Sitter in Washington, District of Columbia

Certified teacher with over 10 years experience (2 years experience with Bright Horizons preschools, 8 years experience teaching & working in Boston Public Schools) with children. I have taken care of infants through to pre-K children, and taught infants to high school seniors throughout my career. I have recently moved to the area, and because my state teaching certification is for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, I am seeking employment alternatives which still enable me to engage with children during the day, in the nuturing, creative, and structured manner that I accustomed to. I am a native English speaker who speaks limited/conversational French. I have traveled a fair amount and I fully respect various cultural beliefs or traditions you may wish to expose your child to. I strongly support reading, literacy, and embedded cross-curriculum style lessons within a child's day. I love to engage a child on multiple intelligence levels, in sensory lessons that incorporate color, texture, sound, movement, pattern, make believe, social skills, and healthy lifestyle choices. I believe part of good childcare is showing a child how to be an active, vibrant member of the family - and of their community (be it neighborhood, school, or summer camp?) by modelling clean-up, sharing, helping children become self-sufficient in tasks such as completing chores, and cleaning up after their messes. Each day, except in cases of extreme weather, I believe children should get outside and breath fresh air, to exercise and socialize when possible - and this would be built into the day of any family - whether they had infants or older children. As I do enjoy cooking, I have had a great deal of success helping little ones learn to make and enjoy cuisine from around the world. (It has helped that I refer to nori wrappers as 'mermaid food,' rather than seaweed, when making vegetarian sushi.) As well, I believe in applying the seasons, holidays, and whatever resources are at hand to my teaching and childcare. For example, I have enjoyed teaching children about measuring out liquids and solids by incorporating this skill into the baking of a pumpkin quick bread at Halloween time. I have enjoyed teaching children about snow and ice in the winter, and helped them learn about water purification by collecting debris such as twigs and rocks found while on a walk in the park in the summer, and then making a simple filtration system, using charcoal and sand. My certification is in visual arts teaching, and I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree. My lessons often incorporate science, math, history, or performance art elements, even if they are visual arts-focused - as you can see from the above examples.