Week 9

The day I got laid off from my job was probably the worst day of my life. How was I going to support my family? How were we going to pay our bills? I hurried to find a solution to our crisis before thigns took another turn for the worse. My husband thought of a way out and told me, "Sandy, maybe you can always start that daycare you've always wanted to do." I thought about it and said, "Wow, maybe you're right! People always need a place for their children right? I would be perfect for that!" Later that night, I started planning.

Six months later down the road, my daycare opened it's doors. It was called Caring Hearts Daycare. The building we rented was about 5,000 square feet in size and had enough rooms for specific age groups to be seperated. The entrance way was painted in bright colors to lighten up the atmosphere. Most children are a little timid when their parents drop them off, and it would be nice for them to see big murals that can distract them from the fact that this is a daycare. When you walk in, there is a big room used for getting the children together to sing songs and eat. Down the hall there are about 5 different rooms with age groups ranging from 6 weeks to about 10 years old. My staff was very excited to start the day, and I was pretty excited myself.

Our first children came at about 8:00 a.m. There were 3 of them. The oldest was happy to see all of these different toys he has never seen before and immediately ran to play. The youngest was 4 months old and was handed off to her caregiver. The middle child had a little trouble letting go of mommy. We had to coax him with toys and crackers to distract him enough so his mommy could sneak out the door. After that, about 6 more children came.

I was in charge of keeping order of all the rooms, while my staff was seperated amongst them. It was a bit more noisy than I expected, but I loved the sound of children laughing and playing. I warms my heart to know that I provided a nurturing, fun, and comfortable environment for these children while their parents were at work or college. In the middle of the day all of the children came together in the great room to sing songs and dance. Even when they sing out of tune, they are better singers than Kelly Clarkson. Their smiles were as wide as rainbows and they all yelled, "Miss Sandy, Miss Sandy let's sing another song! Dance Miss Sandy!" I definetly got my workout for the day--or in my case the week. After the song and dance, we ate lunch and settled down for naptime.

I look over the children while they sleep so soundly, wondering what they are going to tell mommy and daddy about their day here. I like to think that they enojoy it and want to keep coming back again and again. The real home is with their parents, but hopefully in due time, this will be their home away from home.

When parents started rolling in to pick up their kids, I let them all know what they ate for the day, activities we did together, how they reacted during the day, and gave them papers reapeating everything i just told them. They thanked me for watching their children and they left. It was the first day, and I know I could do this for the rest of my life.