.  Although the teachers were quite young and for the most part inexperienced, the literature handed out by the director was obviously written by someone with vast knowledge in the field of Early Childhood Education.  I have no doubt that their marketing team is doing a great job.  My concern in my brief time at this and all the other centers was the utter disregard of the children’s emotional health and the lack of personal interactions between the children and their caregivers.  Not once in all four centers did I ever witness a teacher with a child on her lap, a teacher making truly meaningful conversation with a child, or even so much as a teacher sitting in a play area with the children.

Directly related to this concern was my first hand experience with siblings who spent their first one and two years respectively in center based care.  The parents of the children were looking for a home childcare environment for the specific need to give their children time to get to know each other.  Fighting was constant, hitting, kicking, pushing, wrestling, jealousy between the children was a big concern, and the parents were helpless as to how to fix the animosity between their children.  Evenings after childcare were exhausting these poor parents and causing quite a bit of stress on their marriage.  What I found within a short time of their enrollment here at Little Tot’s was that they simply needed that time together to form a loving empathetic connection.  I preformed no magic, but within two months of daily contact the children began exhibiting natural sibling traits such as showing empathy for each other, having the desire to be with each other and feeling personal satisfaction for the others accomplishments.

It is for this reason that I am confident that family childcare and education is the absolute best option available for working families.  My own children had the great fortune to grow up together, to be raised together as they should be.  Here at Little Tot’s I have been blessed with some wonderful families, who feel the same way.  I can honestly say that with the knowledge that I have obtained through my relationships with young children and my education, that not for all the riches in the world would I ever change my desire to have my children experience life in exactly this way.

References

Baker, A. & Manfredi/Petitt, L. (2004)  Relationships, the Heart of   Quality Care.  United States:  National Association for the          Education of Young Children

Galinsky, E. & David,  J. (1988).  The Preschool Years.  United           States:  Ballantine Books

Shore, R. (1997).  Rethinking the Brain.  New York:  Families and      Work Institute