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

[playfelt]

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.

[kidlove]

Playfelt! yay! thanks for your point of view, I too feel the same way as you! I know a ton of home school parents in our church and community and they too, have no higher education to teach their children and all have well rounded intelligent children. I also have a sis in law who IS an accredited teacher and comes to me for advice in all areas of child rearing and education...she went to school for 4 plus years and continues to update her teaching license annually and needs help from me, an undereducated stay at home Day Care Provider. I believe that saying you need a higher education to be a more suitable provider can be a steriotypical point of view, I think more than anything, you need knowledge of children and experience, that can be acheived in many dif ways, higher edu., experience of child care and child rearing or a mix of the two. Although I agree knowledge is KEY, but I also believe you can get the knowledge in many dif places. I do have 1 year college, not in child care but in social skills. I also have over the years completed many trainings in child care and many ECE's. I do not have a paid for eduacation from any one university or college and I know I don't have all the answers regarding children and their developement, but I also KNOW I am just as fit if not more than some providers who sport the much coveted "education" that some people think is what makes them so important. no dis to anyone here, just a simple statement, that altyhough to each his or her own opinion when choosing a Day Care Provider vs. Preschool.....I personally know that I am just as fit to provide eduacation at the preschool and kidergarten level as any joe shmo with a secondary edu, early childhood developement edu. I have shown it time and time again having my daycare kiddos go off to kindergarten fresh from my care and the teacher sends messages to parents regarding the very well prepared children that come from my care year after year.

[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.

[sunnydays]

As a parent who has looked for daycare in the past (before I had my own daycare), I was not really interested in finding someone with ECE...if they had it that would be nice to know, but would not make me think they were a better caregiver. I looked more at experience, personality, program, etc. I actually disagree that kids need an ECE who is qualified to teach them academics...I mean we are talking about kids under 4 years of age (at least in Ontario). I actually feel that parents are led to believe these days that kids can no longer learn what the need to learn through playing...which is funny because when I was a kid, kids just played until they started school (and I didn't start school until six)...I don't think it put us at a disadvantage. In fact, kids are becoming more and more stressed because we are pushing them into so many structured activities and trying to make them into baby geniouses and super athletes etc. I think a caring, intelligent, caregiver can provide everything a young child needs to learn in those early years without having a degree in ECE or any other degree for that matter.

I agree that through years of experience and a general interest in children is definitely a requirement for being able to provide greart care but it still doesn't mean that home daycare is best for kids once they reach the preschool age.
Children who are preschool age DO need an educated provider/teacher in order to teach them academics. Someone without the deeper understanding and knowledge from an ECE degree is not necessarily qualified to teach children the academic part of learning in comparison to a home daycare provider.
I would think THAT is the line of thinking used by parents when they pull their child from home care and enroll them in preschool.

[Inspired by Reggio]

Sunnydays ~ just a FYI but you should be hard done by to find a regulated daycare in Ontario with RECE running it that are still doing 'academic/theme based' focused programs anyway as for the many years there has been a very strong push towards 'learning through play ~ emergent child led educator supported programming' from every professional development resource out there for the past decade almost and now that the Ontario government has officially rolled out the 'Early Learning for Every Child Today' or the Ontario Early Learning Framework as it is now called the document and the supporting principles for 'quality childcare' has been issued to every centre across Ontario who receives government funding and all of them are suppose to be implementing that new 'play based program' based on that document and to get us BACK into best practice that we had long ago before everyone got so obsessed with 'academics' being the be all and end all to early years ... and sadly yes that was mostly PARENT driven and ECE feeling pressured to produce 'academic results' for parents who were demanding it ~ now there is a push for us to 'reeducate' parents that this is NOT best nor developmentally appropriate practice to have wee ones doing worksheets and flash cards and being given boxed curriculum themes and being asked 'testing' style questions at group times like 'what does a Polar bear eat, what color is he, what does he do in the winter' and so forth and reality is as an ECE most of us know it never has been best practice we just got 'shoved' into having to offer that from both the parents and 'licensing agencies' because it was the 'demand' from parents and those who 'fund' daycare to see 'academic measurable results' that just snowballed totally out of control

[angelina]

Reggio, I just finished my ELECT training by CCPRN. I think it was a long dry document to read, but here is the excerpt. None of these really need ECE degree unless unless #4 and #6 requires a certain format available only to ECE's ONLY as OEYC and PARENT Resource Centers offers trainings for ALL daycare providers.

The 6 Principles of ELECT
1. Early child development sets the foundation for lifelong learning, behaviour and health.

2. Partnerships with families and communities strengthen the ability of early childhood settings to meet the needs of young children.
3.
Demonstration of respect for diversity, equity and inclusion are prerequisites for optimal development and learning.
4.
A planned curriculum supports early learning.

5. Play is a means to early learning that capitalizes on children’s natural curiosity and exuberance.

6. Knowledge and responsive early childhood practitioners are essential to early childhood settings

What i get from the series that resonates to me was:
1. adult work = child's play
2. you learn most when you have fun - learning through play, even adults retain more of the lectures when it was fun (Psychology 101)
3. Plan your activities base on #5 and you will meet all developmental domains for child development.

I personally think that the ELECT document want us to go back to the roots, let children be children, and develop our daycare plans around them. And use more community resources, OEYC, Parent Resource, libraries - for social development of these children.

What's your take on this?

Role of the professional (Daycare Provider - anyone can do this, especially moms!)
From the book: The Plays the thing,
Director ,
Mediator ,
Player ,
Observer,

Interrupter,
Writer ,
Evaluator and communicator,
Planner


and oh sunnydays! i hear you. I got one 5 year old in my afterschool saying she was stress out. And i wonder...she goes on saying: there is piano on mondays, swimming on tuesdays, and dance on wednesdays. And she just really want to play dolls for now....Guess what? I give her all the free play she want that afternoon..I observed that: She sings ABC to dolls, she count with them, and read with them (communication, language, numeracy, literacy). She cooks in the kitchen, arrange the utensils, measure servings, served her dolls. (cognition, fine motor skills). She is learning in her own pace and having fun...not stress out!

[Momof4]

A degree is not necessary to enable me to play and dance and sing with the children all day long and teach them and talk about nature and play I Spy and sing Rain Rain Go Away as we walk to the park to play on the equipment. I don't need a degree to keep them safe and watch them all the time and make them happy and spend the day crafting and laughing as we did today.

I wasn't on the computer all day, I was with my daycare children. I don't tell others I'm better than them ever and I know my imperfections. I don't judge others but I see them for what they are and I'm a little tired of this.

However, I have 3 college diplomas in other fields and worked in the medical field and before that I was a secretary for many years but most importantly I have 4 children and 5 grandchildren and was a guiding/scouting leader for over 17 years. If caregivers are going to pick on each other what chance do we stand with parents? Rant over.