Gadgets

1) Conduct the interview in the off hours, either the weekend or the evening when both parents and the child(ren) can be present, and you have more time to relax and prepare for the interview. After the initial interview, suggest that the parents visit your facility during the day when the children are present to see how you operate and to allow their child to get to know the other children. Encourage them to visit a few times if necessary.

2) Have your family present for a portion of the interview. This will allow you to see how well the children interact, to see how the family interacts with your child(ren), and to allow them to meet everyone in your household who may be present when their child is in your care.

3) Have your materials nicely packaged in a presentation folder and ready to give to the parents. Take time to go over each form. This should include a copy of your:

* Business Card and Brochure/Flyer
* Welcome Letter
* Parent Handbook
* Policy Manual
* Registration Form
* Child Development Form
* Permission Slips
* Injury Reports
* Food Program Forms (if applicable)
* Daily Infant Activity Sheet (if applicable)
* Medical Information Form
* Testimonials or letters from the parents and the children are a nice touch.
* Any other forms you use and need to go over with the parents.

4) Have your training certificates, CPR certification, license, membership registrations or other professional documentation either displayed so the parents can see them, or in a nice portfolio so you can go through them with the parents. This helps validate your background and experience.

5) Have your Interview Checklist available so you can refer to it as you go through the interview. This helps you check things off so you don’t miss any important information you want to parley to, or gather from, the parents. It also helps you to take notes during the interview, which you’ll need as you make your decision whether or not you can build a quality working relationship with the family.

6) Don’t just sip tea and visit at the kitchen table. Take the parents on a complete tour of your facility, showing them every area of your home their child will use. Try not to rush through the tour. Talk about the activities you do with the children, how you arrange for their naps, and so on. Encourage parents to ask questions as you go along. When your done your tour, take the parents back to the meeting area giving them an opportunity to ask questions and take notes.

7) Never sign a contract with the parents on the spot. You both need time to reflect on the interview. Ask yourself if you feel you can work with this family. If the children seemed to get along. If the parents were on time for their interview. If they winced at your rates. If they seem to jump from one child care facility to another. The answers to your questions could be an indication of things to come. If the parents wander from child care provider to child care provider, they could be either hard to get along with or renege on payment and therefore are constantly on the run. Late for the interview could indicate a lack of respect for you and could end up being how they treat your relationship.

Instead, encourage the parents to take your information packet home and read through it. This gives them more time to thoroughly examine the policies and to discuss their feelings about the interview.

8) Reserve your Child Care Contract until the parents indicate they would like to use your services. Your Parent Handbook/Policy Manual covers everything concerning your policies and operations. This is enough to go over for one night. When the parents come to sign the contract, you can go over each clause in your contract in detail, referring to the manual if need by, and reinforcing the information the parents were given.

9) If you do decide this is a family you’d enjoy working with, get your fees upfront, especially your two week advance. Then make sure they are aware of your two week trial period. This will give you enough time to ensure the child will fit in with your group and that the parents are easy to get along with. It also gives both parties an opportunity to terminate the care with no ill feelings or obligations.

10) Do a background check on the family. If they have used child care before, find out who they used and get the phone number of the caregiver or facility. If the parents can’t give you the information during the interview, ask them to call you the next day, or offer to make the call yourself. Then follow up. Call the previous daycare and ask why the parents left, if there were any difficulties with the family or the child that you should know about. Did they pay on time? Did they pick their child up on time? What was the previous caregiver’s overall impression of the family? Was she sad to see them go? The more you know, the better you can feel about your decision to say yes to the family if they decide to hire you, or to turn them down if you just don’t feel there is a match. It’s okay to say no.

Fast Facts:

* High caregiver turnover erodes the quality of child care.
* Changing caregivers often greatly affects a child’s ability to form trusting, loving attachments.
* Close to 40% of all child care workers need to be replaced each year.
* Compared to the general work force, child care workers have a higher level of education.
* Low wages, a lack of benefits, and adverse working conditions make it difficult for many child care workers to remain in the profession.

Parents are justifiably worried over the high staff turnover at child care centres. But they are not alone. Directors themselves note, in Caring For A Living, A Study On Wages and Working Conditions In Canadian Child Care, conducted by the Canadian Child Care Federation and the Canadian Day Care Advocacy Association, that “finding qualified substitutes,” is a major problem. Finding and keeping “permanent staff” ranked as a problem.

Effects of Turnover On A Child

There are damaging effects of multiple changes in child care arrangements and caregivers. These range from an inability to form lasting, loving and trusting attachments later in life, to negative effects on a child’s long term development and school performance.

The U.S. National Child Care Staffing Study, conducted by the Child Care Employee Project (1989), found that children in centres where there was low quality care and high staff turnover, were less competent in language and social development.

High turnover rates directly affect the overall quality of a centre too. It takes time and money to find and train a new employee. More than that, there is the adjustment period between the staff, the caregiver, and the children. It is only through knowing and understanding each child’s individual needs, strengths and personalities, that caregivers can give each child the care and nurturing he or she needs.

Parent’s Frustrations

The problem of caregiver turnover is not confined to the daycare centre however. Indeed parents who use in-home care or family daycare experience the same frustrations, though on a larger scale as they, themselves, are responsible for finding and screening caregivers.

While low wages are the major reason caregivers leave the field, a lack of benefits, poor working conditions, little room for career advancement, and a severe absence of respect and recognition for the enormity of their job, are cited as factors in this high turnover.

Though, perhaps, it may seem parents can do little to ensure a continuity of care with a single caregiver at the daycare centre, they certainly can make their concerns heard. They can urge their local and national policy makers to endorse “better child care by making it affordable to more families through higher subsidies, via the tax system, direct grants to providers and other areas,” says the Child Care Aware, a nationwide program sponsored by the Dayton Hudson Corporation, to help educate parents on quality child care, in their paper, Child Care: Quality Is The Issue.

Parents who use in-home or family daycare can show their support by offering to help pay for a caregiver’s medical insurance premiums; setting up an allowance fund for things such as dental care, prescription drugs, medical expenses, etc.; providing a training allowance to encourage their caregiver to upgrade her training; recognizing the work the caregiver performs by doing special things such as hosting a celebration for course completion’s, giving dinner or theatre tickets for birthdays and anniversaries, presenting the caregiver with thank you notes or flowers on occasion, or simply by involving the caregiver in major family decisions that effect her work with the children. Even a compliment goes a long way.

It’s the little things we do today that bring about big changes tomorrow.

Parents, like child care providers, want to utilize every tax deduction available to them. That means claiming their child care expenses. Caregivers are therefore required by law to provide a parent with Year End Tax Statements of fees paid for care if a parent .

Your tax statement need not be anything elaborate, but mustrequests one contain the following information:

* The complete the name of the parent
* The number of children you cared for
* The total child care amount paid during the 2002 tax year
* Your name or your business name
* Your social insurance/security number
* Your Business Identification Number if you have one
* The date
* Your signature

Keep Track

Hopefully, throughout the year you kept some sort of Attendance Payment Record where you recorded each child’s attendance for each month, along with the amount of payment the parent made and the date payment was made. This will make tabulating your year end statements relatively simple. All you’ll need to do is take the payment for each month and tabulate them for the year.

When it comes to payments for divorced or separated parents who share custody of a child, you’ll most likely have to prepare one form for each parent showing only the amount that each individual parent paid. If only one parent pays for the care, you might consider giving each parent a copy of the statement just to be on the safe side.

The good news is that by preparing your Year End Tax Statements for your parents, you are calculating your earnings for the year which you’ll need when you prepare your taxes. Now if you were passionate about keeping track of your expenses on a monthly basis using a Monthly Expense Statement, you’re tax preparation will be a snap.

The first, and perhaps most critical element needed for effective character education of our children, begins with an environment that models the concepts of the six core ethical values of trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship. As caregivers and educators, we need to demonstrate ethics on a daily basis in all that we do and say. We need to hold ourselves and our employees accountable on all levels of our business and teaching environments. It is no longer acceptable to operate on a “Do as I say, not as I do,” mentality.

Be A Role Model

Your character and the character of your employees or substitutes, matters. Children mimic what they see and what they hear. Each of your communications with parents affirm your ethical approach to respect, trustworthiness, and fairness. How your employees relate to each other reveals the level of caring and responsibility that exists in your centre. Working hand in hand with service organizations in your community demonstrates your commitment to good citizenship, and so on. Think about all the messages you send to the children through your daily interactions.

Take the time to train your staff about your business values, from the assistant teachers to the volunteer cooks. Learn as much as you can about character development training for your staff as well as your children. We’ve included a few links in this newsletter that are a springboard to the vast amount of information available to assist you with this task.

Code Of Ethics

Set up a code of ethics for yourself and your employees. Get the children’s input. Let them see you are willing to abide by a higher standard of character yourself.

Place posters throughout your workplace to inspire, encourage and motivate everyone to adhere to the concepts of leadership, team work, community involvement. Visit successories.com! for a huge range of quality products that will inspire everyone in your facility.

Consciously communicate and model affirming messages about character and ethics by using encouraging quotes and slogans on all your communications with staff, parents, vendors, etc.

Praises the positive role-modeling work of your staff in front of the children and the parents. This is a great way to build self-esteem in your staff, and to let them know how much you value their contribution to your facility.

Encourage your staff and parents to learn as much as they can about character education. Offer to lend your resources to them of put together a summary of the resources in this newsletter. Offer rewards or incentives for staff to better themselves.

Admit When You’re Wrong

When you are wrong, demonstrate accountability by admitting it and apologizing. When members of your facility violate core ethical principles, whether it is a failure to show respect or common courtesy, an act of selfishness or a lie, express appropriate disapproval or impose sanctions. Always remember that the children are watching YOU!

Your efforts to develop and adhere to a core set of character principals for yourself and your staff will make a huge difference in families you serve. Think of what that will mean in terms of the real success of the children.

Resources

Five Steps to Teaching Solid Character in Students
http://www.moralintelegence.com
By Michele Borba, Ed.D., who is an internationally-recognized consultant and author of eighteen books including Character Builders and Esteem Builders, by Jalmar Press. Information on her publications and seminars can be accessed through her Web site, www.moralintelligence.com.

Creating a Code of Ethics for Your Organization
by Chris MacDonald, Ph.D.
An online resource that covers the basics of developing a code of ethics for your business in an easy to follow manner.

BusinessEthics.ca
The Canadian resource for Business Ethics.

One of the most important components of quality child care is positive communication between the provider and the parent. Communication though, is not always easy because we think of it in terms of meaningful discussions and intelligent conversations. But if we look at communication as William Ross did in his famous quotation, “Words are the best medium of exchange of thoughts and ideas between people”, we see it is not really complicated at all. It is simply a matter of a few words here and there.

The words most commonly used with regards to positive communication between a provider and a parent are:

* Mutual respect
* Trust
* Cooperation

Providers want and deserve respect for the work they do. Their job is one of the most important in our society for they are tending to the needs of our young. Their work is tedious – and the responsibility they bear is enormous.

* Parents also deserve respect – both in their role as a working parent and in the way they raise their children. The guilt they carry for leaving their child’s care in the hands of someone else is stressful, as is their constant worrying about their child’s well-being.

* Trust! Parents trust a provider to teach their child the basics, to be warm and affectionate, to ensure their child is safe and happy. Providers trust parents to keep them informed on their child’s well-being, to pick their child up on time, and to pay for their services on time.

* It is the cooperation portion of the four simple words that demands the most work. It takes effort to talk to each other, especially at day’s end when everyone is tired. But saying just a few simple words can open up worlds of conversation. And conversation is a way of expressing thoughts and ideas, even problems.

How’s It Going?

A few simple words like “How are things going?”, “Janet is so happy here.” Or, “Gee, I’m looking forward to payday (hint hint) so I can get some new toys for the kids,” breach a code of silence that could work against all the hopes and dreams one has for the child. So, perhaps just for tomorrow, take that second and speak just four little words. Provider – parent, it doesn’t matter who speaks first. What matters is that you talk.

Parents naturally worry about the type of discipline their child receives at the daycare centre, family dayhome, or in the hands of their nanny. Is their child being treated fairly? Is he or she being singled out? Does the caregiver hit their child, yell excessively at him/her or use force to get their child to do what the caregiver wants?

Even before a child is placed in any child care setting, it is best to talk with the caregiver at length about issues of discipline, and to visit the facility to ensure what you are told and what actually transpires correspond. So what does one look for in appropriate discipline practices in child care? Each province or state has their own guidelines as to what is and is not allowed when it comes to disciplining a child. You would be wise to contact your local licensing authority to learn about the rules in your area. It is up to you however to monitor your child care arrangements daily to ensure these rules are not being broken.

Help Children Behave

There are three factors involved in helping children behave:

* Setting reasonable, clear rules
* Dealing reasonably with broken rules, and
* Being a good model for the children (acting in ways that you want the children to act).

There are three very simple rules that many providers use which are easy for the children to understand. These are:

* You may not hurt yourself.
* You may not hurt others (hurt can be emotional as well as physical).
* You may not hurt things (toys, furniture, etc.).

Basic Rules

While rules and regulations vary from area to area, here are some widely-accepted basic rules concerning discipline:

* No cruel, harsh, or unusual punishment is allowed.
* Discipline shall not include profanity, negative remarks about a child or his family, or other verbal abuse.
* Discipline shall not be used to humiliate, shame or frighten a child.
* Discipline shall not include spanking, hitting, striking, biting or pinching.
* No child shall be confined in an enclosed area, such as a locked room, box or closet.
* Discipline shall not include preventing a child from eating, sleeping, or using the toilet.
* No child shall be allowed to discipline another child.

If your child talks about any form of discipline that makes you uncomfortable or is prohibited, talk with your caregiver at once. Always believe your child first. If you are not satisfied with the caregiver’s response, monitor the situation closely and talk to other parents. Remember, always remove your child from any situation that is dangerous to his/her safety and well-being. If you suspect abuse, remove your child from care and call your local licensing authority and the police at once