Family Child Care Homes

Create a warm and inviting place where children feel at home. Discover the many ways your home can provide comfortable places where children love to learn and love to be. Filled with no- and low-cost ideas, this book demonstrates many unique and practical possibilities for your home's indoor and outdoor spaces. Chapters are packed with colorful photographs and provide examples and tips for designing learning zones, selecting items, organizing materials, and more. Checklists, resources, and questions are included to help you evaluate your setting, implement changes, and create a place that feels like a second home to the children in your care.

The basic information family child care providers need to run a successful program in a warm, welcoming setting for children and their families

This leading resource is a specifically designed curriculum for family child-care providers. They will be able to incorporate best practices and activities appropriate for the mixed ages of children in their care. Developmental domains and milestones, learning areas, age-appropriate activities and outcomes, and more are included. It is far more affordable than other family child care curriculum alternatives, and it aligns with Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) requirements around the country. Sharon Woodward is the author of several resources for family child-care providers and holds a degree in social work.

Canadian experts in diverse fields as well as people concerned about social justice and cohesion have identified quality child care as a crucial component in addressing a variety of broad societal goals. This study explored the relationships between quality in Canadian family child care homes and: provider characteristics and attitudes about family child care provision; provider income levels and working conditions; and the provider's use of support services, networking with other providers, and professional development opportunities. Data were collected from 231 regulated family child care providers across 6 Canadian provinces and 1 territory, followed by observations in each provider's home. Data analysis focused on identifying the critical factors that predict the level of quality in a family child care home. Findings suggest that physically safe environments with caring, supportive adults are the norm in a majority of family child care homes. However, only just over one third of child care homes provided care that would stimulate children's development. Key variables that predicted family child care home quality as indicated by the score on the Family Day Care Rating Scale were the provider's highest level of education in any subject, provider completion of a formal family child care-specific training course, provider networking with others through an organized association, provider's gross family child care income from the previous year, age of the youngest child present, and the provider's attitude about family child care provision. Findings suggest that methods to support and encourage quality should include recruiting well-educated individuals to the field, providing family child care-specific training, supporting development of networking organizations, developing strategies to enhance provider compensation, providing extra supports for people providing infant care, and promoting and recognizing family child care as a socially important and enjoyable career option. (Eleven appendices include an overview of research on the relation of family child care quality to child development outcomes, an overview of family child care requirements, data collection instruments, and a delineation of the predictor variables used in the analysis. Contains 131 references.) (KB)