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Nurture Nook’s Sarah Gardner speaks about the benefits of Family Day Care
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Freya Lucas
Dec 11, 2024
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Sarah Gardner is a Family Day Care (FDC) educator who operates Nurture Nook Family Day Care Service from her Narrabeen New South Wales home.
She recently spoke with the Northern Beaches Council about her experience as an educator. An extract of this conversation appears below. Find the original here.A typical day
A typical day at Nurture Nook, she began, “is filled with curiosity, joy and plenty of beautiful interactions.”
Ms Gardner has designed the space to offer a seamless transition of indoor-outdoor play, as she believes no child is the same, with each learning in different environments.
“Often, you’ll find us heading out the gate on our walking excursions,” she said. “We are so lucky to be across the road from a beautiful nature reserve. The children absolutely love our excursions and it gives them the opportunity to be part of our local community.”
Ms Gardner often meets up with fellow Family Day Care educators for small playgroups, giving the children the opportunity to engage in larger group settings and helping with their transition to larger spaces later in their learning journey.
“Our days whiz by and we always end the day with a full heart and plenty of knowledge about the world around us,” she said.
The best parts about the job
When asked about the best parts of her job, Ms Gardner said the flexibility, and the capacity to be there for her own family, is a definite highlight.
“My son loves the fact that he has the option to walk to and from school knowing that I am working from home,” she said.
“He loves joining us for some of the activities at the end of the day.”
“Every educator is different, and we all have our own methods of teaching and nourishing little minds,” she continued.
“I believe this gives us the reigns and full permission to be our authentic selves. I end the day with the fullest heart and the feedback I get from my families about how exhausted their littles are at the end of a day reminds me that this is what I was supposed to do all this time. It’s such a rewarding, beautiful job.”
Moving from long day care
When the time came for Ms Gardner to move on from the long day care sector and return to family day care, she said it was “a no brainer” to sign up with Northern Beaches Council.
“I was working in their long day care centres as a casual prior to starting,” she said.
“The support I saw from that space was absolutely the support I was after when becoming my own boss.”
“I’ve been through several schemes in the past when I ran my previous Family Day Care,” she said.
“When I was looking to sign up again and start my new service, it was a no brainer that I would opt to go with Northern Beaches Council. I have a monthly visit from my beautiful coordinator Danielle and I really look forward to these visits. It’s a chance for us to both reflect on the month.”
“It’s a safe and respectful place for me to voice any concerns and ideas. Whenever I have an emergency, question or qualm the Council’s administration team is so efficient at getting in touch and easing any worries.”
To learn more about becoming an educator with the Northern Beaches Council see here.
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