Kia ora
Welcome to Just Like Home.
We are a group of dedicated and experienced home-based childcare educators. We are a small but mighty team that is focused on the movement of childcare back to its roots. We believe children thrive in familiar and loving environments with a small group of their peers and a strong attachment to their caregiver. These three foundations are at the heart of Just Like Home.
We offer childcare in Wānaka, Hāwea, Queenstown and surrounding areas.
Why choose home-based childcare?
Just Like Home is a collective of passionate local educators who transform their homes into safe spaces where your child receives nurturing care and play-based, child-led educational experiences alongside a small cohort of other children.
This approach to childcare rests on the foundations of secure attachment, a deep sense of belonging and authentic connections, offering your whānau an alternative to larger childcare centres and preschools.
At Just Like Home, we know the early years are the most important years for laying the foundations for future learning and life experiences. Research tells us children learn best through playing in small group settings in nurturing spaces – a place that is just like home.
We offer more than just childcare though. We build on the power of relationship with the educator, both for the child and for the family. Outside of your family home, our early childhood educator will naturally become a significant person in your child's life, and likely yours as well. These relationships are the foundation for that sense of ease a child and a parent wants to feel when choosing to leave their little one in the care of another adult.
Our educators are ECE qualified teachers who work under the same teaching regulations that a childcare centre or kindergarten does. Many of our educators have come from centres and have chosen their preferred path of home-based care. Not only are our educators well versed in an early childhood play-based curriculum, they also have a strong applicable understanding of child development, nervous system regulation and co-regulation so that your child is fully supported in becoming "competent and confident learners, healthy in mind, body, spirit, secure in their sense of belonging and in the knowledge that they make a valued contribution to society." (Te Whāriki 1996)
Poipoia Ngā Ngākau Harikoa
Nurturing Happy Hearts
