## Step 2 - Reading

#### Child care

You are going to read a text about the caring for children.

- Before reading the text do assignment 1.
- Read the text and do assignment 2 and 3.

#### Assignment 1

Decide what you think of the following statements. Put them in the right column.

1. All children should go to daycare.
2. The best person to care for a child is the mother.
3. Daycare is too expensive.
4. It is very good for the development of a child to visit daycare.
5. It is not good for the development of a child to visit daycare.
6. A child should go to daycare only when the mother is working.
7. A mother who sends her child to daycare doesn’t care for her child.
8. Grandparents are not suitable to care for their grandchildren.
9. Grandparents are a good alternative for daycare.

Agree | Disagree | Don't know

#### Assignment 2

- On your own, read the text and think of headings for the numbers 1-3.
- In your group, discuss your headings.

Child care Child care or childcare, child minding, daycare, or preschool is the caring for and supervision of a child or children, usually from age six weeks to age thirteen. Child care is the action or skill of looking after children by a day-care center, babysitter, or other providers. Child care can also include advanced learning environments that include early childhood education. Child care is a broad topic covering a wide spectrum of contexts, activities, social and cultural conventions, and institutions. The majority of child care institutions that are available require that child care providers have extensive training in first aid and are CPR certified. Child care can cost up to $15,000 for one year in the United States. The average annual cost of full-time care for an infant in center-based care ranges from $4,863 in Mississippi to $16,430 in Massachusetts. 1 ... In England, childcare is inspected and regulated by OFSTED (previously this was administered by Local Authority Social Services). Care for children under five is split into Childcare on Domestic Premises which is Childminding and Daycare. In the UK being a ‘Childminder’ is a protected title and can only be used by registered professionals. Registered Childminders are trained, insured and qualified in Pediatric First Aid. They work with The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and have the same responsibilities for education as nurseries and reception classes. They generally work from their own homes and are always self-employed, setting their own terms and conditions. 2 ... The basic numbers of children that childminders can care for is 6 children under 8 years of age; of these children, 3 may be under 5 and of these 1 may be under 1. These numbers include the childminders own children (although the childminder’s children will not be included in the childminding ‘Certificate’). Some childminders work with either childminding assistants or with co-childminders, which often increases the number of children that can be cared for and individual childminders can request a ‘variation’ which may increase the children that they care for particularly for ‘continuity of care’ or for twins. 3 ... There is a professional body – the Professional Association for Childcare & Early Years (formerly the National Childminding Association), which “Promotes and supports quality child-minding expertise” and provides information for Childminders and parents. London has greater pressures on childcare provision than other English regions. A recent study by London’s Poverty Profile found the level of childcare provision in London is lower than the England average. In London, there are 4.4 children aged under 8 per childcare place, compared to the England average of 3.9. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_care