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