National Child Day November 20
As a child I remember presenting my parents with annual gifts — cutouts of my handprints, coupon books of chores that I vowed to honour, acrostic poems of the word, Mother, or Father. My parents still have many of these handmade gifts that expressed gratitude and recognized the impact of their roles in my life, once each calendar year.
Closely following these occasions I also remember asking, “Why are adults the only ones with special days? Why isn’t there a day for kids?”
The response was always a version of, “Every day is kid’s day.” I was reminded of how fortunate I was to not have to go to work, to cook meals, or to pay the bills.
Without minimizing the efforts of mothers, fathers, and significant adults that fulfill invaluable roles in children’s lives, and while recognizing the importance of honouring these people, I want to highlight the importance of teaching children about Children’s Day.
November 20th is Children’s Day. It is a day to commemorate the anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in held in 1959. The convention recognized children as citizens with a unique set of rights. It recognized adults as being responsible for upholding children’s rights and recognized the government as being responsible for ensuring that children’s rights are protected.
Read more'Because it's 2015'
A national child care system...“because it’s 2015”By: Martha Friendly
The best line of the Trudeau government’s first day— widely reported and praised in the international media—was the new PM’s. In response to a reporter’s question about why he’d chosen to create a gender-parity cabinet, he rather matter of factly observed “because it’s 2015”. This ostensibly simple statement summed up a complexity of attitudes, beliefs and even world views in three words. For those feminists who remain doggedly optimistic after a decade nasty enough to slay the optimism of Anne of Green Gables, it raised hopes that the first day’s lustre could foreshadow more significant changes to come.
http://www.childcarecanada.org/blog/national-child-care-system“because-it’s-2015”
Navigating Child Care
It's a common complaint among working parents -- getting good quality childcare that doesn’t break the bank can be tough.
Which election platforms will help the $10aDay Plan?
Check this out! We’ve assessed each of the major federal party’s election platforms to determine how they will help BC implement the $10aDay Plan. The differences are striking!
Read the details and rationale for the rankings here!
Child Care Good For Everyone
MONTREAL, QUE.: JUNE 18, 2012-- Children in daycare hold on to a rope as they walk with an adult in Rosemont in Montreal on Monday, June 18, 2012. (Dario Ayala/THE GAZETTE)
On the surface child care seems like a simple issue. Surely it’s just about having somewhere safe for kids to be looked after by women other than their mothers while their often low-income mums work? Simple, right?
The truth is that child care has broader and deeper implications and reaches into our families, our communities and our economy far more than most realize.
Let’s start with children. It’s not just about being safe. In the 21st century, given what we know about the importance of the early years on brain development, life-long health and success, we want children to be in environments that are designed for learning through play, no matter what the employment status of their mothers. We want early childhood educators who know about the social, emotional, cognitive and physical development of children and provide stimulating learning environments and high-quality care.
Because when a parent uses child care it’s not a replacement for or abdication of their parenting. Rather, it’s an extension of and complement to their parenting.
Jeanne has 10 Grandchildren
I am a grandmother and mother who supports the 10 a Day Child Care Campaign with all my heart. The most important thing for children is to be supported and loved. Affordable child care is essential to allow parents to make choices that will ensure their children are supported and loved.
Grandmothers Want the Best for Grandchildren
"We want the best for our children, our grandchildren and for the adults that they grow into being. Giving them quality, compassionate and experiential learning right from the start not only sets them up to be healthy contributing members of our society, it also allows their parents to contribute their own gifts, enriching all of our lives."
- Sharon, Grandmother of Summer
In BC We're Grateful to Learn from Quebec
My 2 cents. While the study referenced below essentially reinforces the importance of public investment in high quality, universal child care, it’s unfortunate that the authors have not made this finding explicit. Rather, they deny the vast body of evidence highlighting the benefits of quality care for all children, and proceed to make claims about children and child care in Quebec without differentiating between those who actually experienced child care and those who didn’t, and without assessing the quality of the child care settings for those who did.
In BC, we are grateful for the opportunity to learn from Quebec’s rapid expansion of child care in the early years of their system-building. Our 10 a Day Child Care Campaign calls for adequate public funding to build a high quality, universal system over the next ten years. The benefits from mothers’ increased workforce participation alone will almost pay for the system, and those benefits are split 50/50 between the federal and provincial governments. That’s one reason why it’s important for all federal parties to commit to quality, affordable child care in this election.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/experts-question-controversial-study-on-universal-child-care-program/article26482715/
Grandparents paying for Child Care
I support $10 a day child care so that no parents will need to say they are unable to work, and no grandparents will need to help pay for a grandchild's daycare so their child can work (even though it's given with love).
Julia Holden
Sheila & Keith want a child care system Canada can be proud of
Being a grandparent is a magical experience and one we are very grateful to experience.
