If you are an adherent to a faith, you probably want your children to step into your footsteps.  After all, one of the most important goals for a faithful individual is to raise a faithful family.  Summer is a great time to explore faith based summer camps, and almost every church out there will have something to offer. Yet what are your options for the rest of the year?  There are numerous faith-based day care centers available, but is faith-based childcare the right avenue for your kids? 

Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Does the childcare center’s environment seek to bridge cultural gaps?  In other words, do you see a wide variety cultures represented when you visit the childcare center?  A faith-based organization should be reaching out to all segments of the community, but if you notice that one segment is noticeably missing, then perhaps the center’s idea of faith is somewhat different from that which you hold dear.
• Is your faith-based childcare center based on one faith or is it interfaith based?  In other words, do you expect your child to receive training in your religion, or do you wish for her or him to be trained in understanding and appreciating the faiths of other groups as well as her or his own?  This is an important question to ask before signing up, since the implications may be that this sort of training is contrary to those whose faith is firmly rooted in the more conservative quarters of their religion.
• Is the faith your faith-based childcare center is advocating the same as you are teaching at home?  This is of special significant to Christians, since there is such a plethora of denominations found throughout Christianity, many of which have opposing view points of key issues of faith and religious living.  Very often your faith and that of the childcare center are compatible, but at times it will not be.
• Go through several trial sessions and see how your kids respond to being at the childcare center. Most often they will enjoy the stories, the new things they learn, and the many arts and crafts they will prepare.  On the off-chance however, that they are not enjoying their stay, find out what is going on.  Is the staff pushy with respect to the faith? If your child is older, does he or she feel pushed toward being baptized, or making a public declaration of faith that she or he is simply not yet ready for? Conversely, do younger children feel threatened with stories about hellfire and brimstone?

If you find that all the caveats have been taken care of, and you and your kids feel comfortable with the faith-based childcare you have chosen, then the odds are good that this will be the right avenue for your kids.  After all, the many lessons learned at such a childcare facility center around character traits that are valuable in modern day society.

• Your kids will be trained in taking responsibility for their own actions.  Blame-shifting is strongly discouraged, and personal accountability is of high importance.
• Respect for authority, such as parents, teachers, and of course the supreme deity are fostered.  Children no longer see themselves as an authority to be reckoned with, but learn to understand, accept, and thrive in their assigned role in life.
• Children will develop a healthy self-image that comes from the inside instead of which brand name of clothes or shoes they may wear, and which toys they might possess.  Before the creator of the universe all people are equal, and children will learn to look at the inside of themselves and others, rather than at the outside. This is a valuable lesson that faith-based childcare will offer.
• Your kids will learn positive conflict resolution.  Conflicts are a given, yet how they are resolved varies depending on a child’s understanding of right and wrong, and her or his ability to apologize and right a wrong. By honing your children’s ability to know right from wrong, and to quickly apologize and forgive for wrongs perpetrated, your faith-based childcare provider will put your kids on the right avenue to life!