Family day care in Pacific Pines

Right across from Jubilee Primary School

Gizmo's has been running from the same Pacific Pines home since 2010, directly opposite Jubilee Primary School on Binstead Way. If you already have an older child at Jubilee, that matters more than it sounds: drop-off and pick-up are the same stop, not two trips across the suburb at the two busiest moments of your day.

It also means the walk to big school is a familiar one long before your child starts prep. The children here see the school gates, the crossing and the oval as part of their ordinary week, so the building that so many four-year-olds find daunting is just the school over the road by the time they're enrolled in it.

Four children. That's the whole idea.

Gizmo's is a family day care service, not a centre. Through the school term Katie cares for a maximum of four children aged 2 to 5 in her own home. There's no room roster, no changing faces, no being handed between educators at 3pm.

In the school holidays we open vacation care to Gizmo's graduates only: the children who were here before prep, coming back to a house and an educator they already know. It's a nice thing to watch, and it means the door doesn't close on a family the moment their child starts school.

What that buys your child is attention. In a group of four, an educator notices that your daughter has started avoiding the scissors, or that your son goes quiet when the group gets loud, in the same week it starts, not at the end-of-term summary. Small worries get addressed while they're still small.

It's also a genuinely mixed-age group, which is one of the quiet advantages of family day care. The younger children stretch to keep up with the older ones, and the older ones practise patience, explaining and looking after someone smaller. Both of those are exactly what prep asks of them.

A day at Gizmo's

Days follow a predictable rhythm rather than a timetable, because small children settle better when they know what's coming next but aren't hurried through it.

• Mornings start slowly: a hello, a bit of free play, then the focused work of puzzles, blocks, drawing, cutting, early letters and numbers, chosen to match what each child is working on rather than what the group is doing.
• Outside time is a serious part of the day, not a break from it. Garden play, water, sand, nature walks and gross-motor games, in a securely fenced yard.
• Lunch and quiet time: a proper rest for the children who still need one, and a cosy reading nook with silly voices for those who've grown out of naps.
• Afternoons are for the messier, more social things: painting, cooking, dress-ups, and the yarning circle where everyone gets a turn to talk and, harder still, a turn to listen.

Getting ready for prep

Katie spent five years as a group leader in a traditional kindergarten before opening Gizmo's, and the thing that pushed her to start her own service was watching pre-prep children miss out on one-on-one attention in the year they most needed it. Gizmo's school-readiness program is her answer to that.

Every child has their own learning goals, reviewed as they go, covering the things prep teachers actually ask for: holding a pencil properly, recognising their own name, managing a lunchbox and a zip, sitting for a group story, asking an adult for help, and separating from a parent at the door without falling apart. It's a preschool-style program delivered at a table of four, which means nobody coasts along at the back and nobody gets left behind.

Meet Katie

Katie has worked with young children since she was fourteen, 21 years now. That includes five years teaching in a traditional kindergarten before starting Gizmo's in 2010. She holds an Advanced Diploma of Early Childhood Education. She is the person who greets your child every morning and the person who hands them back at the end of the day. Same face, same expectations, same lap when it's needed.

Because she's a single educator with four children, families here tend to stay for years and hand younger siblings straight down the line. Read what local parents say →

Qualifications, checks and cover

The things worth asking any educator, answered up front:

• Advanced Diploma of Early Childhood Education, and 21 years working with young children.
• Registered with Kids at Home, an approved family day care provider, which is what makes Gizmo's CCS approved.
• Rated Meeting the National Quality Standard under the same framework that assesses long day care centres.
• Current Blue Card (Queensland working with children check).
• Current first aid, CPR, asthma, anaphylaxis and child protection training.
• Public liability insurance through Family Day Care Australia, of which Gizmo's is a financial member.

Days, hours and fees

Gizmo's is open Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8am to 4pm. Katie can start earlier by arrangement but not finish later. The daily fee is $115.60 before the Child Care Subsidy, which for most working families brings it down considerably: the subsidy is applied to your fees before you pay, so you're only ever out of pocket for the gap.

How the Child Care Subsidy works at Gizmo's, step by step → · See our fees and current vacancies →