By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Jennifer Harrell was inspired to be a child care provider when she was a teenager by her aunt, who was a provider for 40 years.
Harrell, 42, of Hays, spent summers with her aunt and helped her in her day care.
"I loved it," Harrell said. "I loved helping her with the kids."
When Harrell was in high school, she and her peers were assigned to care for electronic dolls. Harrell requested twins. There was a snowstorm the week she took her dolls home, so she had the dolls longer than initially assigned.
"I loved it," she said, "but everyone else hated it."
Harrell has been an in-home child-care provider for 10 years.
Child care appealed to Harrell because it allowed her to spend time with her own children. She also saw that her aunt was her own boss.
"She could do fun stuff with the kids in her home, and there was no one telling her what she could and couldn't do as far as the games they played and the fun they had," Harrell said.
"If they wanted to go outside and play, they could. She didn't have a supervisor over her, and just the fact that she could love the kids like they were her own."
Harrell was nominated for the December Child Care Champion Award by Megan Maska.
"Jennifer has taken all three of my children over the last 10 years. She loves all the children in her care like they are her own," Maska said. "You know, when you drop them off, they are safe and well taken care of.
"She does activities with them and celebrates special holidays with crafts and gifts that are for or from the children. She takes pride in the work she does and cares deeply for all her day care families. It was like a family—a family dynamic."
Harrell has three grown children of her own. When her children were younger, she worked outside of the home. She worked nights when they were very young and said she feels she missed much of their growing up.
Her oldest child was 10 when she started her in-home child care.
"I feel like it helped them and hindered them a little," Harrell said of her own children. "They got to interact with kids, play games and entertain them. It got them helping other people instead of just themselves."
Harrell said she takes running her child care one day at a time.
"You try to keep your mindset organized because if you try to organize any part of your home, it's not going to stay that way," she said.
The children in her child care love going outside.
"It is a good way to burn off energy. It's a good way to clear their minds when they get cabin fever," she said.
"They love having dance parties. We'll move the table out of the way or furniture in the playroom and just dance, bliss and Mickey Mouse music. That is one of their favorite things."
Usually, Harrell does crafts with the children, but she has six children younger than 3 in her care at this time, and they are a little young for some of those activities.
She said pre-K children are the best to work with.
"This is the best part of their lives because they are experiencing everything for the first time," Harrell said. "They think everything is wonderful and amazing and new. They love unconditionally. I can open the door and look like a train wreck, and they will still hug me and tell me they love me.
"The innocence of it. They learn everything so quickly, and they are eager to learn," she said.
Harrell said one of her challenges as a child care provider has been getting through all her required training hours.
When she started 10 years ago, the state required five hours of training. Today, it requires 16 hours.
Harrell said child care is not for the weak.
"[The children] require all your attention all day long," she said. "You might get a load of laundry done during nap time, but they want all of you all day long. They need it, and they deserve it. That's what you're getting paid to do."
She said child care is not just a one- or two-year job. Families depend on their child care providers. It needs to be a career.
"The families learn to love you, and the kids learn to love you, and they learn to depend on you," Harrell said. "It's a constant in their lives."
She said she sees her child care children as an extension of her family.
"When we see them out, they run to me," Harrell said. "Some of their parents are my close friends, and we will go do things together. "