My Philosophy
As a parent and childcare provider, I know the anxiety that comes with
leaving your child in someone's else's care and trusting them to
provide the care you know your child deserves. As a Professional
Childcare Provider, I feel communication is an integral in of this
arrangement.
My primary goal of my childcare program is to provide a safe, family-
like environment for your child while you are at work. I feel a child's
work is play. All activities are intended as an opportunity for building
social skills, interacting between children, practicing self help skills in
a family-like environment.
As a family childcare provider, I encourage families to become
involved in the education of their child. I am here not only to educate
children but also to contribute in all areas of their lives. I believe that
children are active learners developing in three domains:
Social/Emotional, Cognitive, and Physical, and are building
knowledge through all five of their senses. My program puts an
emphasis on the interactions between the child and caregiver and the
interactions between the child and peers of a mixed age group. This
environment helps children learn independence, self-control, trust,
autonomy, and initiative while still respecting others. I encourage the
children to make decisions, use reasoning skills, practice listening,
and explore the world around them. By teaching them words for self-
expression, I am encouraging cooperation instead of competition.
Children can feel comfortable growing and learning at their own pace
while I foster self-esteem, positive attitudes, and pro-social behavior.
I embrace the concept of scaffolding, the idea of building upon simple
concepts to prepare the child for larger, more complex tasks and
ideas through hands on educational opportunities. Infants and
toddlers learn from sounds, textures, tastes, smells, and colors.
Cooing and babbling are the basis of communication between a child
and their surroundings. The soft, loving touch of a hand and the wet,
tickly feelings of grass are lessons just as important as those that can
be found in any educational book. Food likes and dislikes, i.e.,
chocolate ice cream and broccoli, will begin the defining personality
traits of each child. Sky blue, tree green, and rose red are colors in
our daily world that help children’s brains develop as they learn words
for what they see. Older children learn from the formation of
relationships with peers and adults in their lives, through social
referencing, and tangible objects. At this age children are looking
toward adults as role models and forming ties with the people in their
lives.
Curriculum is not just what story is read, what art project is done, or
what product is made; a large part of curriculum is playtime. Activities
like crawling, walking, running, throwing, catching, jumping, climbing,
and balancing will develop gross motor skills. Once gross motor skills
are mastered children can gain fine motor skills. Activities such as
building with blocks, stringing beads, drawing, painting, and placing
pegs into holes will help with the development of children’s fine motor
skills, hand-eye coordination, and their sense of direction. These are
the same skills that are needed for reading, writing, and math.
By embracing each child’s development from a very young age, I can
assist in building a strong foundation for growth. Together, we can
help children by recognizing that educational opportunities exist in the
simplest activities.
My philosophy is that a warm and nurturing environment is made rich
by “hands-on”, play-learning opportunities. Children learn about
themselves and their environment through their surroundings as well
as interactions with others.
From birth, children are marvelous learners, immediately investigating
the sights, sounds and feel of their surroundings. Long before
walking and talking, they are already exploring their own abilities and
what the world has to offer them. Though much of a child’s play and
learning is self-motivated and self-directed, it is still important for
caregivers to offer opportunities for caregiver-initiated play and
learning experiences throughout the day, as well.
Children of all ages in my childcare are given opportunities to learn
through experiences with stories, songs/music, art, science, dramatic
play, sensory materials, number and letter activities and the
outdoors. Even children younger than 2 years, tend to choose to
participate in the above activities so our activities are tailored to the
interest, abilities, as well as, the ages of the children in my care.