ABOUT US
Hello, and thank you for visiting
our site!
My name is Erin Mitchell and I am
the owner/operator of Aunty's House Daycare.
I am the mother of two beautiful
children, Jaime - aged 3, and Sean - aged 1. I'm an eastern-Canada girl,
growing up on the South Shore of Montreal, the eldest of over a dozen
first-cousins! As such, I speak French fluently. In 1995, I attended the
Queen’s University School of Nursing. After the brutal ice storms
of 1998/1999, I heard the mild-climated, beautiful pacific coast calling to me,
and I moved to Vancouver. My first stop was at St. Vincent’s Hospital, but
later moved to St. Paul’s Hospital in an administrative role in the Department
of Surgery. My husband was born in Ireland but grew up in Kamloops
and, after our first child was born, he was drawn "home" to the fabulous South
Thompson where we now raise our family. Ian is an Emergency Physician at Royal
Inland Hospital and we are blessed to be surrounded by not only old friends and
acquaintances from years past, but Ian's parents who have lived in the area for
40+ years. More of the family will arrive in the Fall of 2009 as Ian's sister
Natalie, one of our proud Mounties, returns to Kamloops with her family
(including Jaime and Sean's 2 year old cousin Ben).
HOW AUNTY'S HOUSE FAMILY DAYCARE
CAME TO BE...
After Sean was born, I wasn’t sure
whether or not to return to work post-maternity leave. While Jaime
did attend daycare 3 days per week after the birth of her brother, we found that
the larger centre she was moved up to after her third birthday was not really
meeting her needs. With other daycare centres waiting lists
continuing to be at all-time highs and care-giver to child ratios continuing to
be quite low for preschool children, I really started to look at what I wanted
for my child and compare that to what was on offer from different facilities.
In the end, with the support of my family and friends, I decided to start a
centre and offer the kind of care that I felt was lacking with the high
children-low teacher ratio at the larger centres. I started with what I felt
was an important overriding philosophy: "Exploring, Playing and Growing
Together", and everything else followed!
