We begin our day greeting the children
as they arrive, visiting with parents and then saying good-bye to them. The
morning transition is often the hardest part of the day; I comfort upset
children and reassure them that the people they love will come back, and I
comfort upset parents and assure them that their child will be okay. Then we do
whatever the children need: eat, sleep, diapering and play. As they get older a
routine emerges, with a morning snack, lunch, mid-day nap and afternoon snack
as the touchstones of the day. We try to get outside every day. Because
relationships are such a core part of early care and education I maintain a
primary caregiving relationship with the children…
… My goal is to provide the optimally
stimulating and nurturing environment that a young child would encounter in a
healthy home – ordinary reality, life in its goodness. We spend our
days together in my small home, learning in the way that young children do: for
example, playing with pots and pans, being read to, resolving conflicts and
exploring.
When I decided that I
wanted to do infant care in my home 22 years ago, I looked at what my community
needed and what I could offer.
It was clear that there
was a shortage of good infant care, and that most infant programs in the area
required full time enrollment in order to make their budget. I wanted to
support parents spending more time with their babies by working part time if
they had that option. This worked better for me as well, because as I completed
my MA in Human Development I knew I wanted to spend some time teaching adults
as well as working with babies – I needed that balance in my life.
So I am open 4 days a week, and parents can sign up for between 20 and 36 hours
of care per week.
Having studied
with Magda Gerber, who developed the RIE method of infant care, I valued
the concept of respectful care that allows for children to develop as authentic
and competent people. From Liz Prescott at Pacific Oaks College, I embraced the
idea that family child care could be as good as center care, and provided an
ideal setting for children to experience the ways
in which we meet day-to-day human
needs – an essential part of the early years curriculum in my view. I
liked the idea of providing care in a small, home-based, non-institutional
environment. From Betty Jones, also at
P.O., I learned about the value of providing a safe space with an abundance of
interesting things to do, and letting children explore freely within it.
Because I wanted to
develop deep relationships with families, and provide continuity of care I
decided that every three years I would enroll a new group of four infants,
between about 3 and 9 months old, and that they would stay together as a cohort
until leaving for pre-school. I enjoy creating a small, stable community for
children in their first years, and children benefit from having a primary
caregiver in a small group during that time. When I enroll families we talk
about the intention we share to stay together for three years; twice families
have had to leave before the end of that period and I have filled their slot
with another child of roughly the same age.
In Oregon, as a
Certified Family Child Care Provider, I am able to care for up to 4 infants at
a time. We arrange the schedule so that when they are tiny they’re not all here
at once, or if they are I have some help. So our ratio is always 1 to 4 or better.
I often have help from my part time assistant Katie, from my partner Terri, and
from practicum students. The children in each cohort develop deep connections
with each other, and we spend lots of time developing language and
problem-solving skills together.
Sometimes I want to say
that what we do here is nothing special, or that we’re hanging out with babies
the way people always have, but I know it’s much more than that. In a speeded
up world we provide a place for babies and their parents to slow down and enjoy
the richness of the early years. Daily life and caregiving is our curriculum; we try to take the time to honor young children’s interest in the
mundane aspects of life that adults often ignore.
Some examples are:
Our toddler field trips
are the hour long walks around the block where children become intimately
familiar with the geography of this place, and the beings that inhabit it. We
know which neighbors have given permission for us to run up and down their
steep driveway, and which lawns we need to stay off of, we know that Pearl the
neighbor cat can often be found a block away taunting the squirrels, we know
which plants are okay to touch and which ones we should avoid – we end up
knowing a lot about ourselves and this place. That knowledge provides a solid
base for moving out into the wider and more diverse world.
I’ve joked that I don’t
need to hire magicians and clowns to entertain the children because in this old
house we have regular visits from workers who help us maintain it. There’s Tom,
our painter who comes every spring, and makes smiley faces on the windows with
blue painters tape, there’s the plumber who glows as I explain to the children
that good plumbing is one of the foundations of civilization and public health,
and Julie who comes a couple of times a year to prune our trees and shrubs. She
leaves us piles of sticks to sort through, and we learn that if we leave them for
a while they become dry enough for us to break!
Of course food is an
essential part of the infant/toddler curriculum, and in this small setting with
a little garden and access to the kitchen, children are able to
explore it fully with all their senses. One of my favorite materials to put out
for babies is an unpeeled onion - the textures, the smells, the taste, the
conversations about cooking with onions – I can’t think of any toy that offers
such rich possibilities!
In part because I began
with a minimal budget, and in part because I value reuse and non-commercial
materials, I mix in lots of boxes, scrap paper, empty bottles, avocado pits and
other found treasures for the children to explore (Tom Hunter’s line “we just
call it garbage when we don’t know what to do with it” is a great inspiration
for this kind of reuse). These materials mix easily with the open ended
purchased objects in the environment, and are used just as much if not more.
In being together here in
very ordinary ways, we learn that life is delightful and play is what it’s all
about!
