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FAMILY CHILD CARE TRAINING PROGRAM

LEVEL ONE - UNIT ONE

YOUR CHILD CARE HOME

 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

THE BASICS

A good child care environment is one that is safe and comfortable and that allows the physical and developmental needs of children to be met. Good home child care environments come in all shapes and sizes, from apartments, to garden/row houses, to large single family homes, but they all have one thing in common. They all are welcoming places for children and families.

Organizing an environment which meets everyone’s needs is challenging. But with thought, planning, imagination and some hard work any home can provide a good child care environment.

Providing child care in your own home challenges you to organize and operate your child care in ways that are effective and enjoyable for the children, your family and yourself.

When planning your child care environment you will want to consider:

Consider:

Consider:

Consider:

Consider all of these factors, as well as any others that are important to you, in organizing your child care environment. Finding the balance that meets the needs of the children and their parents; allows for some privacy and freedom for your family; and is practical for you, will take time, but you can meet the challenge!

Organizing Your Home For Child Care

The following areas are important components of your home child care:

1. A serviceable and welcoming entranceway:

• Your child care entrance is the place where you greet the children and their families each morning and at the end of the day. You’ll need ways to accommodate the shoes, boots, coats, hats, mitts and other personal belongings. If you have younger children in care, you will likely have diaper bags as well as school bags for the older children.
  
  
• Providing storage for each of the children will reduce the clutter that is bound to accumulate. Use wall hooks or a clothes tree for coats; individual cubbies or stackable plastic bins for personal belongings; boot trays for shoes and boots; and a washable mat (especially useful on those wet or snowy mornings).
  
  
• Parents want to feel part of their child’s "home away from home" with information about their child’s day. Provide a bulletin board on the wall to let parents know about happenings such as a special activity or outing, or the day’s menu. Include pictures of the children participating in their daily routines. This is also the place to post any reminders for extra clothes, diapers or sun-screen.
  
  
• Seasonal posters or children’s artwork will create a friendly, cheerful entrance to your child care.

2. A convenient and comfortable place to eat:

Where children nap will depend on their ages and their personalities but all sleeping areas should be quiet, comfortable and appropriately lit (e.g. shades on windows to avoid direct sunlight).

Play enables children to have fun, to learn and to develop. Most of the children’s day, while in your care, will consist of playing. Reading, block building, exercise and arts and crafts, are a few of the essential components of a well-rounded child care day. Organizing areas of your home, both indoors and out, to support these play activities is an important consideration when planning your environment.

The size of your home, and the size of your family, will help you decide whether your basic play area will be in a separate playroom or whether it will be incorporated into your family living space, such as a family or living room.

Whether you are using one room exclusively for the child care, or sharing family space, it is helpful to consider the types of play you are planning for. Both the play and the play supplies are more organized when different play areas are clearly defined. Grouping toys and activities that are part of a certain type of play together ensures that they are used appropriately and safely. And it makes clean-up much easier!

If you are using one room for indoor play, it can be divided into areas with shelves, tables, furnishings, or large pieces of play equipment. If you are incorporating your play area into your living room, you can organize for different types of play in different areas of the room. You could also pull the couch away from the wall and use the space behind it for play and/or storage. Use laundry baskets and clear plastic bins with lids for your piece toys so that they can be easily tidied up and stacked behind one or two chairs at the end of the day.

Safety is always an important consideration. If you are caring for a mixed age group of children, there will be certain items that are not safe for the younger children. Your main play area should be suitable for all of the children. You could then organize one area to be used by those over four years (and would contain small piece toys and art supplies) and another for infants and young toddlers who are still crawling on the floor and putting almost everything into their mouths.

Consider the following types of play in organizing your space:

Creative play requires materials such as crayons, markers, pencils, stencils, scissors, hole punchers, glue, stickers, paper, paint, paint brushes, stamp pads and stampers, cotton balls, popsicle sticks, bits of fabric, lace and ribbon, doilies, and glitter.

Creative play offers great opportunities to learn about and practice recycling. Items such as old magazines, toilet and paper towel rolls, cardboard from packaging, boxes of all kinds, paper bags, and used wrapping paper add a lot of variety to the art supplies. And they’re free!

Hands-on materials such as play dough, modelling clay, and goop are all important creative activities which can be used on their own or with accessories such as rollers, scissors, and cookie cutters.

If your group is older you may decide to give the children free access to all of the art materials. Or you might prefer to leave some materials out for free choice, reserving other materials for certain times or craft projects. To store art supplies use small bins, plastic tubs, boxes and baskets. You’ll need shelf or cupboard space to store and/or display supplies.

The kitchen table is a good place for arts and crafts particularly if you have younger children who require a little more supervision. If you have the space, another table, one which is reserved for creative activities, could be enjoyed by the children at any time. Whatever area you choose make sure that the table, chairs and floor covering have a washable surface, and are within easy reach of a sink and clean-up materials.

Play with building blocks requires a variety of blocks including wooden unit blocks, interlocking blocks and Lego/Duplo style blocks as well as accessories such as play people, small cars and animals. This kind of play requires a good amount of space, preferably on a carpet because the play can be busy and noisy. Provide low shelves or plastic bins to organize the blocks and accessories.

Manipulative/Cognitive play involves such items as puzzles, peg boards, beads for stringing, shape sorters and matching games. Some activities can be completed while sitting at a table. Others, such as a floor puzzle, might require space on a rug.

Dramatic Play requires imagination more than materials and space. Shoes, purses, scarves, costumes and other interesting dress-up items; cardboard boxes that can become everything from a store to a space-ship; an old typewriter or telephone, child-sized housekeeping items (brooms, dusters, pots & pans) all encourage imaginative play. Dramatic play ‘props’ can be kept in boxes or laundry baskets, hung on hooks on the wall, on a coat rack, or in a dresser. Securely fastening a large mirror to the wall will allow the children to "admire" themselves.

Language/Reading Play materials include story books, children’s magazines, a tape player, a flannel board with felt story characters and puppets for telling stories Try to provide a cozy and comfortable place to sit, away from the hustle and bustle of noisier play such as block building or dramatic play.

Active Play is best done outdoors when the weather is good. Running, jumping, climbing, and playing games such as catch or soccer are enjoyable for children and also necessary for their growth and development. Store outdoor play equipment in your garage, shed, or in a cupboard close to your entrance

A fenced-in, child-proofed back yard with a sandbox, a wading pool and/or sprinkler, a climber, ride-on toys, a snow-slide and shovels and various sports items such as balls and skipping ropes is an asset. But if you don’t have a yard, or one suitable for play, explore your local park or tot-lot and take a daily walk in your neighbourhood.

Plan for active indoor play when it is not possible to go outdoors. Try masking tape hop-scotch, indoor basketball (using rolled up socks and a laundry basket), an indoor obstacle course, or dancercize to some favourite music to burn off steam and flex muscles. For this type of play indoors, you’ll need floor space. A basement is ideal, but even in a small apartment or home, roll back the chairs and tables to create active play space.
 

ACTIVITY How do you accommodate active indoor play now? What kinds of activities do you provide? Are there other activities you’d like to try? Develop a list of possible active indoor play ideas that you can pull out on rainy/cold/icy days.

 

CHATTER BOX "I belong to a caregiver network, and we discovered that one of our members was married to a very talented carpenter. As Mike works in construction, he often has periods of unemployment during the year, especially in the winter months. Well he used to have periods of unemployment, but not anymore. I don’t think there is a caregiver in our network whose house doesn’t contain something "Made By Mike" from children’s tables, cubby’s, and shelves, to sand boxes and play houses. Now if we could just find members married to a plumber and an electrician..."

STORAGE

Finding and organizing storage space for all of the toys, equipment and supplies that you will need for your home child care can be a challenge.

Creating a home child care environment is an on-going process. As your needs and priorities change; as your family’s need for space changes; and as the number and ages of the children in care change; so will the way you organize and run your child care. Recognize that establishing a good arrangement takes time and revision. If a certain set-up doesn’t work as well as you had hoped then review your plan and improve on it.

Other caregivers have experienced some of the same challenges as you and are usually glad to share some of their ideas. Books and magazines and child care sites on the Internet are also good sources of information. One of the many advantages of caregiving is that you can create the environment that works best for you. The following checklist will help you examine how effectively your environment is working now, and what areas you might want to change.

ENVIRONMENT CHECKLIST

Think about (and look at) your environment and rate the following areas indicating S for Satisfactory, N for needs improvement, and NI for needs IMMEDIATE improvement. Remember, you’re not looking at how much space you have but how well you use it!

The arrival and entrance area:

____ adequate parking for parents
____ safe, well-lit entrance to home (e.g. snow cleared, path to door and steps in good repair)
____ entrance area is warm and welcoming
____ adequate space for adults and children
____ washable door mat
____ place for shoes and boots
____ place for the children’s outdoor clothes
____ place for each child’s personal belongings
____ bulletin board for menu, parent info, pictures, etc.

The eating area:

____ is cheerful and comfortable
____ table and chairs
____ any required booster seats, high chairs/infant chairs
____ child-friendly dishes, cutlery and cups
____ washable table, chairs and floor surface
____ convenient sink

The personal care area:

____ is functional and bright
____ adequate space for adult and child(ren)
____ toilet, potty seat or chair
____ soap dispenser
____ sink
____ non-slip stool for access to sink
____ shelves for supplies
____ cleaning supplies (stored out of reach)
____ hooks/hangers/shelves for children’s personal care supplies (face cloths, towels, toothbrushes, combs, etc.)
____ accessible diapering facilities (change table, necessary supplies/equipment)

The sleeping area:

____ is quiet and pleasant
____ comfortable mats, cots, or beds
____ individual bedding
____ cribs or playpens for infants/toddlers
____ window coverings to reduce brightness

Play areas:

____ are bright, cheerful and provide adequate space for intended use
____ child-sized table and chairs
____ adequate and accessible shelving and storage for toys, books, materials and equipment
____ shelves, tables or other furniture used to divide and organize areas for different kinds of play
____ comfortable rugs where appropriate
____ washable floors where appropriate
____ children’s artwork, posters and decorations

Space, equipment and supplies for:

____ creative play
____ block/building play
____ manipulative/cognitive play
____ dramatic plays
____ language/reading activities
____ active play (indoors and outdoors)

OTHER AREAS

____     ____________________________________________
____     ____________________________________________
____     ____________________________________________
____     ____________________________________________

EVALUATION

OPTIONS:

Using the Evaluation Checklist as a starting point, identify and develop a list of the areas that need attention on one side of a sheet and options for change on the other. For example, is the entranceway always crowded and untidy. Are there items that can be moved out of the entrance? Could coats be hung on a clothes tree or hooks in the play area? Could you use an alternate entrance (e.g. side door). Do toys and toy pieces tend to end up all over the place? Can children access those toys and materials that you want them to help themselves to and is it easy for them to clear up afterwards? Would low shelves, clearly marked containers for blocks, people, cars, etc. help? Are there too many toys? Perhaps you should store some toys and bring out on a rotation basis every month or two. Is your space relatively well organized but boring? Would children’s artwork, bright posters or pictures liven up the space?

Determine priorities - obviously any safety issues should be dealt with immediately. For the rest, determine your priorities for change based on cost, time involved and how much aggravation the area is causing. Set goals for when you would like to have made each of your changes and review your goals periodically to see how you are progressing.

OR

ASSIGNMENT TWO

Visit at least one other caregiver’s home (if possible during the child care day) and, using the Environment Checklist as a guide, note how the home is organized. How are the needs of the children and their parents, the caregiver, and their family met? How is space for various types of play organized? How does the caregiver deal with storage of everything from personal care items for the children, to outdoor clothing, toys and craft materials? What ideas can you use in your own home?

QUIZ