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| Child care person in the spotlight: |
| Emma Catt |
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This month's profile educator is Emma Catt from Cool Catt's Family Day Care and One Tree Family Day Care Service, who won the 2016 Excellence in Family Day Care Emerging Star Award for educators.
What is your name?
My name is Emma Catt and I am 31 years old.
What is the name of your service and how many children do you care for?
I opened my own Family Day Care service in September 2015. Using my family name I called it 'Cool Catt's Family Day Care'. I am the sole Educator here with 14 children enrolled.
What is your background?
I have been in the child care industry since I was 16 years old and studying child care at college in England. When I completed my studies in June 2003 I entered full time work in a local long day care service.
After two years full time work in England I decided to move to Hong Kong to teach English as a second language in a kindergarten. I completed six years in this position. After holidaying in Australia, I decided to find a job that would support my dream of living in Australia.
Having now finished working under sponsorship I finally pursued my life long dream of having my own family day care.
Growing up, I had two younger cousins who I absolutely adore. Having my cousins in our family house for visits and helping out with a local Brownie group and babysitting confirmed my love of caring for children.
What is a 'normal' day for you?
A normal day at Cool Catt's Family Day Care starts at 6 am.
6am - Children to start to arrive, occasionally I help get the children dressed for school, have breakfast, clean teeth and become a hair dresser before we have outdoor play or quiet activities inside.
8am - We take our school friends to school.
8.30am - circle time/rhyme time/music/concept recognition
9.30am - morning snack
10am - morning activities linked to program and children's interests
11.30am - pack up
11.45am - lunch time
12.15pm - rest time
1.45pm - reading/puzzles/manipulative play
2pm - pick up our friends from school
3pm - afternoon snack
3.15pm - circle time - news of the day
3.30pm - afternoon activities linked to program and children's interests
5pm - pack up to head outside to finish the day
6pm - clean up and say good bye
What is special about your service?
Cool Catt's Family Day Care is unique in its own way. In the 14 months that I have been open, I have taught children and families to live sustainably. It has been incredible to see not only our journey through sustainability but to also hear about it from our families.
We have a worm farm - families are encouraged to bring in food scraps to add to it.
We encourage the local community to recycle; Cool Catt's pays for and provides a Tox Free bin. This is generally filled to the brim with recycling from the centre, families and the community. We reuse old jars, boxes, rolls, etc to create new areas, new resources and junk art. The children help make our own cleaning products with vinegars and oils.
What advice would you offer someone thinking about working in child care?
I would say to anyone thinking about a career or reaching for that promotion, "Follow your heart. You may have some ups and downs on the way...and that's ok. If you have the passion for what you are reaching for... you can achieve anything".
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