Child care providers in PG are having to do more with less

Child care and early learning facilities in Prince George have had to adapt their programs on the fly due to COVID-19.

The Duchess Early Learning Centre has been among those impacted as they normally can fit a maximum of 32 kids over two floors but only have six attending right now.

Owner/Operator, Coreen Blischen told MyPGNow.com the children they have right now all belong to essential service workers.

“At this point, we really don’t have parents that are on the front lines like surgeons, or nurses that are working with the COVID patients but we do have parents that are working in Northern Health that are administrators or receptionists that are doing a lot of the background support.”

“All of our current parents are essential workers and we’ve talked to them about the level of high-risk that they are presented in so that we are aware of it and how we will respond on the floors. If the parent is directly in contact with a person that they are providing service to that has COVID-19 then we would provide a program that would be specific for those children in that group with the teacher wearing a mask.”

Blischen added if more essential service workers are in urgent need of child care, some of the parents who have elected to stay home, for the time being, will temporarily give up their spot.

“Of the 24 that are at home right now, say in July and August there were any more essential workers that needed a spot, those parents have graciously said they can use their spot until they are ready to come back.”

She states they’ve had to adjust their programs accordingly where the teachers cook and bake for the kids as well as more time outside with increased physical distancing measures.

“With just the six children the changes have been easier to implement,”

Blicschen admits they can only take the measures so far as their youngest kids in care are in crucial stages in their development.

“There’s a limit on how far we can impose and guide with the social distancing because they are still children and they do like to play with each other and give hugs and be in each other’s bubble so we do talk to them about giving that distance and instead of maybe giving a physical hug it’s an air high-five.”

“It’s very difficult because if a child is hurting or is upset or going through some separation anxiety and they are new to the centre, your first reaction as an early childhood educator is to provide comfort and to meet their needs. Unfortunately, in instances like that, you’re self-care in regards to COVID goes out the door, because your first essential response is that I need to respond to this child that’s crying and I need to provide comfort then it’s like your personal space becomes so little and so small.”

So far, the BC Government recently invested 90-million dollars to support 26-hundred child care centres to remain open and another 14-hundred that have closed so they can re-open in the future.

The province launched an online portal for essential and non-essential workers requesting temporary emergency child care.

Child care providers who receive temporary emergency funding will prioritize placements for children on the essential services workers list going from highest to lowest priority.