Why Group Daycare Can Help Advance Your Childs Learning

Many parents have the impression that daycare is just babysitting. At Futurekids Daycare the curriculum in the daycare and preschool is exactly the same except that the daycare program has more hours for honing skills such as language and math and more time for activities such as science, geography and cooking. Furthermore, the staff at Futurekids Daycare, are not only qualified in early childhood development but have various specialties such as Montessori training, special needs training, and backgrounds in Reggio Emelia and Elementary School teachings. Each year they also participate in various workshops such as fun family phonics and brain dance to further their professional development.

Many home based family daycares provide service with the primary function of keeping kids safe and entertained while their parents are at work. Also, it is not mandatory for caregivers of home based family daycares to have an ECE license. However, group daycare such as Futurekids Daycare in Coquitlam is governed by the ministry of health and community licensing and must meet the rigid standards for health, safety and programming.

It is well known that early childhood is critical to the development of young children. It is also well documented that children who do not have quality childcare are slower in developing many key skills and have a higher risk for developing emotional and behavioral problems later on. On the other hand, children who receive quality childcare develop skills that help them succeed in school and build healthy relationships with others.

Read more on this article here.

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Originally Posted by zesmail

Many parents have the impression that daycare is just babysitting. At Futurekids Daycare the curriculum in the daycare and preschool is exactly the same except that the daycare program has more hours for honing skills such as language and math and more time for activities such as science, geography and cooking. Furthermore, the staff at Futurekids Daycare, are not only qualified in early childhood development but have various specialties such as Montessori training, special needs training, and backgrounds in Reggio Emelia and Elementary School teachings. Each year they also participate in various workshops such as fun family phonics and brain dance to further their professional development.

Many home based family daycares provide service with the primary function of keeping kids safe and entertained while their parents are at work. Also, it is not mandatory for caregivers of home based family daycares to have an ECE license. However, group daycare such as Futurekids Daycare in Coquitlam is governed by the ministry of health and community licensing and must meet the rigid standards for health, safety and programming.

It is well known that early childhood is critical to the development of young children. It is also well documented that children who do not have quality childcare are slower in developing many key skills and have a higher risk for developing emotional and behavioral problems later on. On the other hand, children who receive quality childcare develop skills that help them succeed in school and build healthy relationships with others.

Read more on this article here.

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Could you please post some research links to back up your statements? Quality care can include an early childhood of just good CARE without any programming and net excellent students and excellent behavior.

What research are you referring to that is not based on poor children and african American poor male children?

By the time a child enters second grade there is no significant difference between those who had early childhood education and those who did not. The only exception to that is desperately poor children who fare better than desperately poor children who did not attend an early childhood program. The results for this very small subsect of the population are due to the children being cared for out of their parents home and away from their parents, not because the program itself had educational merits.

Do you have any research on your students beyond entry into second grade that show their academic skillls in.reading, math, and science are higher than the children who did not attend an early childhood program?

Here is research of how play and self directed activities have a more positive outcome than a more academically directed model:

http://www.ooeygooey.com/the-marcon-study/

Good Afternoon,

Thank you kindly for responding to the blog post. I appreciate your link contribution arts and crafts and your questions daycarewhisperer.

Please be advised that this article did not claim that home based family daycares do nothing more than baby sit. This post is here to make parents aware of the wonderful benefits a structured daycare has and how the curriculum has been successful in honing children's skills at an early age. This article was written in order to dispel the myth that daycares are simply babysitters. Furthermore, at no point was it mentioned that home care services are not of quality. However, we have read articles of facilities around the world that do not provide stimulating activities and communication to expand and enhance a child’s intelligence and I wanted to mention of how it can hinder a childs' development.

In my experience of working in the field for over 20 years and raising my two children, I have seen how the curriculum built in our program has helped hone children's skills. The proof is in the pudding. The parents have seen the results and that is why we are in operation today. While I cannot speak for all ECE centres, I am told by parents and kindergarten teachers that our program is of high quality and has made the transition to school an easy one. They have repeatedly lauded the abilities of our children being confidant, having high self esteem and knowing many skills and concepts including fine motor skills, colors,shapes, letters, numbers, etc. The resources used in building the curriculum have encompassed a variety of programs including Reggio, Montessori, Kindergarden, etc.

Please feel free to view our testimonials page from parents who have seen improvements in their children's abilities after attending our program. The ECE program has been created to teach children to behave in a structured learning environment, learn social interaction, cognitive development, and more much.

Links:

1. NIEER: National Institute For Early Childhood Research

More than 200 million children under age 5 are not reaching their full mental, physical, and social developmental potential, says a recent report from The Open University based in the United Kingdom.

http://tinyurl.com/p3w62c8

2. World Health Organization

Early childhood development is considered to be a most important phase in life which determines the quality of health, well-being, learning and behaviour across the life span.

Children require stimulating, supportive and nurturing care when their parents are not available. High quality childcare and early childhood education can improve children’s chances for success in later life.

The more stimulating the early environment, the more a child develops and learns.

http://tinyurl.com/qdn2g8x

3. Child Care Canada- cited sources

A Canadian cost-benefit study considering universal, high quality early childhood education and care showed that such a program would produce a $2 social and economic return to our society for every dollar spent. Other studies of
early childhood education and care in countries from the US to developing countries demonstrate a strong relationship between early childhood programs and improved school performance.

http://www.childcarecanada.org/sites...nd_economy.pdf

Please see my response above.

Thank you kindly.

Omigoodness, I can't keep my mouth shut! I may be old fashioned but my theme this week is Autumn, and themes change weekly. I read books that pertain to the theme, we are making trees with pipeleaners and buttons today and glueing the leaves we collected at the park yesterday onto papers to make leaf people and other shapes.

My 5 daycare children are learning something new every week thanks to my own silly songs, crafts, stories and teaching them inside and outside AS WE PLAY and laugh and have fun. Children are not robots, children need to play. Why are people so interested in cramming educational programs down baby's throats? I'm very proud that my daycare children graduate with little seeds of knowledge on many different subjects due to the teaching I do all the time, but they also go to school knowing how to socialize, have fun and laugh. It's extremely important. They will be at a desk at school for many years, let them be children.

I was born in the sixties. This was the era when Mom opened up the door in the morning and said see you at lunch. After lunch, it was I'll call you when supper is ready (yelling out the front door). My friends and I played all day actively using our imaginations to create all sorts of play scenarios in our minds with our toys and without toys.
We didn't have kindergarden in the province I lived in then, and my parents certainly didn't teach me my abc's or how to write my name before I entered grade 1, that was what school was for.
My parents didn't coddle me, did support my learning by helping me with my homework when I struggled and limited my toy collection due to finances, so my imagination and friends continued to entertain me.
I did well in school, learning to read and reading to the class in a couple of months.
My point is, let kids be kids, let them PLAY, watch them play and you see how much they are teaching themselves and you can see how much they watch the adults around them and try to copy them. We hoover way too much and by doing so still the imagination in the kids.

Today my dck's are going to collect some leaves and glue them to paper to make a collage and we will talk about how the colder nights are making the leaves turn colour ..........and then they will play.:)

I agree with you and children at our daycare play and while they play we teach them something.

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Originally Posted by zesmail

I agree with you and children at our daycare play and while they play we teach them something.

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Then there is no much difference between your daycare and other daycare centers and a home daycare. Kids learn while playing and in the between there are several learning opportunities.

It is lovely to see everyone so passionate about this topic and I hope nobodys opinions are offended. As a new member, I wish to simply share my insight and that does not mean everyone agrees. Working in this business, I have come across quality environments and have also heard of such centres and home care facilities that are not.

What must be made mention of is that not all daycares or home care centres have a teaching curriculum in place that prepares children for schooling. This is not to dispel what other daycares or home care centres do. It is to place emphasis that parents should look into the program in depth to understand the offering and see if it matches their needs. Some home care centres and daycares do not provide a learning element and in fact are just used for baby sitting services which works well too. It is ultimately up to what the parent is looking for.

At the end of the day, it is lovely to hear that the children are learning while having fun!

Thank you for your explanation zesmail and I for one appreciate that you have an open mind and are not offended. It's really nice when we can all voice our own opinions without others getting furious with us. I'm afraid on this site we've been attacked a few times too often by VERY judgemental people and we may tend to get our backs up a bit sometimes. I try never to judge others but I am proud of my daycare and the little people I'm helping to form their good habits, nice personalites, healthy and happy emotionally and physically to get a good start in life. I'm proud of the teaching portion of my days as well as the times when I can tell the children it's a day to just play.

And I do agree that there are very bad home daycare providers out there. I've run into a couple of those myself.

It's all in the balance right? Children learn through play- absolutely important! That being said I am also very proud that I have a little classroom for the kids. We visit it almost every day and the children love it! I start with the basics- coordination, concentration... -and then move on to letters and numbers. When my kids move on to school they are happily socialized and know how to have fun but they also know how to sit down and complete tasks quietly. (As a teacher I know how appreciated this skill is! :laugh:) I think that each caregiver simply needs to offer what they are comfortable with and to work with their strengths.