UNIVERSITY Parents take on volunteer role at Amazon Child Care Center t.y ArvStt, Children at the Amnion Child Care Center enjoy a tree ride courtesy of a volunteer By Colleen Pohlig Emerald Reporter This is no ordinary c hild cart' center In fact, tin: only ordinary thing about the Amazon Child (fare Center is that the sound ol excited, laughing little kids can he heard from way down the street The second you step into the building, you re ali/.e that kids live here i'll is is not the everyday center where parents drop oil a i tying 2-year-old for someone to take t are of for most ol the day The non-profit center, started m 1978, is a lull time parent cooperative geared toward parent in volved child cure l’urents are involved in every aspect of the Center from doing the dishes to teaching kindergarten and everything in be tween. " The parents really feel as though they own the program and so they don't feel like intruders, " Center Director Susie Blanchard said. "They are here all the time they're here cooking, they're hero cleaning or they’re here In the classroom "They get to know the kids and so I don't think the kids' needs go unmet," Blunt hurt! said By volunteering their time at the Center, the parents are able to reduce their monthly child care bill. The reductions are based on how rnanv hours a week they are willing to work The Center is open to children of University students, with Amazon residents having first pri ority Currently enrolled are 48 children, '.Hi of whom are in the preschool/kindergarten program. Of the 30, 20 parents are presently "co-opping" which makes for an outstanding ratio of parents to children. The remaining 10 children are in a new pro gram started this fall called Latch Key. The pro gram, Initiated ut the request of student parents, gives seven to 10-year-olds the opportunity to he involved in extra curricular activities after school rather than going homo to an empty house. The Center rents out the Amazon Community Room in the afternoons and the kids play soccer, learn art, play the piano, or just plain have fun in the same parent-involved child care atmosphere as the Center. "Some of them (Latch-Key participants) are previous day-care kids so the parents have a great deal of affection for the co-op," Blanchard said. "Most of them are aged 7 to 10 and they have no where to be and they basically onded up hanging out here (Amazon Center), so the parents called me and said 'lot's put something together " Blanchard, director since 1982, brought her philosophy on how kids should grow up ut the center. Kids should be in an environment where each child can experience and develop coopera tive autonomy without inhibiting his or her free (loins lo do Ixitli good und Uni, Blanchard s.iid One way of dealing with the kids' so milled "had" behavior is transforming it from a situation of punishment to a situation ol validating each child's feelings, By doing this, the Center lias changed what was once the "time-out" comer to the “feeling corner" where a huge stufled ro< kmc, chair coverixl with blankets serves as tin' place to go to problem solve with .1 parent or te.n In i Ti child is encouraged to figure out why he a she i . having these feelings. "It is validating your feelings instead ol saving 'you need to sit there and think about this,' Blanchard said "It's saying to the kid 'it's Oh th.it you’re angry here's a pillow Sometimes you will hear a l-vear-old saving "why don't we go lo the leafing cornel '" Him ( hard said "1‘art of it is we, as facilitator . n i to stand hack and let the children solve all their problems themselves they do a really goo ! mb of it." Blanchard said. Don Stull, who "co-ops” and has a six \ear id daughter, Shanna, in the Latch-key progiam, could not have made it without the Centei, he said. "I could not have gotten through the I nner-.: tv. my wife Lisa couldn't have gotten through school and Shanna couldn't have gotten belter care if it had not been for the program." Stull said. "It would have been impossible financially und without the support groups (at the Center) to get through." Stull said fie thinks of the Center as a resource, rather than just a child care facility, lor three rea sons. The first is that the parents who co-op are able to network with other parents to solve prob lerns and share their experiences with parents who may he going through the same things The second reason Stull considers il a resource center is that "Susie is there," he said She is aide to bring programs and support group information to the co-op for student parents finally, the Center acts as a resource in that "there are lots of other student parents who bring a lot of information about what they are studying in school to the co-op,” Stull said Stull's daughter has benefited in numerous ways from the program, he said. "In the goals that parents want for their chil dren — they want them to be liked, respected, charismatic and independent this is exactly what Shanna has received from the program,' Stull said. 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