2008 4-Star Accreditation Essay Contest Winner – LaDell Blasingame

This year’s winner is LaDell Blasingame from Nashville, Tennessee. Ladell was honored at the annual conference in Chicago, IL. She received a trip to the annual conference with VIP seating with Sue Stevens at the conference luncheon. LaDell has been accredited since 2002 and is in the process of re-accreditation for the second time.

   LaDell ’s Essay

I remember when I started taking care of children. My husband had lost his wedding ring and I wanted to buy him a new ring. I only had plans to take care of the children until I could buy him the ring I wanted. That was 30 plus years ago.

I thought I would take care of children the same way I was taking care of my own children. I found that I liked having the children in my care, and I really enjoyed taking care of them. I watched them grow, giving the children love, nourishment, and stability. Then I thought, “Why don’t I teach while taking care of the children?” So I sought out child care classes. By taking classes in childcare, I learned new things and found I was having fun!

The more I learned, the more I wanted to learn. I was then asked if I would like to become NAFCC accredited. I thought, “Oh no, that sounds too hard and there would be a lot of extra work to achieve it.” But with all the wonderful people that were teaching the classes, I soon realized how much I was learning and how much fun I was having.

I learned so many new ways of teaching children. And as my love for this grew, I began to see how much being accredited was helping me to grow. I made a stronger bond with my children and made teaching them so much easier. The children were so ready to learn. The new way of teaching them through play was fun and no longer seemed like work.

Being accredited made me feel so good about myself. Soon, I was going to conferences and loving all the things I was learning. And I was making new friends that at the time I didn’t know were going to be my friends for life.  These friends would be there for me when I needed help, when I wanted to talk, or just needed my hand held.

I know that being accredited has helped me to believe in myself, which helped me to grow in to becoming a mentor. I have enjoyed the family child care providers that I have worked with and the ones I have mentored to become NAFCC Accredited. I am now an observer for NAFCC Accreditation and vice president of my local family child care support group. Each time I go through accreditation, I gain knowledge that will make working with children more fun and working with their parents more pleasurable.