Losing kids to pre-school ugh !! JUst venting :)

[angelina]

The biggest excuse I have heard for pulling a child from home care to a centre is to give them the chance to get used to being part of a larger group which is what they will face in school. So it is a year of transition for them too and allows them to do it while the actual academic learning is not a requirement in the sense that JK/SK build on and will teach if necessary ready for reading and grade 1.

As for requiring a degree to teach the alphabet and shapes - there are many homeschooling parents with only basic schooling themselves that do an awesome job so no a degree is not required. It is a perk that parents think is great but in reality in a home enviroment means very little. Especially when in the degree itself it barely touches on what to do when best practices have to be sacrificed due to multiage programming ie no scissors in open art centre with babies in care unless you put them in separate areas which defeats the point of family care.

I have an elementary teaching certificate as well as ECE courses and non of that prepared me for diaper changing, cooking with kids underfoot and dressing everyone for outside - being a parent did.

Reminds me of what Monique said on our CCPRN workshop about ELECT: " we in the business of home daycare are called Earliest Childhood Educator, with diploma or not".

That said, it is still the parents who have the final decision where to put their children.

The language maybe different, but it all means the same. The theory trained caregiver might put in lesson plan -5. Physical Development - Fine Motor Skills Activity for Pre-school ( cutting with scissors, drawing shapes with markers, using pinchers to pick up objects, using pretend kitchen play for tools ) while self taught mama would say - Lesson plan - using scissors, lets have fun in the kitchen. Both offer Play base Learning - which is capitalizing on your child's desire to explore and learn. To me, how the lesson is presented does not matter. As long as, this busy buddy is having fun and learning at the same time.

ah the big groups to get ready with the big crowd of 30 kids...i hear that before.

thanks playfelt.