Today Jana and I discussed the differences in childcare facilities in our area. She was so comfortable today because our kids are so well behaved! I was thrilled with the positive input. She was amazed that they played well together and that the noise level was so low. She said repeatedly that other places are so chaotic because providers aren’t allowed to correct poorly behaved children. I was shocked to learn that telling a child “no” is a “must never say”.

It is against the law in the state of Indiana to put a child in time-out. Others focus on a method of “redirection”. I agree with this method, but how are you supposed to redirect a child who continually hurts other children? How is he/she supposed to understand that his/her actions were cruel and unkind if there are no consequences? This leaves the provider with no alternatives that effectively work. How is the provider expected to handle his/her job?

Our goal is to teach our children to become adults. Their best example comes from their parents and care providers. We teach them how to become civilized through discipline and structure.

Our children have a discipline chart designed by Miss Kelly. Each child begins with a star and a crown in his/her name pocket. If the child makes another child cry, is disobedient, or destructive he/she will get a blue face in their pocket. If the child has another offense he/she will receive a green face. The green face is strike 3. If bad behavior continues we call the parents. When our form of discipline fails we have no other options.

The chart has worked wonders and the children really have something to work for. We feel that it is more important to support well-behaved children who want to learn, than focus our attention on punishing children who don’t. The day is less stressful on teachers, and encouraging good behavior is a must in this line of work.

We are blessed to have a great group of kids and an extremely supportive group of parents! We get an A+ from Miss Jana!!

Today was a wonderful day! While the cat’s away, the mice will definitely play! Our group was small and played together rather quietly. Miss Kelly’s little boy Jaylen is still battling strep throat, so we hired one of the best subs we have ever had. Miss Jana is a stay-at-home mother of two. Her children Caleb and Josie came to play with us today. She has experience with large groups of children and was employeed at a local daycare. She is great with the kids and
they just love her!

We began our day with Pop tarts, pineapple and, and milk. The children ate quietly and went to circle time. Mrs. St.Louis gave the children a drawing lesson. Today was “Bunnies in the Springtime”. The pictures were absolutely darling! They will all go in a book for Miss Judy because we already miss her so much!

The weather was a bit dreary today. We braved the wind and clouds for an hour. I think we are all ready for some real sunshine! After outside time was over, we dragged out the inside toys for building. The boys built a castle for their rescue heroes. The girls played in dress up. Our new little boy, Alex, is fascinated by Buckaroo, a tabletop game that the kids really enjoy.

Mrs. St.Louis made spaghetti, and they gobbled it down. Miss Jana’s little girl Josie has quite an appetite for life! After finishing a plate of spaghetti she decided to cleanse her pallet with an Altoid mint. She’s not even 2 yet!
The day went off without a hitch! We have such a great group of children. We really enjoy them. They are so entertaining.

I’ll be in Washington for a few days. Miss Molly is going to tattle while I’m away. This is my first get away in four years, so I’m really looking forward to it. The trip is a present from my daughter Katy. Since Anne has agreed to feed the cats, and Edith has agreed to care for all our school animals, it’s a go. Blessings, Judy

I am writing this in response to the person who responds negatively to the blog on a regular basis.

Taking children on extended field trips was a decision we made with our parents’ approval. Parents who feel that their children are too young or not ready for long trips have graciously found care elsewhere for the day or have chosen to come along for the ride. These extended trips mean children have the bonus of seeing what the world has to offer outside Evansville.

Some of our parents don’t have an option with their heavy workloads to take their children places during the summer and have found it to be a real treat for us to take them someplace they haven’t been before. Considering a change to our curriculum and shortening long field trips primarily involves a lack of hours in a day, fuel costs, and field trip expense. We simply can’t do all of the things we would love to do with our children!

Our program is full of all kinds of things that are age appropriate and educational. I know. I am not only an employee but a mother with 2 children that attend our school. I get a majority of my feedback and input from my 6 year old! They have brilliant ideas!

Yet no matter what we do or suggest, we have a reader who routinely writes negative comments about very positive pieces written by Miss Judy. Most of the comments have absolutely nothing to do with the subject matter written and don’t make sense. “You must like the boys more than the girls” Miss Judy has 3 grandsons and 2 on the way. I assure you, she loves both groups equally. What does this comment have to do with praising our little girls for doing something adorable?

This blogsite is a tool for parents that have questions about childcare. Our parents get an inside look into the highlights of our day and view pictures of their little ones. The blog is a resource we are thrilled to provide. There are over 150 links to sites well worth using, and major blogs pick up our news and Tattlers.

We are asking parents not to respond to the insults of someone that has a dislike for our program and hatred for our writers. Negativity breeds negativity and we just won’t tolerate it. We hope that you like what you read and we hope to get your productive input.

Thank you, Molly Snyder

South Bend Tribune

Child Care Site Rules to be Rewritten

Providers, parents invited to meet legislators, learn of process.

JOSEPH DITS Tribune Staff Writer

This spring state officials will begin rewriting the rules that govern licensed child care homes in Indiana.This pleases many who run those homes since they feel — at last — their input will help to shape the rules.In fact, a group of them invites fellow child care home providers, advocates and parents to an informal meeting Monday to learn about what this will mean.

The guests will include Republican state representatives Tim Neese, of Elkhart, and Jackie Walorski, of Lakeville.Walorski said she has advocated on behalf of the providers to “keep the state’s heavy-handed regulations off of them.”

Walorski doesn’t plan to introduce any child care bills in next year’s session. She said she’d only do so if she feels that Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration is becoming “overly heavy-handed” with the new rules.

In Indiana, home-based care must be licensed if it looks after six or more children.Early last year, a set of 56 new rules awaited the signature of the state’s new governor, Mitch Daniels, but he refused after hearing complaints from the Indiana Childcare Association that the rules were unworkable. New FSSA Secretary Mitch Roob agreed and scrapped the new rules altogether.

“I don’t think the providers had a voice,” Melanie Brizzi said of the process that created those rules. She’s a state-contracted liaison on child care issues between providers, legislators and the state. “We’ll make sure we do it right this time.”

On five days spread over May, June and July, she said, providers will be involved in “work groups” to discuss what’s good and bad and what needs to change in the current regulations. These groups will include fire marshals, health departments, FSSA officials and others who have a stake in the rules. Based on that feedback, Brizzi said, a set of proposed rules will be drafted by the National Association for Regulatory Administration, a group that works in licensing for child care, substance abuse programs and other human services.

NARA adds objectivity to the process, said Michelle Thomas, the FSSA’s child care administrator. “They’ve done this in other states,” she said.NARA also will try to write the rules so they are easier to understand, she said — so that you don’t have to flip to different pages to know what to do in one area.

The proposed rules that were rejected last year came about because the FSSA wanted to ensure safety after 16 children died in licensed child care homes in Indiana from 1999 to 2003.

The rule writers had said that most of those deaths happened because of a lack of supervision.

Among the new rules was one that required that children remain within sight and sound of an adult caretaker at all times. Providers argued that they were bound to break the rule when they turned around for a couple of minutes or let a child go to the bathroom.

Thomas said safety remains the “bottom line” of the rules.”Our goal isn’t to dumb down the rules,” Thomas said. “It’s to use some common sense in what we regulate.”After the new rules are drafted in October, the general public will have chances to offer their input at public meetings.

“We are optimistic that we will come up with attainable, healthy regulations that we can all abide by,” said Indiana Childcare Association’s president, Monica Boyer, of Warsaw. Depending on how it goes, Thomas said, the FSSA will look into revisions in the rules for licensed child care centers.

Sara Writes: that’s what parents are asking for the DECISION…I don’t want daycare but I don’t want it stopped either.. what I would like to see is the government supporting stay at home parents just as much..

It’s an interesting idea, but complicated. To accommodate parents who want to stay home means a government grant would go to private homes. So what, you say, working mothers get grants and so do students, why not stay at home mothers?

Most working parents would probably say because a working person is a contributor to the work force and the economy and a student is liable to eventually find a job that contributes a taxable income. It’s an investment. Studies say it works. Stay at home parents would use grant money without a return on the investment. And who would pay for it? Would working class parents have to pay for stay at home parents to stay home? Seems unfair.

It seems that the decision to stay at home, and I did it for fifteen years, is a pioneer position. You’re on your own. If you give up the second income, that’s your choice, and you have to live with it.

At the same time, if the government did pay parents to stay home, how much of a say about that home would the government be entitled to? Could they tell you what you could and could not eat, what if any religion you could practice, how many children you can have, when and where, and what things you could and could not do in your government subsidized life?

Personally, I think a home is a sacred place and not for government interference. We’ve fought long and hard in this country for freedom, and to invite government funding into our homes is just asking to turn back the clocks. Boston Tea Party revisited.

A letter came from a reader about a February 26 post. She recommended that I read the anti day care web site. I’ve seen it before. My first impression was to laugh and my second was a snide grammatical comment, and I looked carefully at the website because I really believe everyone has a point of view, and we too often brush off points of view not like our own.

After considering this point of view and taking the time to read some of the articles on the site, I concluded that she’s right: institutions don’t love or care because they are inanimate; people do. To say that all people working in childcare facilities don’t love “your” child is idiotic and closed minded and not worth paying attention to. To say that the people working in childcare don’t love “your” child as much as “you” do is a respectable statement. Of course they don’t, and if they did, what’s wrong with “you?”

The truth is, some childcare providers just like some teachers will really bond with a child. There will be a friendship you can count on. I know about this because 25 years ago I started making a lot of friends who I really cared about — little people – who now have little people of their own. When I meet them in the street or at a party or wedding, we remember, and the love and respect all comes back.

At the same time there isn’t a child at my school I wouldn’t take home as my own if the opportunity presented itself. Every child, every person has worth and value and is lovable. Love is an easy response to a child. To be able, like the parent, to tell the child he or she is lovable, and well worth fighting for is a glorious gift, a royal opportunity, a joy beyond any possible reward.

To say Childcare is a barrier to love is dumb. It’s about as dumb as saying nobody really needs childcare. Besides, who is to moderate who loves whom and why? But someone wrote in, and it’s worth looking at. So here’s the intro to the anti childcare website and you decide:

Everyone knows it’s true… but almost everyone’s afraid to say it: Daycare institutions don’t care about or love your child like you do.

For years, many experts have been warning us about the detrimental consequences for children placed in day care.

This website contains an extensive index of publications about daycare from well-known child development authorities, psychologists, psychiatrists, pediatricians, public policy analysts, sociologists, daycare providers, and others.

This collection of day care information seeks to counterbalance the relentless pressure placed upon parents to abandon their children to these impersonal institutions.

These findings show that no amount of legislation, government funding, money, early childhood training, regulations, or inspections can make a day-care love your child.

This is so real. The truth is, in family child care that’s run well, whose provider is on the ball, and whose house is large enough, the number that makes it work is ten or more because that gives enough children to play with while it makes the place hum with activity. Too few kids is boring and too many is hard to manage. Providers know their maximums.

Child-care Providers Pack Hearing
Health, safety issues: City licenses, limiting numbers
By Ryan Pagelow
Staff writer

WAUKEGAN — Stressing health and safety issues, city officials during a public hearing Wednesday night made the case for a proposed home-based child-care ordinance that would require providers to have a city license to operate.

More than 175 child-care providers attended the meeting, a majority of them in opposition to proposed limits on the number of children permitted in their home-based day cares. They also said the Department of Children and Family Services already inspects their homes for safety and health regulations.

Under current city ordinances, home-based day-care operations are limited to four children regardless of how many providers are on site, said Noelle Kischer of the Waukegan Department of Planning and Zoning, although it’s not enforced.

The new ordinance proposes limiting the number of children in a home day care to eight, including the owners’ children under 12 years of age.

Many providers are licensed through the DCFS to care for up to 12 or 16 children.

“If this ordinance is not passed we will be forced to enforce (current city ordinances),” Kischer said. “Eight is generous. Four is the current number.”

The process of developing the new proposed ordinance started in 2001 with committee meetings and community forums.

“There were many complaints about noise, especially car doors slamming in the mornings and excessive garbage,” Kischer said.

The committee researched ordinances in other communities and found that Libertyville limits home day cares to eight children and Zion limits to six children. About two dozen states also limit to eight children.

Another concern Kischer raised is that the local DCFS office currently has only four staff members to monitor Waukegan’s 223 licensed home-based day cares, three group homes and 21 day-care centers.

If home child-care providers are required to be licensed by the city of Waukegan in addition to DCFS, their neighbors will be notified of the intent to operate a day- care home and emergency responders would also be aware that children are in the home when responding to a call.

Some providers in the meeting were concerned about sexual predators in Waukegan knowing about the location of home day cares in the neighborhood, but any known sexual predator within 500 feet of a day care would be told to move by law.

Cynthia Mendez, a Waukegan parent, said if the number of children is limited, about 30 to 50 percent of kids currently in home-based day care would be affected.

“Who is going to care for them? They don’t have the money for day care,” Mendez said. “If I don’t have child care, I don’t have a job.”

The majority of the low-income home child care is paid through a subsidy from the Department of Human Services. Kischer said many day-care centers would accept the subsidies and that there are vacancies of 31 percent in local child-care homes.

Cheryle Johnson, a day-care provider with three assistants in her home, said she was concerned that school-aged children will be left out of day cares. She also said home day cares have longer hours than centers for parents who work odd hours.

“We open homes at 5 a.m. We have wonderful people around the clock,” Johnson said.
Other providers mentioned that new limits could lead to underground child care and that current levels of income earned by caring for more than eight children is vital for providers to sustain their homes.

Margaret Buffin, a child-care provider for 20 years, said she’s in favor of regulation, but that DCFS already does that for providers.

“DCFS checks twice a year. I change my fire extinguishers every year,” Buffin said. “I’m a mother bear from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and I care for these children. I also run a curriculum at home. I have children that do their homework on my kitchen table.”

She said it’s up to DCFS and providers to set their limits.

“If you can only care for seven kids, then only care for seven kids,” Buffin said.

Delia de la Cruz, the owner of two day-care centers, said she used to have one in her home with 12 children, but received many complaints from neighbors and decided to open her day-care centers in a commercial zone.

“I hope that they will not only think of themselves. We’re looking for quality care,” De la Cruz said.

The City Council’s Judiciary Committee will consider the proposed ordinance in April. The city will help find suitable locations for providers to open day-care centers in commercial zones for those interested in caring for more children than the new ordinance would allow.

“I know the compassion that these people have. But from listening here tonight the main issues I hear are quantity. But I’m most concerned about quality,” said 9th Ward Ald. Rafael Rivera at the end of the hearing. “This ordinance is not intended to go after people like you. This is intended for people not following the rules.”

I wonder what they don’t want the kids to know.

Preschool Report Card
WTAP News
Amber Davison

Pre-kindgergarteners in the Mountain State get an “A”, this according to a study released Thursday.

The study ranks West Virginia fifth in the nation in terms of the percentage of 4-year-olds enrolled in pre-kindergarten.

The state also met six of the the national institute for early education’s ten quality benchmarks.
These include comprehensive learning standards and specialized training.

Thirty five percent of eligible 4 year olds were enrolled last school year.

Sandy Leasure at Precious Angels Child Care Center in Parkersburg says her day care facility works closely with Wood County kindergarten teachers.

She says there are certain things teachers do and do not want the kids to know before they get to grade school.

Not sure I quite understand this, but here it is:

Drop-in Child-care Centers Prosper
By ANDREA JARES
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

With two small children, Kelli and Abel Hilario of Keller have had little chance to get out.

But their social calendar has opened up a bit since they discovered a child-care provider that is open nights — even until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.

Their children, ages 2 and 5, are having more fun, too, when they go to Adventure Kids Playcare in Southlake, where they’ve partied at sock hops and luaus while their parents are at the movies.

“We do it for date night because we never know in time to get a sitter,” Kelli Hilario said. “It’s really convenient.”

Drop-in child care has taken off in Tarrant County from centers set up at grocery stores, mother’s-day-out programs at churches and the sitter who stays a few hours on Saturday nights.

Businesses such as Adventure Kids and Kidztime Hourly Playcare are opening centers with late hours and activities for children from 6 months to 12 years old.

The idea has resonated with parents. Droves have dropped off their children since the businesses opened, the owners said.

Dana Oliver, founder of Adventure Kids, said that in the first month 250 parents joined and she turned a $6,000 profit. Now, 7,500 children are registered at her centers and she often has a waiting list for the Friday and Saturday night parties there, she said.

Parents may drop off their children for various reasons, but they all want their children to have something do while they’re away, too.

“They definitely want them to be entertained,” Oliver said.

Kidztime has centers in Southlake, Euless and Dallas, with plans to add seven more in the Metroplex and others across the state, said Danielle Ferri, an owner. Adventure Kids has locations in Flower Mound and Southlake, with plans to open a Plano franchise in May and expand in the future, said Oliver, who left a corporate job in finance to open her center two years ago.

Oliver and the founders of Kidztime decided to open the child-care centers after they became parents.

Oliver had no problem finding child care for her daughter — as long as it was between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m.

But child care became much more complex for the single mom if an event came up in the evenings.

“I couldn’t be the only parent that has that situation,” Oliver said.

The impromptu scheduling these centers allow appeals to parents who need someone watch a child for a few hours while they make a doctor’s appointment, shop, run errands or go out for a quiet dinner.

The operating hours allow flexibility. Adventure Kids Playcare opens at 8 a.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. Saturdays. The center is open until 10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and midnight Fridays and Saturdays. Sundays are reserved for birthday parties.

Kidztime is similar: open from 8:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays at Southlake Town Square and from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays at Heritage Towne Crossing in Euless.

Both are open from 8:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Sundays are reserved for scheduled birthday parties.

The cost ranges from $7 to $9 an hour, depending on the child’s age. There is also a $40 one-time registration fee. The hourly cost is more expensive than traditional day care, in which parents usually pay a set price per week.

But Ferri, who quit her corporate job and opened the first Kidztime three years ago with Carrie Menchaca, a high school friend and former teacher, said she set her prices lower than a sitter would normally charge, without the scheduling.

“We wanted to make it a no-brainer,” Ferri said.

Both Kidztime and Adventure Kids have areas set aside for children to play video games, watch movies or play with other children or toys.

Some children ask their parents to take them to the day care, even when their parents don’t have some place to be, Oliver said.

Adventure Kids has hosted parties where children dressed up like princesses or pirates, made foam snowballs or read Dr. Seuss books and ate green eggs and ham.

Kidztime’s Tarrant County locations are open as late as 11 Friday and Saturday nights, but on New Year’s, they stayed open until 3 a.m., Ferri said.

The unexpected nature of drop-in day care, where a parent can show up unscheduled with five children, makes them more challenging to manage. The centers are subject to the same staffing regulations as traditional day cares, where the number of children attending the center is consistent, said Neta Pierce, regional director for the state’s child-care licensing.

At a drop-in center, the ratio of employees to children must meet the guidelines no matter how many children stay at the center at any given time.

Parents who might have used part-time day care in the past may be opting for the pay-as-you-go method Kidztime offers, Ferri said.

“We provide that flexibility,” she said. “They can use us whenever they want.”

The Hilarios probably won’t be looking for a baby sitter any more. Kelli Hilario said she likes the convenience of Adventure Kids.

She said she used to have a nagging worry when she and her husband went out and left their children with a teenage sitter.

It was also hard to find a sitter because they didn’t know many responsible teenage girls who were available.

Now she doesn’t worry too much, because the staff at Adventure Kids is trained to work with children and they are not just watching television and eating chips.

“I felt really good about it,” she said. “They’re with other kids. We’re going out to have fun, and they have fun, too.”