{"id":48548,"date":"2022-12-16T20:25:08","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T20:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firstthingsfirst.org\/?post_type=family-stories&p=48548"},"modified":"2022-12-21T22:52:32","modified_gmt":"2022-12-21T22:52:32","slug":"casa-grande-provider-helping-children-learn-and-grow","status":"publish","type":"family-stories","link":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/casa-grande-provider-helping-children-learn-and-grow\/","title":{"rendered":"Casa Grande provider helping children learn and grow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shelly Kinyon knew she still had a lot of love to give.<\/p>\n

The mother of 10, self-proclaims that she loves kids, especially preschool-aged children. A little over a decade ago, she was a foster mom and at the tail end of her years of fostering, she considered caring for children in her home again. Off and on she had done some child care in her home, helping out family and friends, but she never thought of it as a career.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring fostering you make connections with other foster parents,\u201d Kinyon said. One of them introduced the Casa Grande mother to the Family, Friend and Neighbor (FFN) program. The First Things First Pinal Regional Council<\/a> funds the program to support caregivers in helping the young children in their care to learn and grow.<\/p>\n

The program is run through the United Way of Pinal County, which provides in-home child care providers, which can also include foster and adoptive parents, with no-cost assistance to help ensure children birth to age 5 get access to quality education outside of a licensed child care setting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt so good as a foster parent, I knew I could do this in my home,\u201d Kinyon said. She started with two children, who were both a year and a half. \u201cThey were both part-time and my daughter was 2 at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shelly\u2019s Sunflowers Child Care was born, with Kinyon\u2019s intentions of helping families through being someone they could trust with their children.<\/p>\n

The Family, Friend and Neighbor program is free and includes classes or group meetings with other caregivers that are led by trained professionals. Caregivers learn how to better support the health, development and learning of the young children in their care through health and safety practices, educational activities and understanding more about child development.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever made us a provider, whether a grandparent, family, community provider, we\u2019re connected. There\u2019s a Facebook page where we can ask questions or we can email Liz or Lindsay or whomever. You don\u2019t feel like you\u2019re a bother. They\u2019ll give you a strategy for whatever the challenge is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes it\u2019s about how to talk to parents, taking on new clients or helping each other when someone is having a bad day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis profession can be lonely and isolating, it\u2019s nice when we know somebody is there,\u201d Kinyon said. \u201cOne thing Lindsey (from United Way) always does for me is she gives me the tools I need. She asks, \u2018What can you do? Where does the problem start?\u2019 Then she gives me strategies to help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, if the caregiver benefits, so do the children in their care.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids are getting the knowledge,\u201d Kinyon said. \u201cMany times the things we\u2019re learning about helps the kids with their creativity. It helps us help them feel free to express themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, in her playroom, there\u2019s room for water play and messy play.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah we\u2019re going to have shaving cream. Yeah, we\u2019re going to get wet,\u201d Kinyon said. \u201cThe kids get dirty. But being in FFN has helped me in that because they\u2019re explaining the research to back it up and show how it helps kids learn.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The FTF Pinal Regional Council funds the program to support caregivers in helping the young children in their care to learn and grow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":48578,"template":"","tags":[169,467],"class_list":["post-48548","family-stories","type-family-stories","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-pinal","tag-family-friend-and-neighbor-program","regions-pinal"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCasa Grande provider helping children learn and grow - First Things First<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The FTF Pinal Regional Council funds the program to support caregivers in helping the young children in their care to learn and grow.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/casa-grande-provider-helping-children-learn-and-grow\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Casa Grande provider helping children learn and grow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The FTF Pinal Regional Council funds the program to support caregivers in helping the young children in their care to learn and grow.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/casa-grande-provider-helping-children-learn-and-grow\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"First Things First\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AZFirstThingsFirst\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-21T22:52:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/2022-FTF-Pinal-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"393\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AZFTF\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Tiempo de lectura\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutos\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/casa-grande-provider-helping-children-learn-and-grow\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/casa-grande-provider-helping-children-learn-and-grow\/\",\"name\":\"Casa Grande provider helping children learn and grow - 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