Family Child Care

Both the quantity and the quality of specific services provided in family homes vary from home to home and from agency to agency. However, almost 50 percent of family child care providers spend a substantial amount of their time in direct interaction with the children. Consider the unique features of Bridges Family Child Care in Madison, Wisconsin, and the ways the director, Vic McMurray, and her staff address the issues of quality, accessibility, and affordability:

• Establish sliding-scale fees to encourage affordability
• Offer parents social support
• Provide information on parenting skills and ideas about what has worked successfully for other families
• Keep parents current on community support services they may be eligible to receive
• Provide a low staff-to-child ratio of 2:8
• Support children’s activities
  • Help-yourself project/ art tables
  • Book areas stocked with pillows
  • Regular sessions in music, rhythm, dance and drama
• Encourage children to wash, dress, and toilet independently
• Provide balanced nutrition
  • Serve organic meals and snacks, free from additives, hormones, and pesticides
  • Involve children in cooking, composting, and gardening
• Stress respect for students and staff
• Provide an inclusive environment (including children with blindness, with autism, with cerebral palsy, with Down syndrome, or born to crack-using mothers)
• Offer fair compensation (including health care, continuing education, and paid holidays, vacation, and personal days)