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Green Environments for Daycare Centers photo by jekert gwapo

Increasingly, more family daycare businesses are becoming environmentally safe and responsible.  Child care providers are special taking measures (as an important component of their daycare jobs) to ensure that the environment provides the best in health for children, offer locally-grown or organic food, and celebrate multiculturalism.

Matt Haugh directs sales and marketing for BigToys, Inc., a commercial playground equipment manufacturer based in Olympia, Washington. In Part 2 of our interview with Haugh, Haugh describes the types of equipment necessary and safe materials for green daycare centers.

OwnADaycare: What kind of equipment would a small family childcare business require? What types of materials should a small family childcare business avoid?

Matt Haugh: There are many factors that contribute to creating a safe and developmentally appropriate playscape, and regional differences make it difficult to generalize. Fortunately, BigToys has a network of professionals who can answer any question, and we’ve also created a helpful guide to early childhood play spaces, which can be found here as a PDF, where you’ll find many ideas for natural playscapes that we like to think of as “pockets of play along a path.”

Obviously all playground designs should begin with safety, and it’s important to consider supervisor visibility (lines of sight), sun exposure, pooling water, and many other factors. Beyond core safety, well-designed playgrounds incorporate as many natural elements as possible while creating exploration and growth opportunities for developing minds and bodies. From a safety, durability, and design perspective, commercial manufacturers can play a critical role, but it’s also worth consulting with local landscaping and materials experts to come up with a total design that can be comfortably maintained while giving kids maximum exposure to nature.

For many customers (especially small centers) it makes the most sense to start small, and slowly add more natural and environmentally friendly materials as budget allows. This also lets learn how the kids interact with new elements, which supports decisions about future changes and additions. Thinking of it as an ever changing, organic growth and learning process can be very liberating compared to the more traditional “rip out and replace” mindset.

OwnADaycare: When selecting playground equipment many daycare providers have been told to avoid items that are made of treated wood. Is this correct? Can you elaborate on this?

Matt Haugh: BigToys’ wood structures are conditioned with copper azole (a water-based wood preservative comprised of 96% copper and 4% azole) which prevents fungal decay and insect attack. Our conditioning process provides lasting durability, releases no air pollutants or wastewater, and uses recycled materials. Furthermore, our wood conditioner contains no heavy metals, is arsenate free, won’t leach out, won’t dissolve, won’t stain, and won’t pollute. Copper azole is approved by the EPA and CPSP for use on playground equipment.

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Green Daycare Environments photo by jekert gwapo

Increasingly, more family daycare businesses are becoming environmentally safe and responsible.  Child care providers are special taking measures (as an important component of their daycare jobs) to ensure that the environment provides the best in health for children, offer locally-grown or organic food, and celebrate multiculturalism. Matt Haugh directs sales and marketing for BigToys, Inc., a commercial playground equipment manufacturer based in Olympia, Washington. Haugh describes green environments for daycare centers in this interview with OwnADaycare.

OwnADaycare: What exactly is a green/environmentally friendly playground/play environment?

Matt Haugh: The essence of a natural playground is one where natural behaviors are promoted and supported, so, [in addition to the technical dimensions mentioned in my article in Park & Rec Trades], we believe that green playgrounds should have at least two crucial properties: They should be made from the most environmentally friendly materials available, and they should promote not just physical activity, but also creative and collaborative social play. Ideally, commercial equipment should offer play activities that merge the physical with the social, as happen with several BigToys patented marquee events.

OwnADaycare: Is building a green playground economical and realistic? Is any playground completely environmentally friendly?

Matt Haugh: There’s never been a better time to build an environmentally friendly playground as our environment has never been more threatened, nor have there ever been more excellent options from which to build the optimal playscape. Increasingly, minimizing environmental footprint is becoming non-optional, even in tough budget times. BigToys has spent the past 40 years making tough, often expensive choices, because we believe you can’t truly care for children without doing everything possible to protect the planet they’ll one day inherit.

OwnADaycare: Please give me more background about your company, BigToys, Inc.

Matt Haugh: For the past 40 years, BigToys Inc. has been building commercial playground equipment that provides a safe, fun, developmentally appropriate play experience for kids around the world. Our structures can be found in school playgrounds, parks, childcare centers, and private communities and developments. We offer products for children from 6 months to 12 years old.

We build structures from recycled steel and 100% recycled plastic, or Forest Stewardship Council certified wood, making them the most environmentally friendly playgrounds available anywhere today. Our kid friendly wood treatment is EPA approved and BigToys’ school and commercial playground equipment contains NO PVC.

We put safety first. We are a founding member of the International Playground Equipment Manufacturer’s Association (IPEMA). Our equipment is IPEMA certified and complies with ASTM, CPSC, ADA, CSA, EN, and AU playground safety standards.

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While most art supplies for children are tested for safety, many products still include toxins like lead, silica, dioxins, and arsenic that are potential health hazards. Today many companies produce green (or environmentally friendly) art supplies for children.

For example, their crayons may be made from soy instead of petroleum and colored pencils may be made from made from recycled wood instead of destroying new living, growing trees. If you decide to make the investment in environmentally friendly or green art supplies for use in your childcare center, consider purchasing them from the following companies:

Stubby Pencil Studio:  Stubby Pencil Studio offers non-toxic, recycled, fair trade, educational, sustainable or environmentally responsible products. Here you can purchase aprons and tools, crayons, chalk, colored pencils, office supplies, molding clay, graphite pencils, paints and paint brushes, and sketch books. Stubby Pencil Studio also offers environmentally friendly craft kits. Order online or by phone.

Kidbean.com: If you’re looking for environmentally friendly finger paint, KidBean.com offers natural help finger paint. Livos SALIS Natural Hemp Finger Paint Set for Kids is biodynamically grown, lead free, and VOC free. KidBean.com also sell unnatural dyed “play dough” made from food grade ingredients as well as Green Field hemp sketch, drawing, and watercolor paper.

Eco Choices:  One of the best products sold by EcoChoice in their EcoArt Works division is their soy rock crayons. These soy crayons are made of soft soy wax and tinted with mineral powders. EcoArt Works also sells Eco dough, Eco finger paints, natural modeling dough in a variety of scents and colors, drawing books, face paint, and fairy tale wool. All products are earth friendly and non-toxic.

Nuno Organics: Nuno Organics is a green crafter’s dream. They offer non-toxic play dough, modeling beeswax, wooden beads, bee wax coloring blocks, beeswax crayons, colored pencils, face painting pencils, nontoxic finger paints, and Lyra Wax-O-Glas Window Crayons. The products sold by Nuno Organics are those that meet European standards for organic certification in Germany and Holland.

Also check out the “Guidelines for the Safe Use of Art and Craft Materials” published by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. This guide helps childcare professionals, like those who are licensed daycare providers, select safe arts and craft materials for children.

If you have the time and the means, try making your own natural, eco-friendly art supplies. Nature Moms is a great website which provides you with loads of free natural recipes for play dough, finger paints, bubbles, and silly putty.

Remember that there are many seemingly harmful art supplies that may contain hazardous chemicals like ammonia, formaldehyde, turpentine, or xylene (a neuro, kidney, reproductive, and respiratory toxin). Do some research to find out what toxins may be in the art supplies you are using, and consider switching to healthier, environmentally-friendly supplies. Better safe than sorry!

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As you plan your child care business, consider offering unique and specialized child care services that other daycare businesses don’t offer. In this economy it is extremely important to market your business as a high quality and unique business so that it stands out from others. Specialized child care services are in high demand and offering them can be extremely lucrative for your thriving daycare business.

There are many types of unique childcare services that your daycare business might offer:

24 hour child care: Most daycare centers open at 6 am and close at 6 pm. Daycare that offers its services 24 hours a day, seven days a week, is a growing trend and a necessity for some families. Some parents work long or overnight shifts like nurses and truck drivers must. Sometimes parents have to unexpectedly take an extra shift and need emergency child care services. Sometimes, a parent changes shifts from day to night. Twenty four hour daycare is extremely convenient and can be a true lifesaver.

Vacation Daycare: If your childcare business is situated in a vacation town, consider offering vacation daycare services. Perhaps your business is in lovely Santa Barbara. Visitors with small children may plan to spend a romantic evening wine tasting and having dinner. These parents can then make a reservation with your daycare business, which of course has proven to provide high-level child-care services on a 24-hour basis. Parents can then arrange to have their children taken care of by your daycare center for a particular window of time, anytime of the day.

Green Daycare: As our society becomes more and more environmentally conscious, green (or environmentally friendly) daycare centers are increasingly in demand. A green child care center takes special measures to ensure that the environment provides the best in health for children, offering locally-grown or organic food, and celebrating multiculturalism. Green daycare centers are concerned with harmful chemicals, pesticides and do their best to eliminate them. Children are taught to respect the earth and its precious resources.

Sick Daycare: When a parent has an important meeting and their child is sick and will be excluded from daycare, what does he or she do? There is a definite need for childcare centers that serve as an infirmary for mildly ill children on an emergency basis. Each day more than 350,000 children under the age of 14 years with both parents working are too sick to attend school or child care. The National Association for Sick Childcare has a wealth of information about creating such programs.

Drop In-Childcare: Drop-in daycare is basically back-up childcare. For example, if a parent has a doctor’s visit, an event that is not appropriate for kids, something unexpected comes up, or has a date, this type of childcare option is extremely convenient. Once their children are enrolled, parents can then take the kids to drop-in child care for necessary periods of time. While not around the clock care, drop-in childcare is usually open 7 days a week and offers later hours of service.

Niche daycare is an important consideration in these tough economic times. If your child care center offers specialized childcare services, be sure to use that as a selling point when creating your daycare business plan and marketing your daycare business.

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