Joy
Joy’s SI Story
Joy is from Denmark and works in a daycare center with 3-5 year old children. We are grateful to Joy for writing to us in August and sharing her story of operating a childcare center in Denmark through their lockdown and into reopening.
Denmark was one of the first European countries to lockdown on 11th March 2020. The impact of having to stay at home was difficult for many families, but especially hard on families with low resources. Denmark has one of the highest use of daycare centers in the world. A study from 2011 shows that around 96 percent of all children between 3 and 6 attend a daycare center in Denmark, and that most of these children are there for half or more of their waking hours, five days a week. In 2014, statistics showed that 64 percent of Danish children aged 0-2 were in day care 30 hours or more a week. For many parents it was an eye opener to have so much time with their children. Though I was very aware that for children in high risk families, the time was exceedingly difficult. I did also hear many stories from parents of children who normally find daily life and learning a challenge. They saw different, more stable, relaxed and able to concentrate, sides of their children when they are able to follow their sleep rhythms and did not have to rush out the door every morning.
A very slow and gradual reopening of Denmark started on 15th April. The first thing to open again were the day care centers and the schools up to 5th grade. I work in a daycare center with 3-5 year olds. Normally we are open 10 hours a day, from 7am to 5pm. The children are dropped off and picked up at varying times according to their parents work schedules. All the children are dropped off by 9:30 and they begin to be picked again from around 2:30 pm. Staff work between 30 and 37 hours a week so they are on shifts. We are in groups where there are 3 adults to 20 children from 9:30-12:30, before and after these hours there are two for the same group.
For the first few weeks after COVID we had to adjust to strict restrictions. The nursery was only open from 8am to 3pm. All the staff were present all opening hours. The children were only allowed to be in groups of 10 with two adults and these groups were not allowed to mix. The playground was split into zones, and the children were dropped off and picked up outside. The parents were not allowed into the building or the play zones, hand washing was a compulsory activity every 2 hours, and all the toys had to also be washed twice a day.
Though there is “mounting concern that large- scale COVID 19 containment and physical distancing policies are likely to impact adversely on the lives of millions of children, adolescents and their families” “(Mckee and McCartney 2020) I have noticed that the COVID pandemic has facilitated a change of thinking. For a while after the reopening there was more time to just be with children, the careers found new ways of relating as there were more activities outside of the classroom, and there was more focus on the children as a whole and not just on learning.
One local principal said, “There is an increased focus on wellbeing. We are not putting the academic needs second but we are thinking differently about it.” A leader in the national teacher’s association also said, “We have learnt that pupils thrive better in smaller groups with more teacher contact and shorter days, so we hope we can continue some of this”
I have worked in childcare the last 30 years, both on the floor and in leadership positions. I see a great need in Denmark for us to focus on the daily interactions we have with the children in our care, and their parents. A paradigm shift from focus on developmental activities to developmental interactions is needed. I am grateful to SI for the Simple Interactions Tool and wish to see it used to provide the much-needed descriptive language to talk and develop interactions in practice. I hope that the impact and experiences of the Corona crises has challenged us to begin to understand the imperative need for change in this fundamental area.
Denmark was one of the first European countries to lockdown on 11th March 2020. The impact of having to stay at home was difficult for many families, but especially hard on families with low resources. Denmark has one of the highest use of daycare centers in the world. A study from 2011 shows that around 96 percent of all children between 3 and 6 attend a daycare center in Denmark, and that most of these children are there for half or more of their waking hours, five days a week. In 2014, statistics showed that 64 percent of Danish children aged 0-2 were in day care 30 hours or more a week. For many parents it was an eye opener to have so much time with their children. Though I was very aware that for children in high risk families, the time was exceedingly difficult. I did also hear many stories from parents of children who normally find daily life and learning a challenge. They saw different, more stable, relaxed and able to concentrate, sides of their children when they are able to follow their sleep rhythms and did not have to rush out the door every morning.
A very slow and gradual reopening of Denmark started on 15th April. The first thing to open again were the day care centers and the schools up to 5th grade. I work in a daycare center with 3-5 year olds. Normally we are open 10 hours a day, from 7am to 5pm. The children are dropped off and picked up at varying times according to their parents work schedules. All the children are dropped off by 9:30 and they begin to be picked again from around 2:30 pm. Staff work between 30 and 37 hours a week so they are on shifts. We are in groups where there are 3 adults to 20 children from 9:30-12:30, before and after these hours there are two for the same group.
For the first few weeks after COVID we had to adjust to strict restrictions. The nursery was only open from 8am to 3pm. All the staff were present all opening hours. The children were only allowed to be in groups of 10 with two adults and these groups were not allowed to mix. The playground was split into zones, and the children were dropped off and picked up outside. The parents were not allowed into the building or the play zones, hand washing was a compulsory activity every 2 hours, and all the toys had to also be washed twice a day.
Though there is “mounting concern that large- scale COVID 19 containment and physical distancing policies are likely to impact adversely on the lives of millions of children, adolescents and their families” “(Mckee and McCartney 2020) I have noticed that the COVID pandemic has facilitated a change of thinking. For a while after the reopening there was more time to just be with children, the careers found new ways of relating as there were more activities outside of the classroom, and there was more focus on the children as a whole and not just on learning.
One local principal said, “There is an increased focus on wellbeing. We are not putting the academic needs second but we are thinking differently about it.” A leader in the national teacher’s association also said, “We have learnt that pupils thrive better in smaller groups with more teacher contact and shorter days, so we hope we can continue some of this”
I have worked in childcare the last 30 years, both on the floor and in leadership positions. I see a great need in Denmark for us to focus on the daily interactions we have with the children in our care, and their parents. A paradigm shift from focus on developmental activities to developmental interactions is needed. I am grateful to SI for the Simple Interactions Tool and wish to see it used to provide the much-needed descriptive language to talk and develop interactions in practice. I hope that the impact and experiences of the Corona crises has challenged us to begin to understand the imperative need for change in this fundamental area.