CHILDCARE PHILOSOPHY

My philosophy is child led. I have worked with and for parents of all sorts of childrearing practices. I do my best work with an attachment parenting style. I don’t believe there are truly bad children. They are reacting and responding to a world they are learning about. We can’t expect them to stay calm and collected all of the time when we wouldn’t expect that of ourselves. I rarely raise my voice and have very few rules.

Listen if it’s safety related.

We hit, we sit.

We always go to the bathroom before we leave for an adventure.

When I discipline it is because I have given two warnings first.

An example of this would be:

Your child is throwing a ball in the house. I let them know that doing that could break a tv or window. Let’s play with something else or go outside. They opt to play with a different toy. A few minutes later they are back to throwing the ball. I remind them why we don’t throw it and let them know if they do it again the ball is going away. They settle into rolling it back and forth. If they do indeed throw the ball again it goes in the “Not Now” box of toys. If this results in a tantrum I sit with them if that’s what they need or let them know I will be near them (folding laundry, doing dishes, prepping lunch) when they are ready. Once they are calm I offer hugs and ask if they understand why the ball is gone, if they don’t I remind them and let them know we will try again tomorrow.

A safety incident doesn’t get second chances. Example:

Your child and I are walking to the library. Before we left we talked about if they aren’t holding my hand they have to be safe. They have chosen to not hold my hand. The first time they do something unsafe (running away, crossing a street without a grownup, walking into the road, etc.) They have to hold my hand the rest of the trip. This is another case of if there are big feelings I let them feel them and when they are calm I will talk it over and offer hugs and a second chance for next time.

One of the ways I teach safety at home is playing Red Light Green Light. We play as cars, or airplanes or silly kitties. Green Light means go fast. Yellow Light means go slow. Red light means stop. This translates really well when we are out in the world. If we are in a safe place (long sidewalk with trees, mailboxes etc to mark space between us) I will say green light, if they get too far ahead I will say yellow light (So I can catch up) or red light if they need to stop right away. This has worked with many families. Not all, but most.

I firmly believe that children learn through play. I provide plenty of opportunities for this. Learning to cut food by practicing on playdough. Learning hand/eye coordination by placing pom poms in recycled paper tubes taped to the wall. Learning about the world around them by touching and feeling and moving it. I prefer less over more when it comes to toys. I will put toys on rotation every couple of weeks. My experience has shown me that children will focus more on one toy or puzzle etcetera if they have less pulling their attention from it. Lots of options can paralyze or overwhelm. It’s also easier to keep a space tidy if there is less to clean up. I encourage littles to clean up after themselves. I help as little as possible as they get older. This could look like my sitting in the middle of the room, on their level, pointing to things and asking “Where does the blue block go?” or “Do the books belong on the couch or the shelf?” If there is a large mess I will say “Why don’t you put the books away and I will clean up the puzzle.” Teaching them how to keep their space tidy at a young age will mean less stress when they are older.

My aim is for your child to be safe, learning, healthy, happy and loved while you are at work or otherwise away from them. Reading books curled up on the couch. Singing the same lullabies at nap time to help with the routine. Playing outside barefoot. Being okay with the inevitable no clothes phase. (Only at home!) Playing messy and cleaning up after. Lots of hugs and adventures. I will look after your children as if they are my own. And I will always keep them safe.

Education Philosophy

My approach to education children is immersive, hands on. I decide on a theme and design a one to two week curriculum around that theme. I quite often will design things on Canva and use my Cricut to cut out materials. A theme will have multiple elements.

Gross Motor

Fine Motor

Art

Science

Food

Literature

Music

I use the library as a resource for the books so that I don't have a million books laying about. Getting the children to the library also provides an outing they look forward to. Gross motor is incorporated in different ways depending on the theme.

During space theme, mobile children will be astronauts at lunch time. There food is easy to eat and as mess free as possible. They will be allowed to "space walk" around the dining area between bites. Their food and drink is lined up on painters tape on the table and they must come back to the table to take a bite or sip. The food must be returned to the strip before space walking off again.

During Ocean Week (typically in the summer) we spend a lot of time swimming and pretending we are different sea life from large whales to tiny plankton and occasionally sea cucumbers.

Art projects are a balance of process and product art. Winter theme will have construction paper glued into a snowman snow globe, but we will also use aluminum foil, glitter and paint to make a winter-scape on black construction paper.

Fine motor is usually something involving clay, pipe cleaners, scissors or other hand oriented activities. I start small and work our way up to holding writing implements and tracing lines. My last kiddo started tracing lines and connecting like items when he was a little over 2 years old. But he had the foundation to do so because of the activities I incorporated into the themes and play from when he was old enough to manipulate his hands and feet.

Music is a play list on my phone, related to the theme and going to music classes together. Playing instruments, making instruments and finding items in nature that make sound are all incorporated.

Science is mixed into art, food and even fine motor. Pipettes, mixing things for baking (we talk about the interactions of different ingredients and what they do. I will also provide time for actual scientific exploration. A cloud identifier for weather, color mixing with baking soda and vinegar during color introduction, we baked cookies in my car one exceptionally hot day during a summer theme with my first family.

Food during a theme can be anything from freeze dried fruit when studying outer space to creating edible vehicles when learning about transportation. During a particularly long time learning about other cultures the family I was with and I came up with a menu of foods around the world that the kids helped me cook. Curry, chili, egg drop soup, fried plantain and so many others. The kids were preschool and up at that point so having them help cook was much easier and they were more interested in trying the foods because they had read about and helped make the meals. Not everything was a hit but everyone takes a no thank you bite of the new food before turning their nose up at it.

I think my education style isn't something you can label one philosophy or another. I incorporate the children's interests and skill levels to the lessons and will repeat a theme as they get older so that they can get more in depth information. When I teach a two year old about space it's a introduction of what planets are and their names. When I teach it to an older child we talk about nebula, telescopes, the first astronauts (animals) and where space exploration is headed. Everything is at an age appropriate level and will include all children in the house hold.

What we don't do at home I incorporate on nature walks/hikes, visits to a museum, library, aquarium or other learning space. Learning doesn't have to only take place at home. As a nanny who loves to get out and adventure, finding places to learn and have fun is a talent I possess proudly.

I hope I've provided a good example what I have to offer in terms of helping to educate a child. My mom wasn't a teacher and she home-schooled me until I got my GED at 16. I believe if we have a desire to learn and teach our children, and the tools to do it we should be able to. I fully intend to home-school my child once they are old enough and hope to find a family that is committed to homeschooling their children as well.