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The flexibility of home-based childcare is one of its advantages, as well as the low ratio of educators to children and its affordability, according to the new owners of Fairy Godmothers, Rodney and North Shore.
Anna and Colin Chan have taken over Fairy Godmothers, which cares for more than 160 children in Rodney, following the retirement of Berneece Tait.
Anna, who is a Montessori and Steiner trained teacher, says Fairy Godmothers is a business that has a great reputation, a solid team of dedicated educators and excellent support staff.
Anna and Colin are no strangers to early childhood education. They opened their first Montessori centre on the North Shore 16 years ago and now have four in the Auckland area.
“Home based care provides children with a home environment, which is more family-orientated. The educator to child ratio is 1:4 and this means each child gets a lot more one-on-one time. This helps with both social skills and language development.”
The flexibility of home care caters for shift workers and can accommodate other siblings. Care is also available outside normal business hours, on weekends, in school holidays and on public holidays.
“It’s not unusual for educators to develop a relationship with the whole family, which provides a secure environment for the children.”
Anna and Colin say they are committed to the professional development of their educators and are currently writing a 10-module Level 4 Certificate on Montessori Home-based Care. They say when it is NZQA approved next year, it will be the first in the world.
“There are 38 educators with Fairy Godmothers and our aims is to give them more options to expand what they are offering children in terms of memberships to groups such as the Toy Library, additional playgroups and movement classes. We are also keen to utilise social media and online opportunities to interact and communicate with parents. This will include an option for online portfolios.”
Home-based care is the fastest growing sector in early childhood education and Anna says this is largely being fuelled in Auckland by families from diverse communities.
