Daycare Provider Sparks Imaginations

In the middle of Nancy Gerber’s Spokane Valley lawn, children are building forts out of boxes, curtains and shower rods.

In a large sandbox, one little girl has buried a friend up to her waist.

And next to a bush, two little blond girls have built a make-believe pirate ship out of plastic chairs and a handful of colorful streamers.

That’s the whole idea, says Gerber, an at-home child-care provider for more than 20 years. She provides the space, tools and support for children to let their imaginations run wild.

“I think kids need places to hide and have mysteries and adventures in,” says Gerber, a cheerful woman who sports a Donald Duck pin on her short-sleeved shirt.

Tucked into chairs beside their pirate ship bush, two little girls say they’ve been looting and plundering all day. One pulls out a pot - one of her treasures - and opens the top, revealing a pile of rocks. She begins to stir the rocks with a ladel, liberally adding handfulls of grass which she yanks from the lawn.

“They’re chocolate rocks,” the girl says. “Eat one.”

“We’re just pretending,” the other girl shyly adds.

Gerber, 46, cares for a dozen children, aged 2 to 9, in her home. More than half her charges suffer from a disability of some sort, ranging from Down’s syndrome to fetal alcohol syndrome.

But, says Gerber, “I think all kids have special needs.”

Gerber and her family remodeled the garage next to their spacious blue house at the corner of Felts and Appleway into a child-care center.

In one corner, streamers hang from individual plastic rings to be waved in the air when children dance. A cushy child-sized sofa invites the youngsters to stretch out and flip through a variety of books.

A “tornado bottle” made from two plastic soda bottles, filled with blue water and attached at the tops, stands on a table. When children shake it and turn it upside down, the blue water flows from one bottle to the other, resembling a tornado.

In 20 years of child care, Gerber has picked up creative tips on how to interest and intrigue a child from the numerous conferences and workshops she’s attended.

“You do what you can with garage sales,” she says with a smile.

Many of the ideas are designed around the children themselves. Once, Gerber cared for a 2-year-old girl with cerebral palsy. Because of her affliction, the girl never had a chance to pick out a book during reading hour. So Gerber fashioned small squares that Velcroed to a piece of cloth on a chalk board. She’d put up the squares and the girl could point to one.

“This was some power for her,” Gerber said of the girl.

The daycare center has been unofficially dubbed “Little House.” Outside, a tetherball hangs from a pole beneath towering pine tress. Chickens, roosters and a rabbit run around inside a pen in one corner of the lawn. Children hang from parallel bars and swoop down a slide.

And plenty of other Gerbers are around to help out. Niece Heather Loran is on hand during the summer, as is Gerber’s mother, Ruth Loran. And, says Gerber, her husband, Vince, “reads a mean ‘Three Little Pigs.”

“For me, this feels like the best place for kids,” Gerber said. “It’s small enough that it feels like family, but kid-sized with plenty of activity.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo