Child Care Success: For You and Your Kids
– A $10.95 book from the Preschool Enrichment Team (413-736-3900).This is an excellent resource.INSTRUCTIONAL FORMATA major barrier to keeping a job is not being able to find quality child care. During this lesson, trainers should takestudents through all the issues a parent or guardian needs to consider to keep consistent child care. Part of the lessonwill require the student to practice getting child care in an emergency situation.1.Discuss the three basic types of child care:relative care,family day care, andcenter care. See the handouts
that provide this information.2.Have each student come up with alistof five people or places that will provide day care. This may requireindividual help and work done outside of the classroom. Each provider on the list will need to be contactedto ensure the availability and cost of using that service.3.Practice interviewing child care providers (trainers). During some of the role-plays, the trainers should provide information that should discourage the parent from choosing that person or center. Some red flagsinclude indicating you are not licensed, there is no back-up if you are sick, you take six weeks of vacationeach year, or cannot provide information on specific activities. At the end of the interview, ask the student if he would choose you as a provider. Discuss with him whether he made a good decision based on theinformation you provided.4.Practice scenarios in which the parent would need to come up with child care in an emergency. The trainer will play the various providers. Sometimes the first option will work. Sometimes the trainers should takethe student through many options until they find a person who can take care of the child. Provide thefollowing scenarios:
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You have the day off, but your boss called you in on an emergency basis. Find someone to takecare of your kids.
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It is 10 minutes before you leave for work and drop off you kids. Your cousin is sick and cannottake care of your kids. Find someone to take care of them.
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You are at work and your day-care provider calls. She says that her father just died and that youneed to come get your child in the next hour. You can't leave work, so you have to call to findsomeone to get your child and take care of her. (Don't forget to ask your boss if you can take a fewminutes to get this arranged.)5.Discuss balancing taking time off work to tend to a child's illness. Most jobs allow a parent to take sick time to care for a sick child. But, there are a limited number of days an employee can take. Every time a parent uses a sick day to care for a sick child, that is one less day he can take if the child is sicker at a later
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