A strong willed woman at the helm
By ALLAN TINKER
By her own admission, Deb Rhoads affirms she is a strong-willed woman, but with a tender heart for the little ones in her care. ""I love children and they like me," she laughed. " I am firm but flexible."
It seems the qualities are just what it took for the variety and work demand of the Little Hearts daycare, situated at least temporarily, on the north end of Main Street in McClusky.
Before Rhoads came there to guide the ship, so to speak, the organizers of the daycare and the McClusky Job Development Authority had put in many hours of volunteer help to get the place clean, patched, up to code and colorful.
Sine her arrival on Dec 26 as the daycare supervisor, she has made further improvements, utilizing many of the concepts and practices she learned and used in her previous work with Bismarck Early Childhood Edu-cation Program (BECEP) in Bismarck. She moved and removed items to make the rooms practical and pleasing for the young children to feel at home in their home away from working parents and siblings.
With her Associate’s degree in Early Childhood Education, a certificate as a Child Development Associate, with a year of medical secretarial training to boot, she has handled the problems that only small children can provide, usually all at once.
The added benefit of her training and 21 years as teacher, aide and cook at BECEP is put to use in providing meals, rest time, organization, and activities for the children (up to seven) that currently use the daycare facility. Paperwork is an essential requirement of a formal daycare facility and can be a true lifesaver in emergencies and when documentation of needed services or supplies are required.
