Home Child Care Provider
Home Child Care Provider
Career Overview
Home child care providers care for children in their own home or in a child's home, helping with daily routines, meals, play, learning, and safety. They support children's social and physical development while working closely with parents or guardians. Some providers are self-employed and run their own home-based childcare business.
Education
A high school diploma is usually enough to enter this career, along with on-the-job training. First aid and CPR certification, childcare training, and experience working with children can be valuable, and requirements can vary depending on where you work.
Work Environment
Home child care providers usually work in private homes, either their own or the family's home. The work can be active and rewarding, but providers are responsible for children's safety throughout the day and may work early mornings, evenings, or other hours that fit a family's schedule.
Future Outlook
Families will continue to need reliable, caring professionals to support children while parents and guardians work. Opportunities can also grow for providers who build experience, specialize in child development, or operate their own home-based childcare business.
Recommended High School Courses
- Math
- Business
- Writing
- First Aid
- Health
- Child Psychology
- Food & Nutrition
- Active Learning - Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Complex Problem Solving - Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
- Instructing - Teaching others how to do something.
- Judgment and Decision Making - Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Learning Strategies - Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Negotiation - Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- Persuasion - Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
- Service Orientation - Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Time Management - Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Writing - Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
- English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
- Psychology - Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
- Category Flexibility - The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Extent Flexibility - The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Far Vision - The ability to see details at a distance.
- Flexibility of Closure - The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Fluency of Ideas - The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Originality - The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
- Selective Attention - The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Stamina - The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Time Sharing - The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Trunk Strength - The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without 'giving out' or fatiguing.
- Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Monitor environment to ensure safety.
- Teach health or hygiene practices.
- Teach daily living skills or behaviors.
- Administer first aid.
- Prepare foods or meals.
- Administer basic health care or medical treatments.
- Drive vehicles to transport patrons.
- Monitor health or behavior of people or animals.
- Develop daily schedules for children or families.
- Discuss child development and behavior with parents or guardians.
- Organize recreational activities or events.
- Provide escort or transportation.
- Maintain client information or service records.
- Perform housekeeping duties.
- Provide for basic needs of children.
- Purchase products or services.
Schools
Chippewa Valley Technical...
Dakota County Technical C...
Johnson County Community...
Montgomery College- Rockv...
San Jacinto Community Col...
Texas Tech University
Utah State University
Centennial College
Durham College- Oshawa...
Keyin College
Niagara College- Wella...
Seneca College- King C...
Seneca College- Newnha...
Vancouver Island Unive...
Vancouver Island Univer...
Vancouver Island Univer...
Potential Scholarships
Aqha Region 1 Quarter Hor...
Aqha Arizona Quarter Hors...
Aqha Joan Cain Florida Qu...
Aqha Indiana Quarter Hors...
Aqha Dr. Gerald O'connor...
Aqhf Nebraska Quarter Hor...
- Creditcardgenius 2020 S...
- Haywood | Hunt & Associ...
Approx Salary Expectation
Low End:
$23,000.00 /yr
Avg/Med:
$35,000.00 /yr
High End:
$51,000.00 /yr
Related Careers
References
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/.
Trend Analysis - Explorer the Market, Labour Market Information, Government of Canada https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/trend-analysis.
O*NET OnLine, National Center for O*NET Development, https://www.onetonline.org/.
Trend Analysis - Explorer the Market, Labour Market Information, Government of Canada https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/trend-analysis.
O*NET OnLine, National Center for O*NET Development, https://www.onetonline.org/.