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Recognizing and Valuing Home-Based Child Care

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By Susan Nobblitt

MDC, a nonprofit organization based in Durham, North Carolina, advances equitable systems change in the Southern United States. Our educational equity team supports home-based childcare providers who work to transform systems that created the current childcare crisis. Home-Based Child Care (HBCC) serves most children in North Carolina for early education. HBCC is childcare provided in a home, rather than in an institutional or outdoor setting. We focus on care that specifically takes place in the provider’s home and where the care is provided by individuals who are not the legal guardians of the child being cared for. North Carolina families rely on HBCCs either by choice or necessity. It is estimated that 64% of North Carolina children are in home-based child care outside of the formal licensing system statewide. Amidst the growing conversation about the need to sustain child care, 85% of all closures of North Carolina child care businesses since February 2020 have been licensed home-based child care businesses. Home-Based childcare is essential because it meets the unique needs of certain families whose special requirements are not met in other care settings. HBCC services are often preferred by rural communities, families working nontraditional hours, families with babies and toddlers, Black and Latinx families, and families of children with special needs.

As we uncover the lessons from years past, MDC offers a three-piece series that examines the social and political history of domestic work in America, specifically in the Southern states, and factors that have led to the current crisis. Despite the critical infrastructure that childcare has long provided in our country, childcare providers have been continuously undervalued economically and in policy decisions that have shaped our nation. Through this series, we identify key roadblocks to meaningful system change and highlight how we can continue the legacy of care workers’ resistance by advocating for decision-makers to support the vital role of this work in our communities.

  1. “Still undervalued and underfunded: The invisible child care workforce” explores the roots of low wages and chronic undervaluing of childcare providers in the U.S. We demonstrate the need for policy change and investment to correct the course towards a nation where quality childcare is accessible, affordable, and valued as essential to our society.
  1. “The evolution of child care from a collective good to an inequitable ‘choice’ model” considers the evolution of child care in the U.S. from a collective good with limited government intervention to a highly institutionalized and individualized model of childcare. We show how opportunities for transformative policy change in childcare are undermined by a false dichotomy that pits collective responsibility against family choice, and how we must intentionally combat this in future efforts.
  2. “Racial divisions prevent us from winning child care change” examines how longstanding racial divides have hindered transformational change within the childcare sector. We argue that only through unifying racial lines exposure to different perspectives, willingness to sit in discomfort, seeking to understand, and ultimately to collaborate — will we finally be successful in transforming the early education system to meet the needs of all children, families, and providers.

MDC is grateful to the National Domestic Workers Alliance for its History of Domestic Work and Worker Organizing timeline and to the National Women’s Law Center for “Undervalued: A Brief History of Women’s Care Work and Child Care Policy in the United States.” Both are referenced throughout our series and also undergird MDC’s North Carolina Child Care Timeline. We want to express our gratitude to the participants in our programs, specifically to the Home-Based Child Care (HBCC) Community of Practice members and HBCC Haven providers; their lived experience and work in their communities have greatly informed this analysis.

Working alongside our partners, we envision a childcare system where:

  1. All home-based childcare providers, whether licensed or license-exempt, are recognized, valued, and supported as a critical part of our childcare system now and in the future.
  2. HBCC providers are fully funded, economically whole, and equipped with the resources and education they desire.
  1. Policies at both the state and local levels are equitable, inclusive, and supportive of the care they provide.
  2. Children receive the safe, affirming, affordable, and trusted care they deserve and enter kindergarten ready to succeed.

Change is possible.

Susan Nobblitt is a program manager with MDC, an organization that equips Southerners with tools to challenge systemic inequities and build equitable and inclusive communities in the South. Susan leads the design and facilitation of MDC’s Home-Based Child Care Community of Practice and provides critical support to other educational equity projects.

What Do Kindergarten Teachers Mean By “Ready for School?”

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81 Questions for Parents by Kristen J. Amundson Book cover

By Kristen J. Amundson

At this time of year, many preschool parents are worrying about whether their child will be ready for kindergarten. What are the things their child should learn? Do they need to make alphabet flash cards? Invest in worksheets so kids can practice math. I talked with kindergarten teachers to find out what they think kids need to know to be kindergarten-ready. You may be surprised: Readiness for school, teachers say, does not mean that your child will have mastered all the kindergarten skills on Day One. Instead, it means that your child will take pleasure in learning how to do things on their own.

One kindergarten teacher said to me, “I can teach kids their ABCs. I can’t teach them —at least not very efficiently—to help them get along with others and to understand that they aren’t going to get their own way all the time in school.” If you always do things for your child, and always tell them what to do, they will not be able to make their own decisions and learn how to be independent. One good rule of thumb for parents of toddlers: whenever possible, avoid doing things for your child that they can do on their own.

Kindergarteners are expected to take responsibility for their belongings. They put their lunch box in the right place. They hang up their coat. During the day, they use the restroom and wash their hands by themselves. In the cafeteria, children must put the straw in their juice box or open the milk carton. They must get the foil on top of the applesauce. “The whole first month in the cafeteria, we’re helping children learn to open things,” one teacher said. “They’re always surprised that ketchup packages have a little line that shows you where to tear to get the ketchup out.” So, teach your child how to do those things before the first day of school.

Let your toddler eat (and accept that mealtime will be messy and s-l-o-w, at least at first). Let young children choose what they want to wear—and relax if they choose to wear the polka-dot shirt with the checked pants. Encourage them to use the crayons they want to use in their coloring book and do not be surprised if you see a purple horse or a red elephant.

Follow the rule that teachers use when they are teaching a new skill:

First, I do.

Then we do.

Then you do.

Whether it’s shoe tying or making a sandwich, start by showing your child what to do. Then practice the same skill together, working side by side. Finally, let your child do it alone, first while you watch and then independently. And let me just say one word here about shoes—the bane of every kindergarten teacher. Shoelaces do not stay tied. “They drag on the floor. They drag across the restroom floor. They go into kids’ mouths,” a kindergarten teacher told me. “They need my help retying them. If I have 25 students, that’s 50 feet. And at 30 seconds per shoe tie, that’s 25 minutes a day I’m not teaching them letters or numbers or how to get along with others,” she said. That doesn’t mean children have to be able to tie their shoes before they start kindergarten. “Just put them in different shoes,” the teacher wisely advised. And really, just reread that part about shoelaces that have dragged on the kindergarten restroom floor ending up in the child’s mouth. You’ll probably keep your kid in Velcro shoes until they’re 20.

Kristen J. Amundson is a former teacher, school board chair, state legislator, and CEO of a national education organization. This column is excerpted from her book 81 Questions for Parents: Helping Your Kids Succeed in School, published by Rowman & Littlefield. It is also available on Amazon.

 

4 Skills Your Child Needs To Know Before Entering Kindergarten

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Kindergarten is supposed to be fun and educational, and allow children an opportunity to blossom because it is usually the first time the tykes are away from their parents for any significant amount of time.

 

And while most kindergartens don’t exactly have GPA requirements, for a child to succeed there are a few milestones that should be reached before they toddle through the door, says Alise McGregor, founder of Little Newtons (www.littlenewtons.com), an early education center with locations in Minnesota and Illinois.

 

“New parents especially can have a hard time understanding that there are actually things their child should know prior to kindergarten,” McGregor says.  “But if they take time to make sure their child knows some basics, it will make kindergarten a better experience.”

 

McGregor says the typical things a child should know prior to entering kindergarten are:

 

  • Basic shapes. The child should have learned basic shapes like the square, circle, rectangle and triangle in preschool.  If not, parents should teach them.  In kindergarten, they will probably be introduced to the hexagon, star, heart and octagon.

 

  • The letters of the child’s name. They should at least be able to recognize the letters of their name.  In kindergarten, they will learn their uppercase letters and begin lowercase letters.  They will also begin to learn how to write freehand without tracing.

 

  • Numbers 1 to 10. Although some children will be able to count to 100 by the time they reach kindergarten, all should be able to at least be able to count to 10.  Numbers will be used starting on the first day of kindergarten so the children need to at least understand and recognize numbers.
  • Social skills – The child should be able to follow directions, be able to be separated from the caregiver and use the restroom independently.  Children who scream and cry when they are separated from caregivers disrupt the rest of the class.  Teachers simply do not have the time to supervise individual students who cannot independently use the restroom.

McGregor says that it is important for children to get off on the right foot early in school. By teaching children these skills prior to attending kindergarten it should make it easier for them to succeed.

About Alise McGregor

Alise McGregor is the founder of Little Newton’s (www.littlenewtons.com), an exceptional child care center focused on early childhood education in four locations in Minnesota and one in Illinois.  She is the author of an upcoming book Creating Brilliance.  Also a nurse, she has a B.S. in Exercise Physiology with a cardiac rehabilitation emphasis.