With Our Best Future in Mind

Implementing Early Learning in Ontario

Summary of the Report to the Premier by the Special Advisor on Early Learning Charles E. Pascal

In partnership with parents, full-day learning will provide Ontario children with high-quality programs that help lay the foundation for a healthy and productive life.

In November 2007, the Premier asked Dr. Charles Pascal to recommend the best way to implement full-day learning for 4- and 5-year-olds. This document provides the highlights of his advice. The full report, With Our Best Future in Mind, is available at www.ontario.ca/earlylearning.

Our Best Future

The most successful and innovative societies of the future will also be the best educated. Ontario is well on its way – our students are doing better in reading, writing, and math and graduating from secondary school in higher numbers. But we have more work to do when it comes to early learning. 

More than one in four children who enter Grade 1 are significantly behind their peers. Many never close the gap and go on to be disruptive in school, fail to graduate, and are unable to fully participate in and contribute to society. Ontario cannot adequately address the challenges of the new millennium while leaving a quarter of children behind. We need to start earlier and do a better job of supporting children’s learning.

Ontario has many good early childhood services, but they are disconnected, too often failing the best interests of children, frustrating families and educators, and wasting resources. We must make smarter decisions about how we design, manage, and fund early childhood programs if we are to achieve the educational, economic, and social goals made possible through quality early learning.

Establishing a strong foundation in the early years, and building on it, is the single-most powerful key to Ontario’s social and economic future.

Our best future is one where all our children are:

• healthy and secure;
• emotionally and socially competent;
• eager, confident, and successful learners;
• respectful of the diversity of their peers.

Four Key Components of Early Learning

This new, comprehensive and transformational early learning plan for Ontario begins by recommending better use of the resources we have to create a system of services for children and families from the prenatal period to age 12, including the following:

1. FULL-DAY LEARNING FOR 4- AND 5-YEAR-OLDS

Children who attend full-day early learning programs have improved academic performance and social success when they enter Grade 1. To help students succeed, the plan recommends that: 

• school boards offer full-day learning for 4- and 5-year-olds starting in September 2010, and that it be available province-wide within three years;
• parents have a choice about their child’s participation, including the option of full-day or half-day attendance
• fee-based programming (before and after traditional school hours and during the summer holidays) be offered at the request of 15 or more families;
• programs be staffed by well-trained teams of teachers and early childhood educators working with an established, consistent curriculum and approach to learning.

The report recommends that the first phase of implementation include lower-income neighbourhoods as part of the government’s Poverty Reduction Strategy.

2. BEFORE- AND AFTER-SCHOOL AND SUMMER PROGRAMS FOR SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN

Quality before- and after-school and summer programming has been found to bolster academic success, particularly for disadvantaged children. The report recommends that new investments for full-day learning and the consolidation and reorganization of existing resources will allow schools to offer extended day and year-round programs for school-age children (6 to 12 years old) at the request of 15 or more families.

Adequately staffed by appropriately trained school board employees, these programs will offer homework help and recreational and other activities to enhance children’s physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development.

To meet the needs of older students (9 to 12 years old), school boards may contract with municipal recreation programs or community agencies to provide activities. 

Programs operating before and after school and in the summer would be funded by parent fees, and subsidies for low-income families would be available.

Integrating early learning into a single program would result in significant savings for parents compared with the cost of traditional licensed child care for 4- to 12-year-olds.

Full day learning is associated with improved reading and numeracy, smoother transitions to Grade 1, and increased post-secondary graduation rates.

3. QUALITY PROGRAMS FOR YOUNGER CHILDREN

To support children and families during the earliest years of development, the report recommends that:

• the many existing child and family programs be consolidated into a network of Best Start Child and Family Centres under the systems management of municipalities;
• the Centres be located in or partnered with schools, and provide flexible full-day, full-year, and part-time child care for children up to age 4 (supported by parent fees and subsidies available for low-income families);
• the Centres be a one-stop opportunity for pre- and postnatal supports, parenting resources and programs,playgroups, linkages to community resources, help with early identification and intervention for children with special needs, and other early learning services.

Changes to child care fee subsidy eligibility will open participation to more children.

4. ENHANCED PARENTAL LEAVE BY 2020

Enabling parents to spend more time with their new baby creates a strong foundation for the child and decreases the need for expensive infant care. The report recommends that an improved parental leave and benefits program be established by 2020, and include: 

• paid parental leave of 400 days after the birth or adoption of a child;
• six weeks of leave designated exclusively for the father or non-birthing parent; 
• expanded coverage to include self-employed parents; 
• flexibility for parents on leave to return to work part-time;
• 10 days of legislated job-protected leave annually for parents of children under 12.

The evidence is clear – experiences in early childhood have a major impact on future learning, work, health, and social and emotional makeup.

From Words to Action – Steps to Get Us There

In order to implement the early learning plan, Dr. Pascal indicates that the following is required:

RESOURCES

• Funding to support full-day learning for 4- and 5-year-olds
• Capital funding to accommodate full-day learning for 4- and 5-year-olds in schools 
• Funding to support schools to provide before- and after-school and summer programs
• Parent fees to cover programs operating out of school hours and in the summer
• Support and funding to rationalize programs and adapt space for younger age groups
• Continued support for Best Start child care spaces now funded by the federal government

LOCAL MUNICIPAL LEADERSHIP

• Local service planning for a child and family system for children from birth to age 12
• Integrated early learning/care for children up to age 4 through municipal responsibility for consolidated planning, management, funding, and regulation of Best Start Child and Family Centres
• Continued municipal funding contribution

PROVINCIAL LEADERSHIP

• A new Early Years Division within the Ontario Ministry of Education to lead policy, funding, and accountability for programming for children from birth to age 8
• Over the longer term, a new, integrated Education and Family Supports Act

EARLY LEARNING PROFESSIONALS’ EDUCATION AND TRAINING

• Enhanced early learning training for teachers and early childhood educators
• A specialty degree program for professionals working with children from birth to age 8 
• More diversity in the early learning workforce

A COMMON PROGRAMMING GUIDE

• A consistent approach to early learning for children from infancy through to their transition into the primary years

MORE ACCOUNTABILITY FOR ACHIEVING RESULTS

• Improved monitoring, evaluation, and public reporting on early learning outcomes

For the full report click here

Reggio Emilia Philosophy

 

The following overview of the Reggio Emilia Approach was taken from a packet of information available at The Hundred Languages of Children traveling exhibit:

Hailed as an exemplary model of early childhood education (Newsweek, 1991), the Reggio Emilia approach to education is committed to the creation of conditions for learning that will enhance and facilitate children’s construction of “his or her own powers of thinking through the synthesis of all the expressive, communicative and cognitive languages” (Edwards and Forman, 1993). The Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education is a city-run and sponsored system designed for all children from birth through six years of age. The Reggio Emilia approach can be viewed as a resource and inspiration to help educators, parents, and children as they work together to further develop their own educational programs. The Reggio Emilia approach is based upon the following principles:

Emergent Curriculum: An emergent curriculum is one that builds upon the interests of children. Topics for study are captured from the talk of children, through community or family events, as well as the known interests of children (puddles, shadow, dinosaurs, etc.). Team planning is an essential component of the emergent curriculum. Teachers work together to formulate hypotheses about the possible directions of a project, the materials needed, and possible parent and/or community support and involvement.

 

Project Work: Projects, also emergent, are in-depth studies of concepts, ideas, and interests, which arise within the group. Considered as an adventure, projects may last one week or could continue throughout the school year. Throughout a project, teachers help children make decisions about the direction of study, the ways in which the group will research the topic, the representational medium that will demonstrate and showcase the topic and the selection of materials needed to represent the work. Long-term projects or progettazione, enhance lifelong learning.

Representational Development: Consistent with Howard Gardner’s notion of schooling for multiple intelligences, the Reggio Emilia approach calls for the integration of the graphic arts as tools for cognitive, linguistic, and social development. Presentation of concepts and hypotheses in multiple forms of representation — print, art, construction, drama, music, puppetry, and shadow play — are viewed as essential to children’s understanding of experience. Children have 100 languages, multiple symbolic languages.
Collaboration: Collaborative group work, both large and small, is considered valuable and necessary to advance cognitive development. Children are encouraged to dialogue, critique, compare, negotiate, hypothesize, and problem solve through group work. Within the Reggio Emilia approach multiple perspectives promote both a sense of group membership and the uniqueness of self. There high emphasis on the collaboration among home-school-community to support the learning of the child.

Teachers as Researchers: The teacher’s role within the Reggio Emilia approach is complex. Working as co-teachers, the role of the teacher is first and foremost to be that of a learner alongside the children. The teacher is a teacher-researcher, a resource and guide as she/he lends expertise to children (Edwards, 1993). Within such a teacher-researcher role, educators carefully listen, observe, and document children’s work and the growth of community in their classroom and are to provoke, co-construct, and stimulate thinking, and children’s collaboration with peers. Teachers are committed to reflection about their own teaching and learning.
Documentation: Similar to the portfolio approach, documentation of children’s work in progress is viewed as an important tool in the learning process for children, teachers, and parents. Pictures of children engaged in experiences, their words as they discuss what they are doing, feeling and thinking and the children’s interpretation of experience through the visual media are displayed as a graphic presentation of the dynamics of learning. Documentation is used as assessment and advocacy.

Environment: Within the Reggio Emilia schools, great attention is given to the look and feel of the classroom. Environment is considered the “third teacher.” Teachers carefully organize space for small and large group projects and small intimate spaces for one, two or three children. Documentation of children’s work, plants, and collections that children have made from former outings are displayed both at the children’s and adult eye level. Common space available to all children in the school includes dramatic play areas and worktables for children from different classrooms to come together.
Features of The Reggio Emilia Approach

Teacher Role:
• to co-explore the learning experience with the children
• to provoke ideas, problem solving, and conflict
• to take ideas from the children and return them for further exploration
• to organize the classroom and materials to be aesthetically pleasing
• to organize materials to help children make thoughtful decisions about the media
• to document children’s progress: visual, videotape, tape recording, portfolios
• to help children see the connections in learning and experiences
• to help children express their knowledge through representational work
• to form a “collective” among other teachers and parents
• to have a dialogue about the projects with parents and other teachers
• to foster the connection between home, school and community

Projects:
• can emerge from children’s ideas and/or interests
• can be provoked by teachers
• can be introduced by teachers knowing what is of interest to children: shadows, puddles, tall buildings, construction sites, nature, etc.
• should be long enough to develop over time, to discuss new ideas, to negotiate over, to induce conflicts, to revisit, to see progress, to see movement of ideas
• should be concrete, personal from real experiences, important to children, should be “large” enough for diversity of ideas and rich in interpretive/representational expression

Media:
• explore first: what is this material, what does it do, before what can I do with the material
• should have variation in color, texture, pattern: help children “see” the colors, tones, hues; help children “feel” the texture, the similarities and differences
• should be presented in an artistic manner–it too should be aesthetically pleasing to look at–it should invite you to touch, admire, inspire
• should be revisited throughout many projects to help children see the possibilities

Co-operative Full Day Child Care Program- Update

We are on our way to creating a truly unique co-operative daycare. We have much to do in the meantime but we are optimistic about our mandate to open in January 2010.

We have fell in love with a site that is an eco-restored green facility in a neighbourhood full of young families. Factory 163 is located at 163 King st. It is the ideal setting for our “daycare” vision. To learn more about Factory 163 visit: www.factory163.com

We are working to create 63 affordable and flexible daycare spaces for families in the city of Stratford. The daycare will be able to accommodate the needs of the average working families in the community of Stratford.

Our vision is to encourage creativity, intellectuality and independence in each child.  In a conscious community full of arts and culture, environmental awareness and strong social values the daycare will be an additional benefit in an already desirable community.

For more information or to get involved please contact;

Rebekah Zinger

info@childcareconnections.ca

(519) 273-5311

Parent’s Last Resort for Child Care

The other day while discussing Stratford’s child care crisis with a friend, She asked me “where are working parents on the local daycare’s waiting lists finding child care in the meantime?”

What I have seen happening with child care in Stratford is absurd!

Parents are desperate to go back to work. Especially in this econmy with the constant threat of lay offs and loss of employment. When a parent’s one year maternity leave is over.  They are entitled to the position they had before thier maternity leave. If they decline or postpone the position they have no garauntee of employment later on.

Most parents are unable to wait for these daycare spots to go back to work so they look for any other option that is available.

The only other affordable option for a full-time program is an informal home child care provider.

Many home child care providers in Stratford are wonderful caregivers. Unfortunately the ”wonderful” caregivers have no spots available either.

So parents need to realy on their last resort. This is so sad! To have your child in a less then perfect child care arrangement while you are working to make ends meet.

Not to mention the home daycare providers who are thriving are taking in too many children, which is unsafe and against the law.

A word to those caregivers: The following is information is  provided by the Ministry of Child and Youth Services.

When a person provides in-home child care at more than one location or co-ordinates the provision of care at more than one site, a licence to operate a private-home day care agency is required.

It is an offence to establish, operate or maintain a day nursery or private-home day care agency without a licence. On conviction, the fine is up to $2,000 for each day the offence continues, or imprisonment for a term of not more than one year, or both.

Ministry staff have the responsibility to follow-up on all complaints about child care being provided without a licence.

 

Addressing Stratford’s Child Care Crisis with Unique Solution

As some of you may already know, there is a significant need for more licensed child care facilities in Stratford. According to the child care manager of the Stratford Social Services department, there are close to 200 names on waiting lists for existing daycares in the city.
 
As a mother in need of daycare for my children, I am well aware of the lack of full-day and/or flexible childcare programs that possess a perfect balance of safety and structure in a warm and nurturing atmosphere. And any that come close to this standard are inevitably full!
 
This crisis is not being addressed by officials or childcare advocates at any level. As such, we, the parents who are being directly impacted by this situation, need to take the lead and be the change we want to see.
 
In participation with the City of Stratford Social Services Department, Child Care Division and the Organization for Parent Participation in Childcare and Education of Ontario (O.P.P.C.E.O.), concerned parents of Stratford are coming together to implement a full-day/flexible cooperative child care program in our city.
 
The prospect of high-quality, accessible daycare for our children and yours is exciting. Knowing that we have the resources to make it happen is empowering. Please join us in making this concept a reality. We look forward to sharing our thoughts and giving you an opportunity to voice yours about this incredibly important subject.
 
We have already spoken with many community members who have young children, and their concerns are not unlike our own. If you wish to stay informed about our progress with this project by receiving our monthly e-newsletter, or if you have any questions or comments or would like to get involved, please send your contact email to info@childcareconnections.ca. 
 
Have a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Rebekah Zinger 
Childcare Connections
info@childcare.connections.ca
www.childcareconnections.ca

Where’s the Child Care?

By: Rebekah Zinger

I was on the phone this morning with the child care manager for the city of Stratford inquiring about liability and regulations for family child care arrangements. She has informed me that most facilities in Stratford have a waiting list of 100-200 children. I have heard that before but I have always thought it was an exaggeration but this is an unbelievable FACT!

It looks as if we all should have signed our preconcieved notion of pregnancy up for a child care program so that we are in the clear by our 1 year maternity leave cut off. Now that’s family planning!

So here is a rhetorical question for the 100-400 parents waiting for a space in these daycares… Are you going to wait on these lists until your child hits JK? Doesn’t your child deserve more then the temporary  arrangement you have settled upon?

I know most parents think they have no power over this “child care crisis”. They can only hope that the municipal government will solve this local child care dilemma just as the federal government is solving the  national child care dilemma.

Parents are not powerless, You do not need to be an ECE, or a child care specialist to see what needs to happen!

I have always been an advocate for family child care arrangements, but now I am in a position where I NEED to find child care and I feel vulnerable. By putting my children in a child care environment (licensed or informal) I feel out of control. I have heard so many child care horror stories since starting my own home daycare in 2007. There is this uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach and a constant thought of “What if?” in the back of my mind. I know these emotions are irrational but none the less, at least at a facility their are regulations and a team of professionals. A little too institutionalized for my preference but judging by the waiting list I can’t afford to be choosy.

If you would like to be involved in a parent initiative to create more child care spaces in the city of Stratford, feel free to send your contact information as well as any questions or concerns to the e-mail address below.  

Contact Us:

info@childcareconnections.ca

A Plea for Child Care

Source: The Beacon Herald Editorials

As we have been celebrating International Women’s Day and the advances women have made, we have also become more concerned about the current child-care situation.

Good quality child care is one of the cornerstones of our economy — allowing parents to work or further their education, at the same time providing valuable early childhood learning which will support and develop young minds for years to come.

Yet at the time that we most need its growth, child care continues to be under threat with the possibility of 22,000 affordable child-care spaces, and the jobs of 4,000 child care workers, being lost in the province this year if the 2009 Ontario budget does not cover the upcoming funding shortfall.

Quebec, with its $7 a day child care has lowered child poverty by 50 per cent and found that 40 per cent of the cost of the program is now covered by the added revenue from new working parents.

CFUW Ontario Council asks that the Ontario government invest in child care and save the threatened child-care spaces.

Susan Rice, president

CFUW Stratford

Stratford

Liability

I had a vision at the beginning of Childcare Connections. My vision was clear and simple. “Make informal child care safe and educational in my community and exonerate the stigma from it!”

With that as my goal and my theory that anything is possible , I started planning ways to tackle this goal. My initial plan was to affiliate with caregivers, put them through a thorough interview process. Once I had their information and felt comfortable networking their services, I would offer a complete consultation and referral to parents looking for child care. Voila!

I would still be providing this service but there were some underlying issues that kept me from it. Such as LIABILITY! 

I knew that there was a liability issue from the get go but figured that since I was being kept busy providing refferals pro bono, I would be busy providing referrals at a fee… Therefore I could afford the $100.00/ month insurance cost. Maybe I could have waited it out and eventually I would have broke even but I was not in the financial situation to invest in the business. Also the time that I was putting into the referrals was taking too much time from my family life, so I decided to go another route. The route was to direct parents to a resource to find caregivers (see parent resources) and caregivers to the same resource to network their services. Now I am able to focus on my training program that offers a 3 level course on how to provide a successful family child care service.

I would like to thank all the affiliated caregivers who have gave me their networking information. I have your information filed and at the moment that I am able to work out the liability issue I will start networking your child care services again.

Community Survey Quotes

By: Rebekah Zinger

Back in January 2009 I had created a community survey looking for insight into what was needed in my community for child care resources. I would like to share some responses I had recieved when asking the following questions to parents:

How do you feel (or felt at the time) about placing your child into a child care setting?

“Stressful to find someone I felt comfortable with.”

“I was lucky and found an amazing woman to care for my daughter.
Before I meet with her I was a wreck!”

“Hesitant”

“A little apprehensive, as it was our first experience”

“I would have strongly preferred to place my daughter into daycare facility. I would have liked to have people with proper formal education take care of my daughter. We were lucky to find nice, warm, and caring people to take care of her, and I tried to think that this is the most important thing at a young age. Certain things might have been easier in a different setting though.”

“Even though we had two (out of three) good experiences with child care for the first child, I have chosen to stay home for an extra year (post mat. leave for #2)…I feel much better about waiting than I did about putting my first one into care at 11 months.”

“Just fine (daughter is now 16 and twin boys are four and currently in care).  All of my children flourish in the daycare environment.”

 ”I only work part-time, and I know the woman caring for my son, so I felt okay about it.  I would never put a child in a daycare facility (other than nursery school).  I want a home setting for my children; not an institution.”

“I was nervous because I didn’t know the person”

 ”It just something that has to be done in this day and age and economy.”

“I have mixed emotions… I know that doing home childcare & daycare both have their pros and cons… I want the very best for my child.”

“Uncomfortable”

“Stressed.  Want to find best possible care and make the right decision.”

“Comfortable because I would make sure I have met the caregiver and had some references as well.”

“It’s always hard to leave you children.  But, in the right home (I lucked out both times) I was confident in the care they were provided.”

“I think it will help him develop socially as he has had very little large group contact other than church. “

“Terrified!”

“I have no choice in the matter”

“Sad, but realistic”

“Nervous, confident about the placement.”

I’m somewhat apprehensive. My youngest is hearing impaired so I’ll need child care that will look at his needs.”

“A little aprehensive at first as he was only 4 months old”

“Very comfortable.”

“No problem with it.”

“Very reluctant when he was young, more comfortable with it now that he is older.”

“My child is currently in a non-licensed childcare setting, but I’m looking for childcare for the summer months because my sitter is the taking the summer off, preferably a student in the Sebringville area.”

“I was very reluctant.”

“Afraid.  Don’t know other people or what they could be capable of.  I needed to have 3 references or more to feel confident in my choice.”

“I found it to be very stressful to find the perfect stranger to look after my child.”

“I was very lucky to find a wonderful environment after interviewing several poor places.

My David and Goliath Story| Part II

By: Rebekah Zinger

6 long and perplexing months have gone by since Childcare Connections came to be. Still I am wondering how I can accomplish what I had initially set out to provide for my community.

The fact is that the community of Stratford, ON is in a “child care crisis”. this is the unfortunate truth for the rest of Canada as well. 

This “crisis” has been addressed by political figures, coalitions, child care advocates, etc.. all over the country. A change is likely to happen but in the meantime can we please find a temporary solution that will offer families a chance for a healthy and stable child care experience?      

No! Of course not. Why? Because of government regulations, restrictions, and resistance.

I am not even going to begin to discuss child care costs….

How about basic resources or means for parents to find every child care option in their community, oh and not only access to regulated institutions please?

I am trying to create a resource and referral network to offer a resources, but I find myself having nightmares about the liability I have as a sole proprietor. In a service dealing with the well-being of children, the liability is too much for me, Although I care and want to help I need to think about my risks.

So what now? where do I go from here?  

 I am not giving up though! I still have a few ideas up my sleeve!