Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 6, 1992 TAG: 9202060245
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: M.J. DOUGHERTY CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: FLOYD LENGTH: Long
IT'S AN ADVENTURE
Although it was 4 p.m., three children ran around the cafeteria tables at Floyd Elementary School. Two other children and an adult were playing "Dog," a game the children invented in which one pretends to be a dog and the others feed him.Meanwhile, at Indian Valley Elementary, about half a dozen children played kickball in the gymnasium. A similar number studied or worked on arts and crafts projects in the library.
These elementary school pupils - actually their parents - are taking advantage of Floyd County's answer to the "latch-key" child: The Adventure Club.
Two of the county's elementary schools began doubling as child-care centers last fall. Child Care Consultant Services of Christiansburg operates the state-licensed facilities, providing a supervised place for children from 6 a.m. until school starts and again after school until 6 p.m.
On days school is not held because of teacher workdays or bad weather, the child-care facilities are open 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The cost for child care is about the same as for other providers in the area: $26 for one child for one week of before- and after-school care, with discounts for more than one child from the same family.
But the setting is unlike that of any other center in the New River Valley, the schools themselves. And that has been one of the hardest things for the children to get used to: the difference between school and The Adventure Club.
In The Adventure Club, the child-care activities are much more recreational and less structured than what happens in a typical school day.
"We let the children be children," said Donna Thornton, president of Child Care Consultant Services. "During school, they have to be in their desks and follow all [school] rules. In The Adventure Club, we had to help the children understand that you can run after school but not during school hours. We had to do a lot of work on that."
While this situation initially confused the children, it has made life easier for many parents.
"I see benefits in it. She gets to be with children her own age," said Casey Clinger, who sometimes drops his daughter Nova off at The Adventure Club. "It's a lot better for her to be here than to be at home watching television."
"This is wonderful; he hates to leave," Diane Plaisted said of her son Ryan, a regular at Floyd Elementary. "It works out good for me to have a place for him to go after school."
And like their parents, the children seem to like the in-school after-school setting as well.
"I like the cafeteria tables," said Nova Clinger, a first-grader at Floyd Elementary. "We get to go behind them."
Ryan Plaisted, another first-grader, quickly chimed in, "Me, I like the toys."
Those toys include everything a child could wish to play with: Tinkertoys, Lincoln Logs, Legos, building blocks, jump ropes, board games and video games.
Although the children at the Floyd Elementary Adventure Club tend to be just starting school, Indian Valley Elementary has many older pupils and provides them a "fun" environment as well.
"Most of the time we get to do the things we want," said Meggan Buskirk, a fifth-grader at Indian Valley. "And even if we don't do something we want, it's pretty fun."
Sixth-grader Jack Akers added, "We play a lot of games and the games are pretty fun. We do a lot of things. We're doing basket weaving and that's pretty fun."
Besides taking care of older children, Indian Valley cares for more children overall than Floyd Elementary.
There are 21 children on the roll there, and on any given day between 10 and 15 will be at The Adventure Club. At Floyd Elementary, there are 15 on the roll and the daily attendance generally ranges from five to eight.
School-based day care is becoming more common in Virginia. Several school systems in eastern Virginia have not-for-profit groups such as the YMCA and the local recreation department operating day care at schools. But for-profit operations are rare. And so is using school facilities to provide such a service in Southwest Virginia.
"It's been a cooperative effort," said Thornton. "A lot of people really worked together to come up with a service needed without costing the county taxpayers any money."
Thornton hopes to have The Adventure Club in the county's other two elementary schools, Check and Willis, next year as well. She also has received inquiries from other school systems, including Montgomery, Giles and Wythe counties.
Along the way, The Adventure Club has had to invent everything. But it is learning from its lessons of this year.
"I'm thinking I might be training some other school-site [child-care] providers," said Shannon O'Conner, the site director at Indian Valley. "So I wrote down everything we've done here at Indian Valley. That way they can read it. And we will have some way to explain it. It will make it more colorful and clear."
Thornton said she also will encourage greater community involvement in the creation of new school-based centers.
And because children are the schools' main business, this new activity has been a good fit.
That just leaves one problem for those associated with The Adventure Club: keeping up with the children.
"You don't really think about it when you're with them," said Ellen Scott, who works at the Floyd Elementary center. "But when you finally get home and someone wants you to put food on the table for dinner, that's when you're tired."