About Step By Step Child Care
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Hi, and welcome to Step By Step Child Care online. My name is Jana, and I'd like to tell you a little about my own family daycare home located in NE Ohio. I've been in business since 1991. I'm a Certified Type B Child Care home which means I'm certified through the county I live in.
In the State of Ohio, it is currently optional to become certified to run a family childcare home. It is legal to run a daycare out of your home with no certification at all. However, regardless of whether you are certified or not, state law mandates a rule which says you cannot care for more than 6 children at any one time, no more than 3 of which may be under the age of 2. If you are certified, like I am, you must follow all of the state child care regulations and in addition to those, you must also follow any additional regulations your particular county may impose upon you. Being certified, I may accept Private families and/or Publicly Funded families into my care, and my fees are compatible with those imposed by the State of Ohio. The State of Ohio also licenses providers as Type A providers. In these instances, we are mainly talking about daycare centers and daycare facilities. There are some Type A Family Child Care homes but they are few and far between. If you are a Type A Provider you may care for up to 12 children at any one time and must hire a full-time assistant to help you. County regulations do not come into play for Type A Providers. Unfortunately in the State of Ohio, because licensing or certification is not required to run a child daycare home, there are many illegal homes operating way over ratio. It is unfortunate and I believe the State has plans to change this in the near future. I hope you will find something useful in the links I've provided below. If you have any questions or comments feel free to email me at the link at the bottom of this page. |
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Our Daily Schedule
Here at Step By Step Child Care, we have a very busy day. I believe in structure for the children whereever possible. Children thrive on structure. They love knowing what will come next in their day. They get very excited as we transition from one thing to another. I do allow for some flexibility because, as we all know, things do happen in the course of our days. For example, maybe it's a very beautiful day outside and it hasn't been for awhile. The children are having so much fun playing outside. Since the weather is so nice and we haven't been out in awhile, I'll push back our lunchtime perhaps 15 minutes or so. That is just one example of how we can work flexibility into our schedule.
Most children arrive between 7:30 and 8:45 a.m. Each morning a different "Center" toy is put out for the day. This is something special just for the day (that the children don't have daily access to) in addition to the many toys on the shelving that are available for the children at all times. Some examples of our "Center" toys are Duplo/Lego Blocks, Lacing Cards, Dry Erase Boards, Dollhouse, Musical Instruments, Fisher Price Animals, Puzzles, Wooden Blocks, Aqua Doodle Mat, etc. I have enough "center" toys to not repeat one more than once per month. Of course if something is very popular with the children, I will place that toy out more frequently. I also occasionally rotate the toys on the shelves with toys I keep in the attic. During drop-off time the children may play with the "Center" toy in a certain area, watch educational children's Television, and/or play with any available toy on the shelving in the designated daycare areas of the home.
| Breakfast is served at 9 a.m. After breakfast, the children continue to have free play until 9:30 a.m. From 9:30 - 10 a.m. it is Music Time and Clean Up Time. At 10 a.m. our Preschool Program begins and lasts until approximately 11 a.m. We begin each morning with a Circle Time which includes the Calendar, Weather, and Discussion. Preschool consists of music, science, games, arts & crafts, worksheets, books, and more. We learn themes such as On The Farm, Health & Safety, as well as letters, numbers, colors, and shapes. I want to add here that learning does not stop at the end of Preschool Time, learning is an ongoing process. I believe children learn best through Play. I also believe that I am teaching the children throughout the course of their day in their everyday routines. For example, we are currently learing all about the Farm and Farm Animals so at lunchtime we will talk about the Milk the children are drinking. Where does milk come from? A cow. That's right, milk comes from a cow. A cow is a Farm Animal. Get the idea? Children are like sponges, they love to learn and it is so easy to stimulate their young brains. Not to mention rewarding. |
Since we have such a late Breakfast Time, morning snack consists of Juice Time around 10:30 a.m. which is a midway break point during Preschool usually. From 11 a.m. - 12 noon is Outside Time, weather permitting. Since we are in NE Ohio it is not always possible to get outside when it is very cold or raining. On days when we cannot get outside, we will extend Preschool Time or possibly play a game, work on a special project, more Music Time, or maybe watch a video or movie.
During certain times of the year and childrens' ages permitting, we will take a weekly Field Trip to the library for Story Time and playing in the awesome Children's Room there. We also incorporate Special Days here at Step By Step Child Care. We have Color Days where I have all of the children come dressed in blue, for example. On blue day I try to serve blue foods, we emphasize the color blue during Preschool Time, and we do some fun Blue games & activities. We have Show & Tell Days. We also have occasional holiday parties.
Lunch is at 12 noon and meets the Federal Child Care Food Program Guidelines for nutrition. We serve healthy foods here at Step By Step Child Care. My policy is that all children are served a little of each item we are having and they may eat what they wish. Foods are never forced or withheld as punishment. Normally, I do not serve a 'dessert' immediately following the lunch meal, however if I do children must have eaten their lunch or tried. If we aren't hungry enough for lunch, we aren't hungry enough for dessert, right?
From 12:30 - 1 p.m., we wash and clean up and prepare for Quiet Time. From 1 - 1:30 p.m. children are permitted to watch 30 min of special educational children's television. After that, it is TV off and time to rest. Children usually all fall asleep before the TV is off. If a child just cannot seem to rest, she or he may lay quietly on their mat and read or look at books.
We begin waking up at 3:30 p.m. and normally everyone is up and raring to go by 4 p.m. I serve p.m. snack at 4 p.m. for children who are hungry. After snack, children once again have access to our "Center" toy of the day or may have free play until they are picked up to go home.
I hope that you enjoyed reading about our days here at Step By Step Child Care!
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