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• Nearly one-quarter of all children are in family child care at some point before beginning elementary school.  Furthermore, the majority of young children with working mothers are cared for in private homes.
• These children spend an average of 31 hours per week in family child care, which can include nights and weekends.
• Family child care providers make up a sizeable portion of small business owners in the USA.  Nationally, there are a total of 213,966 licensed family child care homes, which breaks down to 166,514 small family child care homes (serving up to six children) and 47,452 large homes (serving 7 - 12 children). 
• Families using home-based care (both regulated and unregulated) are more likely to prefer this care for infants and toddlers, but prefer preschools and centers for older children.
• 95 percent of family child care providers are women.
• 90 percent of family child care providers are parents themselves — about 33 percent care for their own children in addition to unrelated children.
• Most family child care providers have low earnings ($15,000 to $25,000 annually for full-time care of low-income children) and most work long hours with little to no access to employment benefits.
• The quality of care in family child care is not associated with the provider's age or years of experience, but positively correlated with the training and education the provider receives.
• The majority of parents using family child care are satisfied with their arrangement.  Parents using family child care believe that their children receive more individual attention in home-based settings.

Being with Babies: Understanding and Responding to the Infants in Your Care is a great resource for both beginning and experienced caregivers. Each chapter describes an issue that caregivers face daily, offers scenarios that illustrate the challenge, suggests solutions caregivers can use to address the issue, and concludes with a review of key points.  Being with Babies teaches caregivers how to handle everyday challenges while learning about developmental stages. This hands-on resource is perfect for caregivers of children 6 weeks to 18 months old, as well as for staff development and resource libraries.  Chapters include information on:

• Developing relationships with babies
• Using observation to understand babies
• Communicating with babies
• Selecting appropriate toys
• Setting up safe and effective learning environments for babies

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