Creating Affirming Environments

I have actually owned my own family child care home with a partner.  I found that it was a different kind of challenge than working for a corporate preschool.  My partner and I worked together to set up and establish our family childcare environment to meet the needs of the families we served as well as represent the families and children in our program within our program and curriculum.  We were very lucky to have about ninety percent of our families actively involved in our program.  My partner and I created several rooms to represent specific age groups (toddler and early preschool room and pre-kindergarten environment), a community free play and art room, homework and quiet area, and an all inclusive outdoor space and playground.  Our program also ran a summer program that was like a Summer Camp which included sports and swim.  I learned so much from my partner who was also a very good friend, experienced early childhood professional, and mentor. 

            Our program practiced emergent curriculum and our themes were based on the interest of the children we served so curriculum was sort of week-to-week.  The topics children were interested in were then incorporated weekly into the basic curriculum learning (literacy, math, social studies, science, puzzles, manipulatives, etc.).  The weekly themes/topics were displayed throughout the program in displayed children’s work and teaching materials all labeled to explain it’s significance to learning for the families.  Looking back, though we displayed and met children’s interest representing children in the program through their work, providing connecting curriculum and activities, we did not do an exemplary job displaying or representing the families themselves with photos or representing other facets of the community.  However, I believe we were “ahead of our time” so to speak (this was many many many years ago) with the diversity trainings we did go to focused more on “tourist curriculum” which we avoided.  Our program did include any and all family celebrations, holidays, and events that were important to them and many of the families came in to share this information about their families personally with our group, which Derman-Sparks, Edwards, and The National Association Of Young Children (2010) and Laureate Education Inc.’s (2011) tour of Adriana’s family child care deemed as valuable part of anti-bias education.  The families themselves also spent a lot of time in the program with their children participating in circle times, art activities, and providing/teaching their own activities to small groups.  Family involvement and communication are an important part of anti bias education (Derman-Sparks, Edwards, and The National Association Of Young Children, 2010). 

            If I decided to do a family child care program again there isn’t much I would change other than adding displays that represent family culture and photo wall.  Though my partner and I did a great deal of addressing issues of diversity and equity, I think armed with the knowledge I have today I would spend more time being critical of literature and how it is presented as well as being more critical of myself with the new found awareness of how personal bias slips into teachings when we are not mindful of them.

References

Derman-Sparks, L., Edwards, J. O., & National Association for the Education of Young Children

(2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Laureate Education Inc. (2011). Welcome to an anti-bias learning community. Retrieved from

https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_3396868_1%26url%3D