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A day in the life of a daycare worker
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When looking for childcare for their child, most people consider facilities, program activities and child-to-adult ratio. More important than that, however, is the type of workers at a childcare facility. There are a few main types of workers at a daycare, and not all of them good. I've discovered the hard way that there are different levels of caring and attention given to the children. People want the best for their kids, so it's important to understand these types of caretakers. Within my daycare provider, I see the different types of workers, but I find the most common are the desperately in need of a job, the indifferent robot, the unaware filler, the interested but not pursuing, and the Heartfelt.
The desperately in need of a job class pertains to those workers that don't personally care for the kids and aren't interested in a future with kids. These workers are somewhat affectionate for the kids they work with but their interest is only on the outside. They spend time with the kids how they're supposed to because they need the income, but no connection is formed. At my daycare, Sheila is always polite, but never shows any in-depth interest in the kids. She talks with the kids about very vague things and doesn't really attempt to teach the kids anything. Obviously daycare workers aren't hired to teach, but when a child spends most days at daycare, that's their main source of learning. Providers shouldn't necessarily teach the kids everything at all times, but they should supplement the learning done outside of daycare.
The unaware filler is a worker at a daycare that doesn't really belong at a daycare. Similar to "desperately in need of a job", the unaware filler doesn't want to have a career with children or have a person...
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...th Sophia and multiple times a week she takes the time to do all the little girls' hair. She makes ponytails with ribbons for the girls and styles their hair as an activity. The heartfelt category can be hard to find but always end up being beneficial for a child.
When it comes to daycare, adult-to-kid ratio and facility size are very important. However, the workers in a daycare are definitely the building blocks to how it runs. The categories listed sound harsh, but many daycare go out of their way to hire the best possible help. Though there are these different types of people, the daycare could essentially be a wise choice for a child. Picking a daycare is a hard task for any parent and there's never necessarily going to be a perfect choice for a child, but being able to recognize the kind of help at a daycare facility can immensely benefit making this decision.
The minimum standards released by the Texas Department of Family and Protective services concerning ratios do an insufficient job of ensuring that children receive quality care. The NAEYC releases recommendations for childcare operations and as journalist Anthony Jennings puts it, these ratios “are considered the best practices to ensure the level of care is of high quality.” These allowed ratios depend on whether the daycare is a licensed center, a licensed home, or a registered home. While the ratios Texas minimum standards allows in al...
The childcare industry has variables including childcare by a family member, a traditional caregiver or a day care center. It depends on a family’s situation as to which one benefits them most. The two types of childcare to be discussed are the traditional caregiver and a day care center. Parents must decide whether they want a one-on-one or a group setting for the care of their children.
Formal childcare can be expensive and for many of the families within this community, out of the question. Parents rely on friends or family who happens to be close in proximity to care for the children during the days when they are at work or out looking for employment,
Child care is a rewarding and yet demanding career. These demands come from an abundance of sources: consistent changes to rules and regulations, requests from parents, and the forever evolving needs of a child in your care. Not only should these demands help solidify you as a growing early childhood professional, there are also plenty of other demands that can significantly affect your career choice. These include educational levels, levels of hands-on training, personal interests, family obligations, values, abilities, and your individual professional priorities.
Parents are always questioning whether they would like to have any more children someday. One of the aspects parents think about in this decision is child care. Child care can be pricey and the quality of the child care is also something to think about as well. Parents want their child to grow up and become very successful in life. Choosing a daycare from infant on, is part of the process to becoming successful as they grow. For one to add on to the family they need to think about the quality of child care, the price of child care, and attention of care: how their child will be raised. High-quality child care should be provided at public expense to all working parents!
...ter, because in order to receive daycare help you must be working. A lot of times this still leaves the mother in a bind, due to the lack of hours she works and the lack of support she will receive. At times the mother has to choose a low quality daycare which only makes it worse on her children; they may not endure the proper amount of attention needed as well as nutrition.
Having your child in an In-Home daycare facility may not be such a great idea either. After reading the article The Hell of American Day Care, many parents vowed not to let their kids go to In-Home facilities. Because the rules and regulations for In-home daycare workers aren’t strictly enforced.
Some of the most important, but not necessarily most discussed, things parents should look into can turn out to be how successful their child was in preschool. The location of a preschool can affect whether or not a student or the student's parents feel safe about them being there. The curriculum can be the deciding factor when it comes to whether the student is going to leave preschool knowing new things or having the same mentality as before. The teachers that are watching over and teaching young children are also very important. Some teachers are much more qualified to work with preschoolers than others.
Daycare’s focus is mainly on a child’s development through social interaction with children and caregivers. There are head start programs that are geared to give children a foot in the right direction in order to be ready for preschool or kindergarten. The right kind of childcare can be a wonderful opportunity to promote the profound learning children experience from birth through age five (Selecting Child Care, 2002). When selecting childcare for your child, the Foundation of Early Learning has offered some tips that they believe will be helpful in the process. The foundation says that parents have always known that a good early experience is important for their child.
Having a safe and healthy childcare setting is one of the most important duties in a daycare. Educators practising good healthy procedures is a good way for children to learn about healthy choices as educators are, good role models.
A normal day for a daycare facility is to have many classrooms full of students like a typical public school; however, they are younger children and are being supervised by an adult. That adult is responsible for, on average, four to ten students at any given time, ages ranging from zero to six. During that time, a lot can happen. These busy workers have many responsibilities throughout the day. The most important one is safety. Because these children are so young, they are also adventurous therefore need a lot of attention. Daycare workers have to spend much time supervising these children while performing other tasks throughout the day. Not only do children need to be supervised to be safe, but they also need to have a safe, clean and presentable environment that the daycare workers of the facility are to maintain. One way to keep things clean is to sanitize, in which is a big task of these workers. Children are always putting things in their mouth and then passing it off to other kids; therefore, sanitation is a big deal in these types of facilities. Another responsibility that daycare providers have are to enforce rules. When rules are broken, these providers are to then enforce discipline policies. These can sometimes become an issue seeing that these providers are not the parents of the children thus they have to consult with the parents on certain discipline techniques to use on specific children. On the other hand, these providers are similar to parents in the sense that they wash children's clothing and clean up after every child. In addition to all the other responsibilities, daycare providers also have to maintain current, accurate and confidential client files per child. These files are to consist of observations and r...
Children who participate in quality early learning programs tend to be more successful later in school. They are also most socially and emotionally competent. In addition those children show higher verbal and intellectual development during early childhood than children who do not participate in early learning programs (A Parent’s Guide to Choosing Quality Child Care). In order for a child care center to be a quality center they must have an educated staff, a program accreditation, and good health and safety practices. Parents choose high quality child care for many reasons. These programs prepare children for school in which they gain intellectual and social skills. Also the programs are a good opportunity for children because they receive age-appropriate learning materials and activities to let the children learn and grow.
Each and every daycare has their own menu for the children’s breakfast and lunch. Through my observations, I have noticed that the “Don’t Worry Childcare” has a variety of food selections throughout the month. For example, the children could either choose from fruit loops cereal, or frosted flakes for breakfast. The children’s snacks eaten varies every day as well. For instance, the children ate milk and cookies one day, and cheese crackers another day. An example of lunch would be, milk, chicken fingers, French fries, green beans, and mixed fruit one day, and spaghetti, corn, peaches, and bread another day. I observed the children eat ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, and peaches one day for lunch. All those food options seemed very delicious.
With all said and done, I think day-care is not a bad place for a child to be after all, as long as no one takes advantage of the situation. This means that the people supervising the children in day-care centers should not take advantage of their parents’ absence to mistreat them, and neither should the parents use day-care as an excuse not to spend quality time with their young ones.
Prior to this, common sense at least to me told me that there were objective postie and negative consequences to childcare. The answer, or lack there of is a bit more nuanced then I imagined but it more less reinforced me belief that daycare with proper context, timing, and care can have a net positive effect. The most interesting fact to me was the fact that studies consistently showed that high quality daycare (for all it 's different interpretations) seemed to give children a leg up in academic achievement and cognitive ability. We may not understand all the mechanics at work when it comes to children but to know that high quality care improves these qualities would make it almost seem like an obligation for parents to place our children in these centers, even if for minimal exposure. I was a bit disappointed that there wasn 't any conclusive evidence one way or the other considering risk behavior and social development. There does seem to be some correlation between higher hours and more risk type behavior, but it didn 't apply to children of lower socioeconomic status. There 's a lot of inferences we can make here based off of what we know of the development of children and the habits of parents in these situations, but until we have more actual knowledge concerning the subject it 'd be irresponsible to try to influence any sort of policy concerning the matter. Overall my viewpoint was this, if utilized correctly and executed out of concern for the well being of the child rather than as a way of brushing aside responsibility, daycare can be a vital asset for both child and parent. My research into the topic affirmed my stance with some new points to make should the subject ever arise in