Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 919, Visiting Child Care Centers.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 919, 9-1-9, or backwards, 9-1-9.
This episode, like all of our episodes, has a learning guide.
You can find that 8-10 page guide on our website at eslpod.com.
You can download that guide if you become a member of ESL Podcast, which I hope you will.
This episode is a dialogue between Adam and Noelle about trying to find a place where they can put their young child while the two of them work.
Let's get started.
What's that?
It's a list of questions I'm going to ask at the child care center when we visit today.
I want to be prepared.
We already know that it's licensed and has a good reputation.
What other questions are you going to ask?
Lots.
For instance, I want to know what the ratio is of children to each child care worker and what their staff turnover rate is.
Okay, I guess those are important questions.
And I want to know what their policies are on disciplining the kids and what kinds of meals and snacks they serve.
Also good questions.
And I want to find out their policies on sick kids and if they allow late pickup.
Yeah, I guess those are really good questions too.
And I want to know if I can observe any time I want to and if there's a secure check-in, check-out system.
Those are all good questions.
But I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you've done your homework.
If that's why I married you, wouldn't that make me the practical one?
Our dialogue begins with Adam asking Noel, what's that?
Noel says it's a list of questions I'm going to ask at the child care center when we visit today.
A child care center is a place not a school, but another place that takes care of young children, children who are too young to be in school, usually under the age of five.
So a young baby or a one-year-old or two-year-old or three-year-old or four-year-old all of these would be the kinds of children you would find in a child care center typically.
Traditionally, women always stayed home and took care of the children, while the man went out to work.
Over the last 50 years in many Western nations in particular, there has been a change in the economy, so now a lot more women work.
Some of these women, if they have a lot of money, can hire someone, can get someone to come in and take care of their children at their home what we might call a nanny N-A-N-N-Y.
This is one woman who comes.
Typically, it is a woman who comes and takes care of children while the wife is working or somewhere else.
This only happens, however, if you have a lot of money.
Instead, what most people do is, if the mother or father cannot stay home to take care of the child, they put the child in what's called a child care center.
A child care center is a place where usually there are several adults and lots of young children who It's sort of like a school, but usually they're not there to teach your children.
They're just there to take care of them while you are at work.
Noelle has a list of questions she wants to ask the people who work at the child care center.
Obviously, she and Adam are looking for somewhere where they can take their young child.
Adam says...
We already know that it's licensed and has a good reputation.
Adam is referring to one specific child care center that apparently Adam and Noel are interested in.
He says that this is a licensed facility or a licensed child care center.
Licensed means it has official permission from the government. to be a childcare center.
In many places.
You must get permission if you want to open up a place like this that will take care of children.
Adam also says the childcare center has a good reputation.
A reputation is what other people think of you.
So if it has a good reputation, many people think this is a good place.
Adam says, what other questions are you going to ask?
Noel says, lots, meaning I have a lot of questions.
I have many questions.
For instance, for example, I want to know what the ratio is of children to each child care worker.
A ratio is the same as a proportion.
It's how much you have of one thing compared to another thing.
If you have a ratio of 10 children to one adult, that means you have one adult taking care of 10 children.
The ratio is 10 to 1, we would say.
10 to T-O-1.
Noelle wants to know the ratio of children to childcare workers.
She also wants to know what the staff turnover rate is.
Staff.
S-T-A-F-F refers to the employees, the people who work at any company, including a childcare center.
Turnover, T-U-R-N-O-V-E-R, one word, refers to people quitting their jobs and getting new jobs.
When a company has a high turnover, it has a lot of people who come and go.
People are always leaving and they're always bringing new people in.
We might refer then, to the turnover rate, the percentage of people who are replaced every month or every year.
Adam says, okay, I guess those are important questions.
Noel says, and I want to know what their policies are on disciplining the kids and what kind of meals and snacks they serve.
A policy.
P-O-L-I-C-Y is a set of rules or regulations, what you do in certain circumstances, certain situations.
Noel wants to know what their policies are on disciplining the kids.
To discipline...
D-I-S-C-I-P-L-I-N-E means to do something to someone who is making a mistake or who has done something wrong.
Usually, you try to do something so that the person doesn't do it again.
That is to discipline, to provide some sort of negative consequence for someone's negative actions.
You're trying to correct what they are doing and make sure they don't do it again.
People have different ideas about how to discipline children.
Some people think you should yell at them.
Some people think you should lock them in a room by themselves.
My neighbors apparently don't believe in any discipline for their children.
So everyone has a different idea about how you should discipline your child.
Noelle wants to know also something about the food that they give the children.
She wants to know the kind of meals and snacks they serve.
A snack...
S-N-A-C-K, is a small amount of food that you might eat in between meals.
So you have breakfast in the morning, and then maybe at 10 o'clock in the morning, you have a snack.
You have an apple or a donut or an orange.
And then you have your lunch, which is a meal.
Then in the afternoon, you might have another snack, another piece of food. and so forth.
Children are often given little snacks in between their meals, and that's what Noelle is referring to.
She wants to know what kind of snacks they serve.
Notice the verb to serve means to give someone food.
Adam says that these are good questions.
Noelle continues, however, she has even more questions.
She says, I want to find out their policies on sick kids and if they allow late pickup.
Sick kids would be kids who are ill, kids who have some medical problem.
They might have a cold or the flu, for example.
Noel wants to know what their policy is on sick kids.
She wants to know probably whether you can bring a sick child to the child care center.
Some child care centers do not allow you to do that, because of course then all of the other children will get sick.
Noel also wants to know about late pick-up.
Pickup is when the parent comes to get the child at the end of the day.
A late pickup would be the ability to get your child at a time later than normal.
So normally if parents come at 5 o'clock but you can't be there until 7 o'clock, you would have a late pickup.
It would be later than everyone else.
Adam says, yeah, I guess those are really good questions too.
Noel continues, and I want to know if I can observe any time I want to.
To observe means to watch what is happening.
Noelle is probably referring here to the ability for the parent to just to come in and to watch to see how the child care workers are taking care of their children.
Noelle says she wants to know if there is a secure check-in check-out system in order to make sure that the children are safe, and Most child care centers will have some sort of system where they only allow people who they know are the parents or who the parents have sent, to pick up their children.
To check in is the opposite of to check out.
To check in is when you first arrive at a location.
We talk about checking into a hotel.
When you get there, you go to the desk and they give you a key and you give them money and your name.
To check out is when you leave.
So to check in your children would be to bring them to the child care center, typically in the morning.
And then check out would be to come at the end of the day and pick them up.
Secure, S-E-C-U-R-E, here just means safe.
Adam says.
Those are all good questions, but I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that you've done your homework.
Homework is usually what you get in school, what a teacher gives the students to do at home and to bring back the next day.
To do your homework, as a general expression, means to do the work required to do the research, to investigate sufficiently.
Noel says, that's why you married me, right?
Because I'm so practical.
Someone who is practical is someone who gets things done, who's concerned about the results, who's very productive.
I am the opposite of that.
I am very impractical.
I M P R A C T I C A L Adam says if that's why I married you, wouldn't that make me the practical one?
Adam is saying well, If I was smart enough to marry you, then I'm the practical one, because I am getting things done by having you do them.
That's probably somewhat true in many marriages.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
What's that?
It's a list of questions I'm going to ask at the child care center when we visit today.
I want to be prepared.
We already know that it's licensed and has a good reputation.
What other questions are you going to ask?
Lots.
For instance, I want to know what the ratio is of children to each child care worker and what their staff turnover rate is.
Okay, I guess those are important questions.
And I want to know what their policies are on disciplining the kids and what kinds of meals and snacks they serve.
Also good questions.
And I want to find out their policies on sick kids and if they allow late pickup.
Yeah, I guess those are really good questions too.
And I want to know if I can observe any time I want to and if there is a secure check-in, check-out system.
Those are all good questions, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you've done your homework.
That's why you married me, right?
Because I'm so practical?
If that's why I married you, wouldn't that make me the practical one?
Our scriptwriter has an excellent reputation as being a wonderful teacher.
I refer, of course... to our very own Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2013 by the Center for Educational Development.
