Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/lessons-from-family-home-providers/5016171/
Over the past few years I’ve had the opportunity to spend more time with family home providers in different professional settings. This has been enriching and illuminating for me, because the different components of our field often stay in our own niches �" child care, Head Start, pre-K, home providers �" and we miss opportunities to cross-pollinate. Despite their different settings, it seems to me that some of the common themes I’ve been hearing from home providers have some usefulness for center directors. In many ways, the message from these very professionally minded family home providers can bring us home to our roots.Keeping the focus on home and extended family
Family providers have been consistently saying that they are feeling strong pressures to “centerize.” With the ever-growing early childhood emphasis on school readiness, outcomes, and assessment, home providers fear if they don’t structure themselves into some kind of school-like setting, they won’t be seen as legitimate within the profession, and will likely jeopardize their business in the community. Some are revamping their environments, schedules, and activities toward this end, while others are becoming quite vocal about the value of their home-like settings. It is this latter group that I think has ...