2007 4-Star Accreditation Essay Contest Winner – Tamra Dschaak
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This year’s winner is Tamra Dschaak the proud owner of Tamra’s Tots Koala T Childcare & Early Learning in Spokane, Washington. She and her husband Jeff together operate a family business as co-providers. As the winner of this year's essayTamra received help with her expenses to attend the Annual Conference where she was honored at the Conference Lunch. |
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Tamra's Essay
My name is Tamra Dschaak the proud owner of Tamra’s Tots Koala T Childcare & Early Learning in Spokane, Washington. My husband Jeff and have three children. Ages 13 – 19 years of age. We operate a family business with my husband as co-provider and my 19 year old working as an assistant. Since we live in a low-income neighborhood 98% of our clients are subsidized by the State. We are licensed for a maximum of 12 children, birth through 11. Many of the children who attend our program require special services from other trained professionals in the community, in order to help the children achieve skills they are developmentally behind in. We are firm believers in quality child care & early learning for ALL children.
When I first opened my child care business in 1994 I thought to myself, “how hard can this be!” It wasn’t long before I realized just how little I knew about running a family child care business that promotes children’s development and encourages family participation. Thus began my professional development journey.
This journey began with a “Childcare Aware” class offered by our local Resource and Referral agency. Even though I was excited I was also nervous because I wasn’t sure if I would be as good as the well-seasoned providers. It seemed like they all knew so much and were doing so many things with the children. I’ll never forget the night I was told how much fun it is for the children to bring mud in the house.
The next step for me was getting involved with the Eastern Washington Family Child Care Association which is our local association. In the past 10 year I have had the pleasure to assist with the following duties: area representative, committee chair person, a spokesperson and the secretary. This affiliation has allowed me to travel across the State speaking on behalf of children, families, and child care professionals. I always stayed true to my mission “quality care for ALL children.” Someone once said to me, “Tamra, if you want to be taken seriously and be treated like a competent professional, then you need to act like one.
In 2002 our local Resource and Referral offered a Child Development Associate Preparation (CDA) class. These classes taught me more than I ever knew in regards to children, families, relationships and best business practices. During the time I was taking these classes, I started getting phone calls from potential clients who were asking more questions about my daycare program and if I was operating an accredited daycare. The word was getting out into the communities that accredited daycare programs were better than non-accredited daycares. Upon completion of my CDA, I moved right into NAFCC accreditation.
I received my accreditation three years ago this December and am in the process of re-accrediting my family child care business. Since I received my accreditation, I have enrolled several families who only wanted accredited family child care programs for their children. Becoming an accredited family child care & early learning program has paid off in more ways than one. I have more confidence with-in myself and my abilities working with children & families. I am able to mentor others who are new to the child care field and offer knowledge to them that I didn’t have when I first started my business. I also feel that parents and professionals in the community are taking me more seriously than prior to receiving my accreditation. Accreditation has opened my eyes and given me the confidence to further my education when I didn’t think it was possible.
For the past 2 ½ years I’ve been attending night classes working towards my AAS degree in Early Childhood Development and Special Education. I’m taking the summer off in order to attend my first NAFCC Conference. I’m excited about attending the conference and completing the two day NAFCC Accreditation Observer Training classes. I would like to be more involved with NAFCC and thought that becoming an observer is a perfect fit for me.
I have had the pleasure to work with a variety of special people who have helped me grow into the person I am today. I truly believe that I wouldn’t be where I am today, had it not been for special people who supported , encouraged, mentored and believed in me.