Frequently Asked Questions

We are in a single family home with a fenced in back yard walking distance to three parks off the 494 and 52 in South Saint Paul, near Inver Grove Heights, Mendota Heights, Sunfish Lake, West Saint Paul, Downtown Saint Paul, Woodbury, Cottage Grove and Newport.  Families commuting to South Minneapolis, Richfield, Edina, Eagan, Bloomington may find it a convenient stop coming from Stillwater, Hudson, Lake Elmo, Maplewood and Oakdale.

Hours may vary depending on the needs of the families already enrolled. Please inquire with your hours and days of the week needed. 

Please contact me for most current rates. In addition to private payment, I accept government aide and Early Learning Scholarships. In Dakota County they are distributed by Families First of Minnesota.

Mama Bear's Child Care is proud to be rated  a four star program with Parent Aware. Please visit http://www.parentaware.org for more information. This is a great resource for both child care providers and parents seeking child care.  Family support services are  also available on their website, such as: MFIP, CCAP, MA, and Housing Assistance.  

Yes, I am now enrolling part-time families. There are times when due to financial hardship, I may take a family that is needing full-time over   part-time family, or two families with corresponding schedules that make up a full-time schedule.    

I am licensed for ten children. Please inquire about the current spots  available.  The program is most  well suited for children who can walk and manage stairs. However, there are exceptions, especially when siblings enroll together.  

However,  for preschoolers potty training should be started and underway with expected success. Diapers are ok for 3 year olds if you are almost out of pull-ups, unless the child has developmental special needs.  I do prefer families to potty-train between  22 and 33 months old.  

I do. My job is to walk with your child through their development and in pace with their development following Minnesota's Early Learning Standards: Birth-Kindergarten. It states, "because of [this] complex and rapid development in young children, a shared set of expectations of what young children can know and do is necessary to build successful early childhood education programs and supports. In Minnesota, this set of shared expectations is called the Early Childhood Indicators of Progress...(ECIPs)."

  I  also use The Red Leaf Family Child Care Curriculum by Sharon Woodward to guide  age appropriate lesson plans and  The Red Leaf Family Child Care Assessment tool to adjust my plans, so that all children are meeting the early childhood indicators of progress (ecips). 

For example, a child can be learning kindergarten readiness skills like effective use of "trusted adults for support in diverse settings" (ECIP S7.10)  from birth-five while building a relationship with our local librarian when we visit often and learn to look for books about our emergent interests.   

If you would like more Public Preschool or  Kindergarten information follow this link to  Help Me Connect  which has information for you to contact your school district's kindergarten program (this link is for South Saint Paul, but you can navigate from the page if you are a surrounding school district.).  They  will have information on Open Houses, Early Childhood Family Education, Early Childhood Special Education and Early Childhood Screening. 

Healthy meals and snacks are important for your children's body and mind. I cannot stress enough, that I want your children to be good eaters.  I am not positive that it will be within my capacity to prepare meals in all group dynamics.   

I plan intentionally healthy foods, with mostly vegetarian food.  I do offer meat once or twice a week, but I do not plan my meals around meat as often as I use beans, cheese, nuts or yogurt (eggs and peanut butter may not be available if other children  in  care have allergies).  It is also very important to me that your child  eats often so I offer Breakfast, Lunch and two snacks.  

It is important to get children trying a variety of fruits and vegetables, since it may take several times of  just being offered a food before a child tries it, and even more time until they accept it.  I offer 4-5 fruits and vegetables per day and try to keep a balance between new foods to be curious about and old favorites.  The more variety I offer the more likely your child will eventually try the food and get the most (nutritionally) out of his or her diet.