Lori D. - Parent

“My children are grown now, but I learned an important lesson about the importance of high quality, developmentally appropriate childcare the hard way. With my first born, I had no idea what I was doing and placed her in a large institutional childcare at a very young age. She was frequently sick. As she got older, I put her in a childcare that focused on her social emotional well-being, but did not teach any “content” such as weather, circle time, counting, etc. As a result, she was not prepared for kindergarten and struggled immensely. She didn’t understand what the other kids were doing. My first grade, the gaps were so large, we held her back in first grade. I so wish I had given her an additional year in pre-school with a developmentally appropriate curriculum. Her early elementary years would have been so much more joyful.

“With my second daughter, we placed her in a family daycare when she was younger. We placed her in a preschool where they had circle time, and literacy, and math, and science in developmentally appropriate activities for three and four year olds. Her transition to kindergarten was much smoother.”

What else should lawmakers and policymakers know about your childcare/early education needs, especially as we recover from the COVID-19 crisis?

“Early childhood teachers are needed more than ever. Early childhood facilities need to be able to to spread out and take fewer children. To do this, you need more teachers and more space. This is not inexpensive. But investing in our children now, means that we can have a stronger, healthier community in the future.”