Dawn Hill

I attribute my success to being patient and having compassion for children. Seeing their growth and how they're just sponges who want to know and are learning things for the first time, or seeing things for the first time, that's what drives me. If you can gain the heart of a child, you can give them the desire to want to learn from you and want to be in your presence.

The best advice I have received you only fail if you stop trying. Keep moving forward no matter how many times you get pushed back.

The childcare industry is in high demand, and a lot of people emotionally are not patient for caring for other people's children because it's a very sensitive area. If you're going to get into that field, remember that patience is the number one key, along with compassion and good communication skills. I believe if you can gain the heart of a child, you can give them the desire to want to learn from you and want to be in your presence. Just overall, patience and understanding, and remember that kids are not little adults.

One challenge is getting the kids to do what they call expeditions, which is the curriculum. They don't like to do it, so we're struggling to try to get them into the habit of doing the curriculum every day or wanting to do it. We reworded it from 'curriculum' to 'expedition' because it sounds like they're exploring rather than just sitting and doing work. Another challenge is some parents think we're just babysitters, but we have to let them know that we're not babysitting. We're actually continuing the education that their child does throughout the day. Even though it seems like they're playing, they're still learning. There's also a big educational gap for children, because a lot of kids are in poverty and don't have access to good, affordable education or childcare. A lot of children fall through the gaps depending on where they're at.

Trust, honesty, loyalty, forgiveness communication, love, understanding and patience.