Family day care for Maudsland families

Worth the short drive from Maudsland

Let's be straight with you: Gizmo's isn't in Maudsland. We're in Pacific Pines, the neighbouring suburb, directly opposite Jubilee Primary School, a short drive from most Maudsland streets.

Families from Maudsland have been making that drive since 2010. They do it because what's at the other end isn't available closer to home: a service where four children, total, spend the day with one educator who has known them since they arrived.

If you've got an older child at Jubilee Primary, the maths gets even better: drop-off and pick-up become a single stop instead of two.

What you're actually choosing between

Most Maudsland parents comparing options are weighing a local long day care centre against family day care. They're both good options, and they're genuinely different things:

That last row is an honest one. A large centre will beat us on opening hours and on covering unusual shift patterns. If you need care from 6am, a centre is probably the better fit, and we'd rather tell you that now than waste your time.

We've gone into this comparison in more depth here →

Why Katie started Gizmo's

Katie worked as a group leader in a traditional kindergarten for five years before opening Gizmo's in 2010. What she kept seeing was pre-prep children, the ones with the most to gain from a bit of focused attention in their last year before school, getting the least of it, simply because there were too many of them in the room.

So she built the opposite. A preschool-style pre-prep program, with individual learning goals for each child, delivered to a group of four in a home rather than a classroom. The social side is still there, because four children who spend every day together become genuinely close. What's missing is the noise, the queuing and the anonymity.

Katie has worked with young children since she was fourteen, 21 years now. She holds an Advanced Diploma of Early Childhood Education, and she's the one who greets your child every morning and hands them back every afternoon. Because there's no roster to rotate through, your child isn't rebuilding a relationship with a new adult every few weeks.

Getting ready for prep

Every child at Gizmo's works towards their own goals, revisited as they go: pencil grip, recognising and writing their name, early letters and numbers, managing a lunchbox and a zip on their own, sitting through a group story, asking for help, and separating at the door without tears. These are the things prep teachers ask for, and they're much easier to build at a table of four than in a room of twenty.

Fees and the Child Care Subsidy

The daily fee is $115.60 for a day from 8am to 4pm. Gizmo's is registered with Kids at Home, an approved family day care provider, so the Government pays its share of that directly and you cover only the gap, which for most working families brings a day here well within range of a centre place.

Katie holds an Advanced Diploma of Early Childhood Education, a current Blue Card, and current first aid, CPR, asthma, anaphylaxis and child protection training. Gizmo's is rated Meeting the National Quality Standard and insured through Family Day Care Australia.

How the Child Care Subsidy works at Gizmo's → · Our fees and current vacancies →