Child Care provider Kim Satcher finds special joy in educating young children

While she watched 9-year-old twin sisters and their brother, 11, neatly print goals for 2009 on lined pieces of paper, home child care provider Kim Satcher recalled a defining period in her life 20 years earlier.  

“As a teenage mom, everyone assumed I was going to be on assistance,” said Satcher, 39, standing in a neatly organized room with books, toys, cribs and colorful posters. Her home sits in City West, a village of new townhouses on the site of the now-demolished Laurel Homes projects in the West End. Satcher played in Laurel Homes as a child, having grown up a few blocks away in Mount Auburn. 

“I just wanted better,” she said. “I refused to be a statistic. When people told me ‘No,’ I’d say, ‘Yes, you can.’ I try to instill that in my son and teach my kids, too.” 

Satcher, then 19, had started jobs as dispatcher with the city and a mammogram x-ray clerk at the UC Breast Center when she got a call from her son’s day care provider. 

“They said, ‘You have to come and get your kid,’” she recalled. “He was just bored. He’s not going to watch TV 24 hours a day.” 

Offered enriching activities from the start
Satcher found out what her son liked -- and began giving him writing and reading materials related to those areas. She launched a career as a child care provider with a focus on early childhood development. 

She regularly incorporates enriching activities into her work as a Type B child care provider for Hamilton County Child Care, a division of the Hamilton County Department of Job and Family Services. Type B Child Care homes provide care to families eligible for the state subsidized program. They care for up to six children in the provider’s personal residence.  

The only TV programs that Satcher’s kids watch are PBS shows. Then, they do a lesson based on the programs. 

“People say, ‘Oh, you’re not like the other homes. They were babysitters. You’re not,’” Satcher said. “I tell the moms that we have to work together to help the kids grow.” 

Katie Walker, home provider specialist at the Hamilton County Department of Job and Family Services, described Satcher as “extremely thoughtful and caring, not only with her day care placements and consumers, but also with the staff in our agency and individuals she encounters out in public.” 

“Ms. Satcher promotes the educational and social development of her placements by teaching or enhancing their reading and writing skills, and offering stimulating and enriching activities,” Walker said. “She keeps her home neat and clean, and has an entire extra room dedicated to her day care.  She has a bubbly and warm personality, and is more than willing to help out anyone in need.” 

Works closely with parents
Satcher regularly sends home exercises to help promote early childhood development.
She does a newsletter and posts notes for parents telling how their children’s days went. A poster gives the day’s menu, lesson plan and other updates. 

“I want to be more like a center, but I want to be like a home, too, so they feel secure,” she said. 

On this late December morning, twins Chenia and Cheynne and brother Ahkeem wrote “kind-of like New Year’s resolutions, what they would like to see differently,” Satcher said, before answering a question about the spelling of a word. Seated at the kid-sized table, the siblings attentively wrote five or six lines and drew pictures with markers to illustrate their thoughts.  

Chenia finished first: “1. I want to see my cousin. 2. I want my whole family to come over and cook something. 3. I will try out for dancing. 4. I hope I get better grades. 5. I will try out for hip hop dancing. 6. I will try out for ballet.” A three-story house with trees on each side decorated the paper. 

Satcher commented about the drawing: “I’ve never seen a black house with a red roof and a blue door, so that’s good.” Chenia beamed a smile and listened intently as Satcher urged her to replace the word “hope” with “will do.” 

She turned her attention to Ahkeem. “You’re missing something,” she said. The youngster replied: “an A.” “You’re rushing,” she said. 

After gluing their creations on colored construction paper, each child took a turn getting photographed while holding and reading their statements. Satcher also recorded video clips for parents to see.

“I will take their picture with this and put it in a portfolio for their mom,” Satcher said. “The idea behind this project is to get them thinking about the new year and trying to be positive. If they’ve got good things to think about, it seems like the days go better for them.”

Professional development never ends
Satcher has been taking child development classes at Pratt Educational Services in Forest Park in preparation for her Child Development Accreditation. She plans to become a Type A care provider, who can watch seven to 12 children, and a teaching assistant at Cincinnati Public Schools.  

In addition to watching the sibling set during the holiday break and summer, Satcher cares for a set of 8-month-old twins and their 4-year-old sister, 11:30 p.m.-7:30 a.m. weekdays and 10:30 p.m.-3 p.m. weekends. “They don’t cry,” Satcher said about the tiny twins. “They like to play patty cake with each other. It’s like they speak their own language.” 

A family with three youngsters was expected to return soon. The mother’s eligibility for subsidized child care had ended Dec. 1. She was awaiting paperwork from an employer while reapplying for vouchers. 

Satcher gets referrals word-of-mouth and through a list of providers marketed by Hamilton County Child Care. She has formed a tight network with other county providers. 

 “When I’m full I refer to ones I know and I’ve heard good things about,” she said. “When I’m not full, which is rare, they refer to me.” 

Job provides great satisfaction
Satcher enjoys interacting with parents and gets excited hearing from young adults who she cared for as children. A father recently called saying that his daughter has been studying bio-science at Yale University and wanted her mailing address.

 “She always said she wanted to be a doctor,” Satcher said. “You never know who you might impact.” 

Maybe someone like 11-year-old Ahkeem, who proudly looked at the camera and stated: “I want to perform in school musicals. I want to set more goals in life. I want to do more solos. I want to try out for baseball again and bring my B’s up to A’s.”