Gina HInson-Foshee works with a couple of boys at the new Lullabies Center in Prescott Valley.
If I were a kid, I'd want to go to Lullabies. And if you were a parent who had to work outside of your home, you'd want your kids to go to Lullabies, too.
Lullabies is the name of a new daycare center opening up in Prescott Valley. Gina Hinson-Foshee is the owner, and she has a special empathy for working moms and dads. "The last 6 years, I've been a working mom, and my 6-year-old, who started kindergarten this year, kind of put everything into perspective for me, as far as how quickly time goes by and how much I've missed."
So, Hinson-Foshee, a mother of three boys (aged 6, 3 and 1) decided to take the plunge. She quit her full-time job at Yavapai County, where she was a Longterm Case Manager, and proceeded to convert her garage into a daycare center. "I wanted to do something where I could be with my children at the same time."
She had experienced firsthand the difficulties of finding childcare, and wanted to make that an easier process. "And my baby, who just turned a year - well, I just did not have the energy to go through looking for childcare all over again, like I have the last six years with my older son. I've had experience with different day cares, and I've seen the good and I've seen the not-so-good, and I just really wanted to go ahead and mainly be with my kids but at the same time to provide a needed service to our community, because there is really nowhere to take any babies right now."
Hinson-Foshee isn't just offering neighborhood babysitting services, though. Her facility is fully licensed by both the State of Arizona and the Town of Prescott Valley. "It's definitely a process, I started the whole thing back in July, converting my garage," she explained. At first, she sought approval from the State. "They were pretty straightfoward; they have an audit tool, and they come out and look at the audit tool then you go to the orientation ahead of time, so you are prepared for what they are going to come and look at, as soon as they came out, if they found anything, and said, "You need to fix this," you'd have a corrective action plan. And from there, they approve you and you go forward."
But the Town of Prescott Valley, well, that took longer. "The biggest challenge I had was getting my room approved from Prescott Valley. That took two months."
Not only did she convert her garage, she made sure that the backyard was "kid-friendly" too.
Hinson-Foshee certainly has the qualifications to start a daycare service. With an Associates degree in Early Childhood Studies and a Master's in Education, she's even familar with writing grants. And, she'll need extra funding in time, because Hinson-Foshee is looking at this as just the first step. "I'm really excited, my goal is to do it here from out of the house for about a year and I've been looking for grants and such. I do have a Master's in Education, so I am familiar with grant writing and looking for funding and such. I'm hoping to be able to find the funding I need in order to open up a facility outside of my home. I don't want to do it here forever, but it is a starting point. I really want to develop a program that's geared towards helping the working parents to reduce some of the struggles I've had."
Besides the regular daycare Monday-Friday, Hinson-Foshee plans to offer a monthly service she is calling, "Errand Saturday." Once a month she'll open the Preschool from 9am to noon so parents can go and run the errands that tend to pile up throughout the month.
Don't think that Hinson-Foshee has forgotten about the children she's going to be working with. "I have a daily schedule, which basically breaks down into about every 30 minutes, we're going to be doing activity centers, or working on gross motor development, arts and crafts - I'll be serving breakfast, two snacks, lunch and even dinner for the late pickup children."
Hinson-Foshee opens the doors of Lullabies starting next Tuesday. She is licensed for up to 10 compensated children, ages 0-5, and can also have 5 that are not compensated. While some children have been signed up for next Tuesday, she does still have limited room for a few more. She is also in the process of finishing up her paperwork with DES.
Lullabies is located in Prescott Valley, Unit 19, between Robert Road and Glassford Hills. For more information, you can reach Hinson-Foshee at 775-3626.
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