My son started family daycare just before his 2nd birthday and was cared for by 2 different families. It was a great childcare option at the time, but I felt it had a limited life span.
Advantages
• Family day care is small group based and so is not as overwhelming as a large childcare centre can be for a young child.
• The childcare is provided in a home environment and this familiar set up can help to settle a child quickly.
• The caregivers are usually parents and/or grandparents themselves and have often had loads of personal experience in looking after young children.
• The caregivers are assessed and supported by childcare professionals on a regular basis.
• Family day care is usually a very economical childcare option, when compared with alternatives like long day care or a nanny.
Disadvantages
• Family day care is small group based and some parents prefer their children to learn the social skills that they would acquire from a larger group dynamic.
• The caregivers, though often parents and/or grandparents who have plenty of personal experience to draw from, are not usually trained childcare professionals.
• Because the caregivers are usually not trained childcare professionals, the family daycare service tends to act best as safe, stimulating child minding. Most caregivers do not offer structured educational input in their childcare role, so they will usually not adopt school readiness programs etc.
• Due to the more informal, child minding nature of family day care, some children become bored after a year or 2 in such an environment and need the added stimulation and more instructive setting of a registered long day care facility, complete with a school transition program.
Personal Experience
Family day care was perfect for my son as his first taste of childcare. It was a gentle way to start separation from mummy, ease him into coping alone with other children and building those first vital, independent social skills. He had 2 completely different family daycare experiences, though both were very positive. The first lady he went to was a young woman with a professional childcare background who ran her home like a tiny preschool. The children were all kept interested and entertained with painting, building, singing, dressing up, role-playing and lots of other amazing activities. That lady moved district and my son was placed with a second family day care lady. This was an older woman with grown children of her own who had been running childcare from her home for some years. The children were well cared for and there were lots of toys etc for them to play with, but entertainment was left much more up to them.
Overall, I was really happy with my experience of family day care. My only real quibble is that, whilst it is really great for younger, less confident children, once they start to develop they may need more stimulation and a more structured childcare program than the average family day care home can give. I moved my son out of family daycare shortly after he turned 3 as I felt he had got all he could from it – the confidence to be away from me, increased social skills with his own peer group and a better sense of who he was. Family day care is a great way to begin childcare.
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