By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
AFTER recently notching up 20 years of service as a City of Casey family day care provider, Dinnahvee Jones is celebrating National Family Day Care Week with the three children she cares for.
“We like them to be independent and their own star, everyone is unique and some are very active and some are creative and we give them the opportunity to be themselves,” Ms Jones said.
This week will be celebrated in family day care services around Australia with the theme ‘every child is a star’.
Ms Jones, from the Narre Warren family day care service, said their weekly activities had been centred around the theme.
“We do open-ended play, musical instruments, collage, blocks and book corner and we have encouraged them to do what they want and be accepting if other children don’t want to play with them at that time,” she said.
Family Day Care Australia chief executive officer Carla Northam said the national community event was about recognising and celebrating the many unique benefits of family day care that help children to shine.
“Every child is a star and this unique nationwide event will recognise family day care’s nurturing early childhood setting and how it encourages, develops and celebrates a child’s own individual star qualities,” Ms Northam said.
With 179,200 children enrolled in family day care across Australia, carers can only look after four children at once and seven under four years during school holidays.
“We go to the park and explore and on school holidays we go the movies, sometimes we’ll just go for a walk and talk about colours, sounds and words,” Ms Jones said.
