By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Jessica Luck comes from a long line of educators.
Luck's grandfather was a classroom teacher and a principal in Oberlin, where she grew up. Her two uncles taught school in western Kansas. A great-aunt taught in Atwood. Her dad was an art teacher, and some of her cousins are also teachers.
Fourteen years ago, when her family moved to Hays, she decided to switch gears from being an elementary school teacher to an in-home child care provider.
Luck, 48, earned her bachelor's degree at Fort Hays State University and taught second grade in Goddard before her family moved back to Hays in 2011 to be closer to their parents so their son, who was then 2, could get to know his grandparents.
Luck was going to go back to teaching elementary school, but she learned she was pregnant with twins. She and her husband didn't think it was financially prudent to try to have three children in child care.
After two years of staying home with her own children, the couple had a friend who needed child care. Luck and her husband decided to fully certify as an in-home child care provider.
Luck was nominated as the March Child Care Champion by mother Jessica Roe.
"We have had Jessica as our day care provider for nine years. She gives so much love to all the children in her care," Roe said. "Jessica does fun activities with the kids on a daily basis.
"My older children still love going to see Jessica even though they are out of day care. Jessica will always give extra snuggles when my little one is having a rough day."
Although her oldest son is now 19, the twins are almost 16 and her youngest is 12, Luck has continued to operate her in-home child care.
She said all four children are baby whisperers and are great help when the child care children are in the house.
She said she always went to great lengths to give her children their own space. Her four had their own rooms and their own toys, separate from the child care.
Luck said she continues to love working with small children.
"Everything is brand new and exciting," she said. "Every stage that I see in a home day care before they go to school is fun and exciting. It's not the same thing every day.
"We have our routine, but just their little outlooks on life and how they perceive things are constantly changing."
Luck said she missed the classroom at first and struggled with taking on new roles, but she doesn't regret it.
"Being home was the best thing for the kids and our family at that time," she said.
She said she would not trade that time she had with her children for anything.
"I think if we had stayed in Wichita and I would still have taught, I don't think I would have stayed home with them. I don't think I would have realized the impact and how important that was to stay home with your own kids.
"That was my feeling. It's completely fine if parents work and don't stay home with their kids, but for me, I loved it, because I had that education background. I worked a lot with my kids, and it carried over to my day care."
Luck does not follow a preschool curriculum but uses resources from her classroom days. She has a structured day for the children with opportunities to play outside or exercise indoors when the weather is bad.
She allows the children to create open-ended art and craft projects that allow them to express their creativity.
Her kitchen table shows the wear from all of that creative time. The finish is completely worn off from all the years of art, play and scrubbing.
Luck said keeping up with the ever-changing child care regulations can be difficult.
"Your yearly inspections are a little nerve-racking," she said, "because it's like showing your home. You have to keep it, you think, neat and tidy, not like little people are in your home all of the time."
Luck advised new providers to give the job a year or two. She said it takes time to adjust to working within the state regulations and with parents to meet their expectations.
She said she has been thankful for her job as a child care provider because it has allowed her to meet more families in the community.
"When your kids are certain ages, those are the groups of parents and kids you know," she said. "Home day care allows you the opportunity to keep meeting families."
She said her child care families have become an extended part of her own family.
"You are a second parent almost to them. ... It's rewarding all down through the years like teaching. My oldest ones are eighth-graders this year, and they're going into high school. It's such a blessing to see from day one up into growing up, how they change, where the world takes them and the opportunities they have.
"I still look at them and see their little selves."