2006 4-Star Accreditation Essay Contest Winner – Sheryl Warner

Sheryl Warner from Minneapolis, MN is the first winner of the NAFCC 4-Star Accreditation Essay Contest.  As the winner she received assistance with her Conference expenses (airfare, lodging and conference registration).  She also was honored at the Conference Lunch. Sheryl shares that "she considers Accreditation a privilege, and for over a decade it has been instrumental to the development of my business and the enormous satisfaction I get from teaching young children.

 Sheryl's Essay

Every morning as I prepare my home for daycare, I am proud and grateful to have achieved and maintained an accredited family child care.  I consider NAFCC accreditation a privilege, and for over a decade it has been instrumental to the development of my business and the enormous satisfaction I get from teaching young children.  As I look back over the journey and review the changes that have occurred, I am so thankful and proud of each step I have taken on this path to quality.  For I have learned the benefits of accreditation are not just for the program, but for the provider as well.

Completing the NAFCC accreditation program all those years ago was a way for me to bring to practice all that I knew a quality program should provide.  Initially the process was appealing to me because I wanted more; more for my program, more for my families and more for me, as a challenge and direction for the future.  Caring for young children was my career and I chose it – not the reverse.  I was looking for something that would help my program stand out, giving me the credibility that I had worked so hard for each day.  In my search I found that becoming an intentional caregiver requires more than just joining a few organizations and attending a few trainings.  It takes making a real commitment to quality and then working it out each and every day.

As in many thing, awareness that there is much you don’t know, can catapult you to the next level.  Self-Study for accreditation is the perfect tool for this.  Personally, I learned how to get balance in my business and realized how important each part was to the other.  For instance, when I write my monthly newsletter, I am not just communicating with parents, but also am offering them resources, promoting curriculum goals and reinforcing health and safety policies.  During accreditation and with each renewal, you look objectively at your program, assessing how you organize your business, what you consider to be your gifts when working with children and what you do to incorporate quality practice into each day.  Relationships and routines, I remember thinking, are what make up the best part of my day.  But really, it is the planning and the knowledge making everything work effectively.

Once you become an accredited provider, there is a feeling of esteem that for me led to two very strong passions.  First, I wanted my kids to have the very best and focused on improving my daycare environment and curriculum for several years.  It was this desire to know more that led me to complete my CDA, and AA in Child Development and then last year, my BA in Early Childhood Education.  During this time I was privileged observe many different early childhood programs.  The greater my experiences, the more I realized the need for quality programs for all children and now I look for opportunity to advocate for young children and early educational programs.  This second passion, one of advocacy, keeps me connected to many wonderful people and organizations in addition to NAFCC that support quality care for all children.  It can be very isolating providing care from your home.  Connecting and participating in groups outside my comfort zone has given me great satisfaction both in making a contribution and in creating partnerships with others not in my field.

So you see, the benefits NAFCC Accreditation provides for me are both innumerable and far reaching.  They include but are not limited to respect, satisfaction, direction, support, affirmation and accomplishment.  It’s not easy to divide what has helped me personally from what has helped my program.  They are inseparable.  I am confident that each new parent that visits my program for the first time can see in me what is reflected in my home, that children are important here.  This is a place to be safe, to be curious and to be supported, both for the child and the parent.  Accreditation helped bring about these important changes and over the years has become my foundation for quality and self-motivation.  Every morning as I greet my families, I am proud to be an accredited family child care provider because I know what it means to me, to the children and families in my care and to the future of family child care.