The Next Best Thing Family Child Care: Parenting/Childcare Style

-->I believe that in quality family child care, caregivers:

offer a positive, nurturing experience for children in a home-like setting
ensure that basic health and safety standards are met
ensure that interactions with children are warm, caring and respectful
encourage learning through play
guide children’s behavior in positive ways
respect children’s ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds

I value play based learning that allows children to explore the world around them. As a caregiver I see it as my responsibility to give children safe access to environments where they can explore and guide their own learning based on their own personalities, skills, interests and comfort level. Instead of forcing the children to adhere to a curriculum and set of activities based on my own interests and what I feel I want them to do at a given time, I choose our activities based on their unique personalities, interests, and needs.

“I do not teach anyone I only provide the environment in which they can learn”
― Albert Einstein

We follow Attachment Parenting and Gentle Parenting philosophies with our son and my childcare style and philosophies are the same.

Babies and young children have an intense need for the physical presence of a consistent, loving, responsive caregiver and I am committed to providing that for the children I care for. I know that parents have really specific ideas of how they'd like their children to be treated, and I'm respectful of all parenting styles. After all, no one knows your child and their personal needs better than you do.

I'm super breast-feeding friendly, aware of the appropriate procedures to take with pumped milk, and I'm happy to take on children who are cloth diapered (I know these are not allowed in some childcares). I do not charge extra for handling breast milk or cloth diapers even though many child cares do.

For some more information on Attachment Parenting principles for childcare, check out this link: http://www.attachmentparenting.org/principles/care.php.