Kids Come First Child Care Centre of Vaughan
May 9, 2005
By Nicole Zummach
THORNHILL, ON // We've all heard politicians, educators, and parents
tell us that children are the future. Considering the truth of this
statement, it's surprising that early childhood educators don't get
more recognition for the work they do. Never mind the fact that many
people still view child care providers as little more than glorified
babysitters. Kids Come First Child Care Centre of Vaughan is
proving just how wrong these people are by offering innovative and high-quality
education that is attracting recognition from peers, the government
of Ontario, and a long list of parents hoping to get their children
enrolled in Kids Come First programs. The organization also received
the Donner Canadian Foundation Award for Child Care in
2004. CharityVillage spoke with co-directors Maxine Roness and
Toni Pellicano about their approach to programming, the current
state of child care in Canada, and the impact of receiving a Donner
Award.
CharityVillage: You serve 300 children through your child care programs, which are derived from the principles of 'emergent curriculum'. Tell me about your curriculum.
Toni Pellicano: We look at our curriculum as something that is
evolving. It's always changing, and it really depends on what the children
are interested in and what is going on around them. We bring in a lot
of community people to talk to the children. For example, our children
got really excited about the Winter Olympics a few years ago, so we
started to investigate that together through the web, through books,
through newspapers. We brought in guest speakers. It really depends
on where the children what to go with it.
Another example was a project about bagels. Our children were interested
in how yeast works, so instead of just saying, 'bagels bake in the oven',
we found out how yeast works and how it all comes together. That is
what we mean by emergent curriculum. It's taking the interests of the
children and building on it. Our feeling is that if children are interested
in what they are learning they are going to be excited about it and
will continue delving into the information. We are just setting up the
guidelines for these children and their future learning.
It's not a new curriculum, but it's something that a lot of centres
are starting to look at again. One of the things that is really nice
about this type of programming is that the children and teachers work
together as partners, as opposed to the teachers teaching the children
'this is what you need to know'. It's really a different mindset.
CV: This sounds very much like a school environment.
Maxine Roness: We are early childhood educators; we are teachers.
Unfortunately, a lot of people feel that child care is babysitting -
it's where I drop off my child and you can care for my child. You can
put my child to sleep and you can change her and feed her, and you have
fun and play. Incidentally, play is one of the most amazing ways that
children learn. So, no we are not a school. We are definitely a child
care centre, but we are teachers.
CV: What are the outcomes of using an emergent curriculum? Do you engage in any formal outcome monitoring?
MR: The children have choices and freedom. They are able to expand
and don't have to 'stay in the lines'. We have meetings with our teachers
on a weekly basis to find out what the children have been working on,
how did they explore, and where are they going next week. So the outcome
monitoring is done on a continual basis. We have to in order to know
what good we are doing and how far we are expanding, and how something
can be developed.
CV: Child care is a hot topic in the federal government right
now, particularly the proposal for a national daycare program in the
most recent budget. What sort of strategy would you like to see implemented?
MR: I'd like to see them continue to work on it. I recently read
an article entitled, 'Will daycare die?', which talks all about the
work that has been done in the last 25 years. There has been so much
talk about where child care should go and finally someone was listening.
They've actually acknowledged that a certain amount of money should
go into child care. Now, of course, with all the talk about government
change, I don't know if there will be success. There are a lot of people
in business who want a Conservative government and unfortunately child
care could end up suffering. You can't have child care and reduce all
your taxes.
TP: The bottom line is that we need more child care. There is
not enough money for the child care that is in existence, and there
is no money for new centres to be opened. Right now, there are many
children in unlicensed care, often inappropriate care - places that
are operating as if they have a license when they don't. It's scary
out there and parents don't have a choice; they have to leave their
children somewhere when they go to work. Our programs are full and our
hands are tied. We would love to open more centres, but as a nonprofit,
we don't have the money.
CV: How important is strategic management within your organization?
TP: As Maxine said earlier, we are always sitting down and looking at where we are headed for the future. We have a large staff (31 members) and everyone is involved. Our goal right now is to look at how we can expand our programs to fill the gap that was created when the [provincial] government implemented alternate-day kindergarten. It used to be everyday - morning or afternoon - and when they changed that they created a gap in child care.
MR: We need to figure out how we can service more people and
how we can get funding from multiple donors. There is a lot of talk
about what the government gave us, how they gave it to us. We
need to figure out where we are going now. Is it going to be the government
helping us or can we perhaps start working with the schools?
CV: What impact has winning the Donner Award had on your organization?
MR: It's been fabulous. It's made us stop and think in much more
detail about where we are going and how we are going to get there. Terminology
such as strategic planning and outcome monitoring is something we've
always done, but in working with [Donner] it really clears out the cobwebs
in your mind. You can't just talk, you have to think and plan and decide
how you are going to do things. It's also a wonderful feeling to be
associated with so many organizations that are all not-for-profits.
When you get together with all these people being considered for the
Donner Award and you start comparing notes you learn so much from each
other. We are thrilled to be a part of that!
For more information about Kids Come First Child Care Centre of Vaughan,
call 905-660-3467.
To learn more about the Donner Awards, visit: www.fraserinstitute.ca/donner/index.asp.
