Routines for Home-Based Childcare: Early Childhood Educators

¶ … Routines for Home-Based Childcare:

Early childhood educators usually assume a significant role in ensuring that children they care for are offered an environment and atmosphere that permits each of them to grow and flourish in an appropriate way for every individual. As the major responsibility of caregivers, good quality in childcare basically promotes and enhances the development of the child. In attempts to promote the development of a child, the core of every early education and childcare initiative is based on the consideration of the needs and interests of children as well as their parents and families.

The process of promoting and enhancing child development incorporates partnership with parents in every aspect of childcare services, development of routines, and valuing every child in the home-based childcare setting. Partnership with parents or their involvement can be described as active participation by parents in planned, constant, and meaningful ways in all programs and activities that help in their child's development. Parents should be involved in planning, consultation, execution, and evaluation of such programs and activities. Due to their important role in child development, parents should be full partners in the educational and social progress of their children.

Childcare providers should learn to engage parents in the developmental progress of their children through the establishment of various strategies. Since the partnership needs to take place in every aspect of the childcare setting, it can happen through various forms like policy and planning, information sharing regarding the child, and outlining the approaches to activities and curricular. It's important to note that the development of partnerships between childcare providers and parents is an ongoing process. However, this aspect can be established through regular two-way and significant communications between childcare providers and parents. The childcare providers can also establish the partnership through engaging parents in decision making as they develop mutual expectations.

The second major aspect in promoting and strengthening home-based childcare is the development and establishment of routines. Actually, every aspect of meaningful and good childcare is usually rich in routines and patterns. Moreover, such routines and patterns are a reflection and characteristic of good-quality childcare programs and activities for infants and toddlers that promote healthy development. Childcare routines are mainly centered on meeting a child's needs and encouraging his/her participation in the program because they are behavior and emotion regulators.

During the initial stages, home-based childcare providers tend to work with temporal schedules together with parents. This helps in the creation of routines as the caregiver and parents make decisions depending on where the child is spending most of the waking hours. In addition to being comforting, home-based childcare routines offer physiological stability of the child, emotional stability, and promote feelings of trust, safety, and continuity as children are open to leaning and exploration. In addition, routines contribute to the development of learned behavior patterns that result in systems of self-control, lessen anxiety, and reinforce patterns of positive behaviors and rewards.