Oh I think you understood me.

What I think is best for children is what I offer.

We provide excellent supervision. (1 adult to 4 children max)
We provide health assessment (I'm a RN)
We provide the highest quality home made from scratch foods that are purchased locally, directly from the Farmer, in season, grass fed, free ranging, sustainable, and chemcial free.
Daily exercise
Deep restorative sleep
Dedicated space for sleep and play.
Extensive toy collections for each age group.

So we use our fees to provide supervision, food, exercise, sleep, and toy play.

That's what my parents pay for.

Every home day care provider gets to decide what services they offer and what the market can sustain. Of course you must comply with the minimum standards of health and safety in your State. Fortunately my State is very general in their standards and leave a lot of decisions up to us on how we want to execute those standards. I've had two inspections in the last three years and received a 100 percent compliance on both unnanounced. I don't play when it comes to the minimum standards. I do as I'm told.

I think where a lot of the confusiion and line blurring comes from what is the difference between educating the kids and playing with the kids. Those have been muddled together and one has become the other. The new "best practice" is education which in my opinion means "playing" with the kids. I'm sure you early childhood educators will point out that in some cases yes and in some no but from where I sit it smells a lot like playing with kids.

I think the best education you can give a birth to five kid is to leave their education alone and let them have an early childhood of good food, space, exercise, developmentally appropriate toys, visual/proximal supervision when they are out of bed, and time to have a long solid deep afternoon nap. Sprinkle that with the luvins, years and years of TIME with the same child, and a good relationship with their parents and VOILA... you get a kid ready to start Kindergarten.

I think the year before they go to Kindergarten they should have more of the play time be time to shore up on "pre Kindy" skills. That's how I do it.

If a child is with me from birth to the year before they go to Kindergarten then we spend the two semesters before they go off to Kindy where we see where the kid is at and work to accomplish anything that hasn't already come thru in their natural kid generated play. It's usually a pretty simple process because those kids before that child have taught them most of what they need to know.

We look at their basic skill set such as naming and pointing to colors, naming and pointing to basic shapes, knows basic body parts (shoulders, chest, knees, nose etc.), able to place objects in order, sorts objects, counts to 100, points to and names numbers, holds crayons and pencils appropriately, holds scissors appropriately and able to cut out wavy lines, circles, triangles, lines, names all the letter (upper and lower), points to the letters, recognizes name in print, and prints name.

So these are the things I look for in the last year before they go off to school. Usually a child will have 80 percent of that down before the school year before Kindy. We devote adult time to the child to finish up the rest if he/she needs it. I ONLY do this with kids I have raised though. I don't normally have kids who haven't been raised here since birth.

Because they have had a LONG childhood of playing with EACH OTHER without too much adult generated activites they are very quick learners with anything that IS adult generated. They also have the gift of years of playing with YOUNGER children which is IMHO way way way more important than playing with an adult. Younger children (meaning children who are 1.5-3 years younger) can offer the child more than I ever could. They are the best teachers in my home.

So anyway... how it relates to the money is that I charge my fees according to the foundational care of the child supervision, food, exercise, sleep, and toy play. Then when the child is in the last year before Kindy we use a small portion our fees to cover the staff time for shoring up their skill set for school. I say "small portion" because by the time they have been here for four plus years they require very little time to meet the prekindy basic skill set.

IF I had more money per child I could offer more adult generated activities and involvement at a younger age but I've never found parents willing to pay for it. I've actually offered dual rates to include more staff time for "playing with/educating" their kid (with a specific amount of time attached to the fee) and I haven't had a single taker. They parents I work for CAN afford the basics I offer but they don't have any interest in paying more for more "adults playing/educating" kids time. They ALL have the option to pay for that in addition to our fee though so if they feel it is something they want for the child all they gotsta do is pony up the $$$ and I'll be HAPPY to oblige.

I have the unique position too to have YEARS of paying for a second person here when I'm not required to have additional help. I know EXACTLY how much it costs to do adult involved "play/education". I can tell you EXACTLY how much it costs to have children paint. I know EXACTLY how much it costs to have them do play doh. I know EXACTLY how much it costs to do story time. I know EXACLTY how much it costs to get eight kids in full winter gear. I know EXACTLY what it costs to go out for a 45 minute walk. I can get all of that down to the penny.

I also know EXACTLY what it costs to do free play supervision WHILE you are getting other things done that serve our basic services (food prep is huge, cleaning of the inventory, safety checking of equipment (very time consuming) paperwork, etc.) When I decide where our funds go for services I have to first make sure that we live up to the basic agreement we have in the core services of supervision, food, exercise, sleep, and toy play. Once those have been met THEN we can decide daily what we will add into that. First we look at our group of kids going to Kindy and then if there is actual TIME available THEN we do sumpin sumpin a little special. We are fluid every day in what we do and sometimes we DO have time to do extra.

Lastly, remember that my parents spend about five waking hours a day with their children and most of my kids are only children. Day care is just ONE of the things the kids do every day. My day care parents spend TIME .. not quality time.. quantity time with their kids EVERY day. The ones that are wanting curriculum and educational activities with adult play do it WITH their child for free. My kids parents are their play partners and their teachers. As it should be... They don't expect me to do their job. If I want to do then of course they would love it... but they know that THEY are their child's "Master Teacher" and when they choose their childs playmate.

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