3 Reasons You'll Be CRAZY About Home Day Care!

Family day care, also known as home day care, is a great job for a preschool teacher who wants to work from home, be her own boss and maintain a very high quality of childcare that she might not be able to provide in a typical preschool classroom. The high quality of care is exactly why many working parents choose home day care. Working parents of preschoolers feel so happy with family day care that nearly half of all their children are in family day care.

In the past, home day care was looked down on as the Cinderella of the early childhood education field.

But no more. Increased early childhood education college courses, national accreditation, and careful licensing have made childcare programs such as home day care extremely attractive to working parents.

Home day care offers convenience and flexibility – but there’s another benefit that’s probably the greatest benefit. You might not have thought of it this way, but the really great benefit of family day care is how it keeps a child’s mental health strong. Contrary to what most people think of that term, “mental health” does NOT refer in any way to mental illness. Mental health is the normal, healthy, balanced response of an adult of child who feels that she or he can master life’s challenges. Naturally, when there is an extraordinary stress, such as a death, divorce, a move or even a new baby, a child can rightfully feel knocked down, flat out. Adjustment, and particularly grieving, needs time and is different for every one. But over time, and with support, the child will be able to deal with the event and still rise in his ability to satisfactorily resume the tasks of ordinary life.

Look at these three ways that home or family day care benefit a child and family’s mental health so much!

First, home day care is like one-stop shopping. The Home Day Care teacher is likely to have a wide age-range of children in her care – she can combine infant care, toddler care, preschool care, and before- and after-school child care -- all under one roof. This means that little brothers and sisters enjoy the comfort of being in each other’s company. Also, in home day care, each child can learn to interact with a wide age range of children and even learn to take on different levels of responsibility for others. The comfort of a family-style child care helps the entire family to stay mentally healthy.

Second, home day care offers security to the family. The family day care teacher is not likely to leave her job, because she is self-employed. This avoids the family’s being caught up in the heartbreaking and confusing teacher turnover that, unfortunately, is a very big problem in preschool childcare centers. As a result, long-lasting relationships form between the home day care teacher and the parent, and between the home day care teacher and the child. Often a child will “grow up with” a child from another family, with a deep and satisfying friendship. When this happens, both children can hardly wait to get to day care! These kinds of secure attachments are invaluable for a young child. In fact, attachment is a key component of mental health.

Third, family day care generally has a much better teacher-child ratio This ensures lots of individual attention for each child. The Home Day Care teacher knows her children inside out! Because she understands each child’s needs so well, she can provide individualized lessons very naturally. This is especially important for a special needs child, whose needs might be difficult to meet in a more regimented classroom setting with 19 other children. Family day care’s natural home-like setting, which is usually calmer, may be the very best setting for a child who gets overloaded with lots of noise, motion, and visual input. With a small ratio of children, the family home day care teacher’s strong bonds with each child enables her to help a preschooler negotiate the stressful conflicts, meet success with learning challenges and to really have fun in his preschool activities.

With an accredited home or family Day Care, parents of young children can usually rest assured that their preschool child is receiving loving, competent care, while receiving the excellent preschool lessons, individualized to meet his or her needs in math, science, art, reading and writing – and in his mental health!

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PreKSuccess believes that preschool teachers and families deserve a break – in fact, a fantastic life. We are dedicated to helping you to be a great preschool teacher or a great preschool parent – and loving your own fantastic life, too. Learn more about Ann Corcoran and the importance of giving your preschoolers a great start at (http://www.preksuccess.com)

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