My First Experience with the FCCRS

[MarinaVanessa]

That's sort of what they suggested that I do. I just don't have the room for that. Really I don't. Here's my setup ...

And don't get me started on how licensing came and they said I had too much stuff ::







That bathroom is the door next to the TV, the other door is a closet. My changing table doesn't fit in the area where the cubbies are, I already tried that.

[spedmommy4]

I'm lucky in that the previous owners added a sun room To our house. We converted it to a classroom so there is no shared space. This is the classroom now.

[MarinaVanessa]

I'm so jelous. My next house will have a designated daycare space.

Love your space lovethis

[Abigail]

I also think Fccers is a lot about what you have available. What I do is put more and more stuff out a week or so prior to the observations so the kids lose interest in playing with it. The most annoying toys come out first so on day two or three with more new toys they stop playing with them.........that example is my guitar toys. LOL. No loud guitar music playing 24/7 after new dolls, food, cars, etc were brought out on day two!

I was slightly dinged on "many and varied materials" for science, math, and music. I had 9 music toys out yet I needed 10 or more for my group. I had ALL my science things I could possibly find out and it still wasn't enough. Now she found plants, our pet cats count, nature pieces we put in jars like rocks, leaves, etc, magnetics, books, but she said she wanted to see more or a variety. She only said all she could think of was having available a sequence/matching/order card game of some sort so I will make sure that is out this time around! Another idea for science I didn't have was photos of nature displayed on the wall, so I'm going to try to find something I like and I understand. Even a real photo of a rainbow. :: She wanted to see more math items available so I guess I'll just have to make sure I have a few more infant things and phones out because the numbers on toy phones work as math.

For diversity I just need to find more play food that shows what people eat in different countries. I have mini posters on a wall showing baby/mom/dad/grandma/grandpa/friends/pets as well and differing abilities and backgrounds............having at least some diversity on the wall is required I fixed that my last go-around. Making sure you have it in your books, play dolls, play people, dress up clothing or food.........it just needs to be at least one of each so you can't have just African dolls, you would need to have like a native American and African doll to have a comparison. OYE, understandable I guess.

ALL of our artwork I require it to stay at daycare for at least two weeks. If it isn't something great to hangup, like free art is often and other projects are more cool to hang up on display I just put those that don't get hung up in a drawer until our theme is over then send everything home. Not just for the fccers practice but because I don't want crap sitting in cubbies for days on end and having parents have to carry something home every day or two, it's easier to put things in a take-home bag 2x a month. Any child 12 months or older needs 2 minimum but 3 to be safe projects displayed. You could have cute hand prints done in multiple colors with names on them and always display those somewhere like a mini border for half a year at a time. Some wall hangings or artwork needs to be displayed at the childs level and it needs to be in an area where kids can see it so don't put it only in a hallway. I am going to have to lower art/photos in my bigger kid areas, I refuse to in the main playroom where infants stay.

The diaper changing I will always score low, that is by choice. Our changing table is in playroom and even though we follow procedure washing hands even on infants after diaper changes we must touch the hallway gate to get to the bathroom and that's a ding. We also have to keep the step can on the changing table next to the pad or kids will open it and I don't want a full size step can for having only 3 infants in diapers. Besides just one ding of the two still keeps me rated low in diapering. We always sanitize for 2-3 minutes but I heard new standards they're trying to introduce would be 5 minutes for diapering areas.

Soft toys and child seating......I put out almost all the "squeeze-ably soft" items I have and spread them throughout the little and big kid areas. I don't typically have stuffed animals out but the smaller ones that hold up in the washer/dryer I keep. We use them regularly now for music time in the mornings so it's a good thing I stocked up on animals! Small pillows and receiving blankets work as well, but you can't have just ten blankets you need at least 2 of each soft item to count. We had 2 pillows, 6 blankets, 8 small stuffed animals, a soft piggy bank with coins (counted as math too!), soft books in the infant area, some soft play food (also had plastic play food) in the kitchen area, and in other rooms we had a few more stuffed animals and soft play toys so we made the soft toys work! Now I only have one couch in the whole daycare area and we have large vinyl covered blocks 4/5 of them you can sit on, one is round and no one sits well on it, but I'm not sure if the blocks counted as a soft item or not. I was told I needed one more soft seating area available so I think only the couch counted so I ordered a furniture set with part of our grant and that will go in another room so only the big kids have access to it. Spendy little furniture!

This is fun thinking about my results and what I'm going to change.........oh yeah I needed a solid ground building surface in the block area so kids could build sizeable structures. Plush carpet is all we have and no playing in hallways, my rule, and the kitchen floor doesn't count because we have closet doors/cupboards/chairs it's just too crowded to make a formal block play area. So instead I ordered one more shelf from Kaplan and that will go in the room where furniture is also going for big kids only. I was told if I get a 3 by 3 foot office chair floor protector mat that that would be considered a solid ground building surface for 2 kids to build a sizeable structure on. So I'm going to put that clear mat infront of the shelf which will house all the block play materials that we never keep out because 0-2 year olds chew on them or they would be a choking hazard. I was told I needed more than just blocks, cars, and people so I am going to add animals and probably dinosaurs as well to make more a block play area for big kids in a separate room and I better score all my points!

I think it's fun to learn about how they score, but in the end half the items I have out get put back because in my world less is more and they just want to see what they can in 4 hours to follow their book scoring. One other thing I learned was that I don't have to have all my books in our book shelf, it's a front display ladder shelf and the infants kept trying to get at the paperback books. So instead I was told to have about a dozen paperback books available for the older kids and to have about the same amount available in boardbooks in the bookshelf. So since I have 5 infant/toddlers and 6 preschoolers I'm turning our nap room into a block play and book area for only 3-5 year olds! I'm not use to having so many older kids so it's good encouragement for me to change some things so fccers isn't all that bad! Just make sure you look at all your books you have out to make sure they'll give you "points" in categories...........show science (books on nature), math (numbers, counting, shapes, colors), diversity (differing abilities and backgrounds), etc. If you have regular storybooks that you can't think of where they could place in helping you earn points, I put them away and find some that would! I also lean towards real photos vs. character drawn photos. Parents have all those pooh-bear and basic tv character books at home, so at daycare I strive to find real photos of people especially over characters. Just my preference.

Also having photos of your children/families on display helps. We had Christmas cards hung up and it was April. LOL, now in my newsletter to parents I'm going to ask for family photos or pet photos so keep on display. I can display photos of them already but it would be nice to have even their pets or siblings/family on display for half a year or more at a time. I have a door in the hallway dedicated to where I was going to put these, but I might hang them up behind plexi-glass on a corkboard or something really low so the kids can look straight forward at the photos and not ruin them. Anyone else hang things low but are protected? I was thinking I could just get a huge frame and tape them inside and hang the frame low as well. Maybe even a few smaller frames and make a showcase wall?

[spedmommy4]

I do post things low, but I usually laminate them. If you want to get fancy, I know that either lakeshore or Kaplan makes a display for infants and toddlers.

It sounds like you do a lot to improve your score, and that's great. I believe the purpose is to get administrators considering the quality of their program and how to improve it. The down side is that it becomes easy to get caught up in points and having an arbitrary number of items. The fccers doesn't take into consideration that every fcc is unique. We should all be high quality, but not the same.

[Josiegirl]

I'll bet all these people that make the rules, have 1 or 2 kids of their own and leave them at dc just so they can get groceries done. They wouldn't be able to handle it. Why can't they see what all the extra rules and time is taking away from the safety and education of these kids??? Not to mention, it doesn't hurt a kid or environment to not be sterile once in awhile, it helps build immunity. I'm not saying we shouldn't wash their hands but hopefully you know what I mean.

[Annalee]

I'll bet all these people that make the rules, have 1 or 2 kids of their own and leave them at dc just so they can get groceries done. They wouldn't be able to handle it. Why can't they see what all the extra rules and time is taking away from the safety and education of these kids??? Not to mention, it doesn't hurt a kid or environment to not be sterile once in awhile, it helps build immunity. I'm not saying we shouldn't wash their hands but hopefully you know what I mean.

Some rule makers are not even married much less have kids. It is easy to look from the outside and decide what is best practice but when you work child care sometimes it is a split-second decision to take care of the most pressing thing at the time. I think rules are necessary but I also feel there needs to be a medium and providers should have a chance to explain themselves at times. Just like common core teaching is putting all kids in the same learning box which is a travesty, so is QRIS placing all providers in the same box. I believe in multiple learning styles and providers should be given the courtesy of providing diverse child care programs. There are many ways to provide quality care and there are many ways for children to learn. Let us do what we do best and give credit where credit is due. AND yes I have said all of this to legislators to no avail

[spedmommy4]

Yes! This exactly, although I actually think it needs to be said to the authors of the FCCERS. During my observation, there were many times that I had to prioritize behavior and safety over hand washing. If I had opted to complete hand washing, my group would would have spent too much time waiting (ding for that too ) and I would have been dealing with serious behaviors. Maybe it's just be, but I believe that to score a 7 you would need multiple assistants. I just don't see how it's sustainable on a day-to-day basis.

Some rule makers are not even married much less have kids. It is easy to look from the outside and decide what is best practice but when you work child care sometimes it is a split-second decision to take care of the most pressing thing at the time. I think rules are necessary but I also feel there needs to be a medium and providers should have a chance to explain themselves at times. Just like common core teaching is putting all kids in the same learning box which is a travesty, so is QRIS placing all providers in the same box. I believe in multiple learning styles and providers should be given the courtesy of providing diverse child care programs. There are many ways to provide quality care and there are many ways for children to learn. Let us do what we do best and give credit where credit is due. AND yes I have said all of this to legislators to no avail

[daycare]

I am curious to see how my childcare will play a hand in this as I don't take any govt asst of any kind... So I am not certain how I will be scored in the end of all of this or if there will even be any reason for me to participate in it.

[Cat Herder]

How is everyone getting away with 20 seconds.

I am told to have them turn on water, wet hands, leave water running, apply foam soap, have them wash for 2 minutes without getting in water, rinse, grab paper towel, use to turn off water, toss, grab another paper towel, dry, toss.

I have well water and would prefer some trees live.

With infants, it is two minutes per hand while you delicately restrain them. I won't even go into the diapering obscenities.

I thought the goal was unification?

[snbauser]

How is everyone getting away with 20 seconds.

I am told to have them turn on water, wet hands, leave water running, apply foam soap, have them wash for 2 minutes without getting in water, rinse, grab paper towel, use to turn off water, toss, grab another paper towel, dry, toss.

I have well water and would prefer some trees live.

With infants, it is two minutes per hand while you delicately restrain them. I won't even go into the diapering obscenities.

I thought the goal was unification?

I have never heard of 2 minutes. Where are they getting their information from?

[MarinaVanessa]

How is everyone getting away with 20 seconds.

I am told to have them turn on water, wet hands, leave water running, apply foam soap, have them wash for 2 minutes without getting in water, rinse, grab paper towel, use to turn off water, toss, grab another paper towel, dry, toss.

I have well water and would prefer some trees live.

With infants, it is two minutes per hand while you delicately restrain them. I won't even go into the diapering obscenities.

I thought the goal was unification?

This is one of those points that I take a low score on. I'm CA and we have a drought. Besides that I conserve energy and water anyway so leaving the water running is something I refuse to do.

[Cat Herder]

I have never heard of 2 minutes. Where are they getting their information from?

It came from the "no more anti-bacterial soap" push. Friction + soap only. (plus antibacterial soap has a keep out of reach label which means it falls into the "toxic chemical" rule) 2 minute timers are suggested.

"Superbug" research + "best practice" is what was lectured.

[Annalee]

Yes! This exactly, although I actually think it needs to be said to the authors of the FCCERS. During my observation, there were many times that I had to prioritize behavior and safety over hand washing. If I had opted to complete hand washing, my group would would have spent too much time waiting (ding for that too ) and I would have been dealing with serious behaviors. Maybe it's just be, but I believe that to score a 7 you would need multiple assistants. I just don't see how it's sustainable on a day-to-day basis.

FCCERS-R appears to be set up to make providers fail....I call it a catch-22 Over 14 years I have scored between 5.96 and 6.94. It is all in the perception of the assessor and it defines providers here for a year. Most of my discredited points seem to be during my interview where they ask questions about things they "did not see". It is like I feel they are trying to catch me.....so I have started making notes because it is hard to remember everything. Questions range from how many times science activities happen to who I call in case I suspect child abuse and so on and so on. What I say first is what is counted for me even if I finish my sentence with the expected answer, I am NOT given credit but for the first thing out of my mouth during the interview Like I said a catch-22. My 5.96 came from a soured lady whom never gave eye contact to me or my daycare kids. I knew I was doomed when she come in.... The process needs revamped to say the least!

[Josiegirl]

I'm with MV on this one. I'd rather rate good enough than strive for perfection and stress myself right the heck out.

Side note, so good to see you back here MarinaVanessa!!!