Posted: May 14, 2019
For Sarah Bakkum, “desperate times call for desperate measures.” Sarah was in the process of getting all her licensing paperwork together when she was notified that she had been selected for a special start-up grant, but she needed to have all her preparation completed, including 12 hours of PD within the next week.
Sarah hails from Minneapolis, Minnesota, and has recently transitioned from work in a corporate center care program and a public school classroom to opening her own family child care site. She searched Minnesota Develop, her state's PD registry, and identified some options, including BKC modules. Sarah has a Masters Degree in early elementary education and is fortifying her knowledge base on the earlier years through BKC's online modules. She found the videos to be the best part of the modules because they showed "winning teachers." She also liked that the modules were highly affordable and asynchronous. She didn't have to be online at a specific time "live" with an instructor and other professionals like some of the more expensive options required.
"I'm out of the norm with my background in education and being a mom. You think you've seen it all, know it all, but learning doesn't really ever stop, [the examples] in the videos remind you of what you already know and have already learned but getting you to think about how it applies to this situation…You guys make it so easy, why not?!"
Along with a colleague, Sarah cares for 7 full time children--ranging in age from 9 months to 4 years. She also has two children of her own. She identified specific modules to help with a particularly challenging child, hoping to find encouraging strategies for both herself and the family. She completed Problem-solving with Children; Dealing with Anger--The Children and Yours; and Beyond Counting: Strategies to Support Preschool Math Development. "I love babies….but wholly man, it's hard, now that I'm here." "I found the classes really interesting, and I liked the 'no pressure' aspect of it." She especially appreciated being able to stop and start the module, completing it at a pace that worked for her family and child care program. She sees a real opportunity to pass along the resources from the modules to parents in her program. Minnesota has a strong reputation for parent education, but many families can't access the workshops that are funded. BKC's materials could supplement the information being presented through local agencies.
Sarah has already incorporated one idea from the modules into her programming. Her two-year-old has been having a great time learning numbers and exercising muscles, jumping on an indoor number line during the icy winter days that overwhelmed the state this past winter.
Sarah originally wanted to work in the foster care system. She is choosing owning her own family child care business for a season while her children are young, so that she can maximize her time with them while maintaining her professional connections and sharing financial responsibilities for their family.
