About the dayhome
Who is looking after your child, and how the days are put together.
How this started
I started caring for children in my home after doing it for friends and family often enough that it stopped being a favour. Getting licensed took a while. It involved a home inspection, coursework, paperwork I did not expect, and a monitor who has been through my house more times than my own mother has.
I would do it again. The standards are there for good reasons and I would rather families could check them.
The certification
Alberta has three levels of child care certification. Level 3 is the top one and it is what the province requires of a certified administrator. It means a two-year early learning and child care diploma or the equivalent, assessed by Alberta Children's Services.
In practice what it changed for me was less about credentials and more about having language for things I was already doing by instinct, and being challenged on a few things I was doing wrong.
The space
The dayhome takes up the lower floor of the house. It is one large open room, which was a deliberate choice: I can see every child from anywhere in it.
There is a reading corner with a bench and a basket of books, an art easel, a sensory table, a low shelf of bins the children can reach themselves, a dress-up kitchen, and a fish tank that gets more supervision than the fish strictly need. The solar system is on one wall and a world map covers most of another.
Napping happens in the same room, with cots that come out after lunch and go away again at two thirty.
Who else is here
It is me. That is the model, and it is the thing that makes a family day home different from a centre: your child has one caregiver, not a rotating staff, and I know all six children and all six families properly.
The tradeoff is that when I am sick, we are closed. You should factor that in.
What I care about most
That children here are comfortable enough to be themselves, which for a two year old often means being difficult. I would rather have a child who tests me than one who has learned to be quiet.
That parents get told the truth, including the parts that are not flattering to me.
That the children go outside.
Angela
Owner and primary caregiver
Level 3 certified, which is the highest of Alberta's three child care certification levels, and the certification the province requires of a certified administrator. Current in standard first aid and infant CPR. Runs a licensed Alberta Approved Family Day Home in Calgary for up to six children.
- Level 3 Child Care Certification
- Certified Administrator
- Standard First Aid and Infant CPR
- Criminal record check with vulnerable sector search