Ms. Marie

I’ve been fortunate to work with children my entire life. When I was growing up, I babysat for cousins and my relatives were so surprised and appreciative of how I was able to take care of the children even though I was young myself. The kids always made me so happy and even then, I knew it was my passion. I went on to study Early Childhood Education, then I was a Kindergarten teacher for 11 years. Afterward, I worked as a nanny for French-speaking families for 8 years, because my first language is French. I’m also a Sunday school teacher at my church. I started my own daycare program in 2017 because I was nannying and had a young child. It made more sense to take my love of children to the next level and open my own program, which also allowed me to have my child with me. It has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made because I love it so much! I love the little personalities that I get to take care of. The children represent hope and the future, and the fact that I get to play this critical role in their lives means so much to me. I love being able to help them grow within development and education. The best part is creating space for them and watching them experiment, discover, play, explore, and express themselves. Because I am a mother of 2, ages 9 and 11, I understand the parents. I know that it is not easy for parents to trust just anyone with their child. So, whenever I meet parents, I emphasize that I am a fun and loving child care provider and that my home is a safe place where their children can have fun, learn, and feel loved.

I want the kids in my program to have endless opportunities to play and learn. Through play, they can explore and expand their mind. Learning through play is very important to me. There is a lot of healthy brain development when children are expressing themselves creatively and using their imagination. We also focus on every domain of development for the children in every activity we do, from social, emotional, physical, and cognitive. We have a loving and safe environment that encourages development. We make sure that creative, language and communication skills, fine and gross motor skills, problem-solving, and social/emotional skills are all being developed on a daily basis. We focus on every step of the growing process. We do this through sensory play, arts and crafts, puppets and dramatic play, and more. They learn about science, math, and we read stories. Everything that allows for their self-expression, learning and development. When the children come into my home every morning, they feel loved and know they are safe and going to have a fun day. Sometimes parents come in and tell me their child wanted to come in on the weekend! The children truly want to be in my home, and it is so encouraging and rewarding to me to see that. My favorite activities to do with the children have to do with helping them create and express themselves. For holidays, we get to make themed art projects. For Valentine’s day this year, we made hearts and showed their parents how big their love was for them. We did this through putting sparkles on to the hearts, and the kids wanted to use all of the sparkles! It was very cute and fun!

We have a large space and I’ve made sure that every single area is set up so the children can clearly see what is in every corner and what it represents. We have a math area, block area, science area - with animals and countries - and dramatic play with a huge kitchen. They can spend hours playing in the dramatic play area with dress up costumes and puppets too! We love the dramatic play area with costumes because we can learn through dressing up. We may dress up as police officers and learn about what the police do! Then we have a reading area and quiet time area. Some days if a kid isn’t feeling well, they might excuse themselves into a quiet room where they can read a book in there, dress up by themselves, and then 20 minutes or so later they rejoin the group. My first language is French so on Fridays we make sure to speak some French. I think a second language in this world is a huge plus. Diversity is also very important, and we talk about different countries and cultures all the time. We have the welcome sign in French with different words in both English and French. Outside we have a huge fenced-in backyard where the kids like to play soccer and basketball. We also have a sandbox and a big dollhouse out there. We try to go outside as much as the weather permits!