Banking on KC – Kelly Raines of Birdsall House
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Kelly Scanlon:
Welcome to Banking on KC. I'm your host, Kelly Scanlon. Thank you for joining us. With us on this episode is Kelly Raines, the co-founder and CEO of Birdsall House Early Childhood Discovery Center. Welcome, Kelly.
Kelly Raines:
Thank you for having me on.
Kelly Scanlon:
Birdsall House is a very unique kind of childhood center. What sets it apart from other providers of early childhood education?
Kelly Raines:
Well, many things, but first off it is we have a very low teacher-to-child ratio, and one of the reasons we do this is because we have mixed age groups from infants through, they'll interact with our school-age kids when they're there on days that they aren't school. So to keep everyone safe, we have a lower teacher's child ratio. We're also completely play-based. The learning comes from where the children guide it, so we don't have any set plans for the letter of the week or things like that. It's all-natural, comes out more organically. We have a large green space, so our kids get to go out and play in the dirt and the mud every day and weather permitting, we will spend our entire morning and our entire afternoon just coming inside for lunch and nap times. So it's a very unique thing to have in Midtown Kansas City.
Kelly Scanlon:
When you talk about organic learning, when you talk about there's no set schedule, so each child could be doing something different.
Kelly Raines:
Yes. In fact, when I walked through the center to come here today in one room there was a staff member reading to a child, and then sitting in another chair was a two-year-old reading a book. Then there were kids building blocks in the main room, and then in another room the older kids had closed it off so that they could do art with small things. They liked to do 3D art. So there were different things happening in each of the small rooms of the center.
Kelly Scanlon:
You founded Birdsall House along with some other families. Tell us about your journey towards deciding to launch Birdsall and then finally opening your doors, and then finally more recently evolving into a group home.
Kelly Raines:
Well, it all started back in 2014. I was working at a center. I had an infant classroom, and one of the things that they would tell the parents was that their child would stay with me for three years. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Now, in the first three years is when the majority of brain development happens, and what you really need to make the most of that time is to have a stable relationship, someone, a caregiver that they know and that they trust. So there were a couple of families in particular that were very upset about that.
They were mothers who had come into nurse, so I had spoke, we'd had lots of casual conversations in the classroom. They came to me and like, "Ms. Kelly, please, we know you've thought about this. How can we help you?" And having been an early childhood educator, I did not have a lot of money, so I knew the only way I could do it was to start it in home center, and these families went so far as to look at houses with me to offer to prepay tuition. Fortunately, I was able to get a micro loan to start up with. We started in March of 2015, and we soon filled up with word of mouth or those parents having a second or third child.
Kelly Scanlon:
So lots of referrals.
Kelly Raines:
Lots of referrals. Yes. We didn't have to advertise at all, and we soon found ourselves full and with a long waitlist. So we took the necessary steps to grow into a group home, which in Missouri means a family childcare that cares for 10 to 20 children and we're licensed for 16.
Kelly Scanlon:
We talked a little bit about the organic learning that the children at your center do and just doing what they're interested in even at the moment, and you actually follow some particular philosophies in terms of, I hesitate to even say curriculum building, but I'm sure there's a bit of that that goes on. So talk to me about the philosophy that guides the center.
Kelly Raines:
It mainly started with the wisdom of my grandmother, Birdsall. Grandma Birdsall, when I had my kids used to say, "Let them get dirty, let them play in the mud. They're happy that way." And when I started my degree work, which wasn't until I was in my mid-thirties, I found out that theorists agreed with my Grandma Birdsall. Some of my favorite ones said that play is essential and messy play was the best. So we pull from those theorists and also the Reggio Emilio approach and the teachings of Magda Gerber that view the child as a whole person from day one, able to communicate their needs and to lead and guide their learning. We just follow their lead and add the things they need. We've pulled from all of those philosophies to create our Birdsall House philosophy. Reggio Emilio does a lot of projects and our projects are more like our children will write books every year.
They write a play that they perform at the end of the summer, and this will have kids from... Our oldest graduate is now 10, and then some of our two-year-olds will want to be in it. The first year, our plays were like two minutes long. The last one was about five minutes. They do a lot of their own building of things. We recently had a family touring, and the dad was just so impressed because a group of kids is ranging from two to five, decided to build a bridge. We have kind of like a junkyard playground in that we have a lot of odds and ends and big loose parts for them to build and create with. We follow their lead if they're building a bridge and they get to a point where they're stuck and we let them struggle for a bit, and then we're like, "Okay, how can we help you?"
Kelly Scanlon:
But you're still guiding. You're not telling.
Kelly Raines:
Yes, we're not telling. We're asking them how we can help them achieve what they want to do instead of saying, "Okay, well, here's what you need to do now," we let them do that.
Kelly Scanlon:
Talk to me a little bit more about your hours, your location, and things like that.
Kelly Raines:
Well, we are currently open from 7:30 to 6:00. Those are the hours that our current families need us. We adjust to meet the needs of our families, and we're located in Midtown Kansas City, 31st and Harrison. We have, like I said, a double lot with a big green space out back. When we got there, the puppet theater was on the corner, Paul Mesner. They have moved, but we used to walk all of the kids up the street to the puppet theaters. We miss them being at the corner.
Kelly Scanlon:
You referenced earlier that someone had graduated from your program. What are the ages that you accept?
Kelly Raines:
Well, we accept children and we're licensed for kids six weeks to 12 years. Our kids graduate when they go to kindergarten, but then they come back to us for the summers and the school holidays. So our graduates are still involved in the center.
Kelly Scanlon:
What have you seen in terms of impact on children's development and learning as a result of this approach?
Kelly Raines:
Well, it has been really amazing. We've had seven kids graduate the program and go on to elementary school, and they are all thriving in their class. In fact, one of them would tell you that the only kid smarter in their class is a girl who went to a forest school.
Kelly Scanlon:
A forest school?
Kelly Raines:
A forest school.
Kelly Scanlon:
I've never heard of such a thing.
Kelly Raines:
It is a complete outdoor school that is run in a forest and they spend their whole days just exploring and playing. So we have had great results with that. We have found that our kids pick up on their colors, their shapes through natural like, "Oh, you have the blue truck," and talking about their everyday play and interactions. We have a unique no help philosophy when it comes to physical development. Like if the one-year-old wants to get on the swing, they've watched the big kids, they have to figure it out themselves. We will give them verbal instructions, but we're not going to pick them up and put them on the swing. And when they finally do get on that swing, the look of pride on their face makes all of that frustration worthwhile. So it really helps to build confidence in their abilities to do things.
Kelly Scanlon:
You've talked about your grandmother and all of us have grandmothers who provide sage advice or that we think about throughout our lives, but we don't necessarily go into careers related to that advice. So what drew you to this kind of work? And the second part of the question is why do you think it's important to be the advocate that you are for early childhood education?
Kelly Raines:
Well, what drew me to the work is what draws a lot of people. I needed a job and I needed childcare, and I could find nowhere. This was way back. My oldest son is 40 now, and he was like four. So about 36 years ago, there was a center that I started working at so that I could have my kids with me during the days.
Kelly Scanlon:
And a lot of women start businesses because of the childcare issue so that they can bring them to work with them.
Kelly Raines:
Right. In March of 2020 when the world was starting to turn upside down, I attended a conference on the young years and I attended a session put on by Kids Win Missouri and Craig Stevenson talked about advocacy. Prior to that, when I had worked at centers, I had always felt I could only control what happened in my classroom. When I opened Birdsall House, I thought I could control what happened there. But through listening to Craig Stevenson, and then last year I was awarded a fellowship through Kids Win Missouri about advocacy, and that really gave me the tools and the confidence to now I have no qualms in picking up the phone and calling my representative and saying, "This is what the new proposed laws will do to family childcare," and it is really important right now because there is a nationwide childcare crisis, and as a lot of the people look at fixing this, I think that they see centers, they don't see family.
They don't think of family childcare. In fact, I was recently speaking with someone who said, "Kelly, if you're not in the room, nobody talks about family childcare." And family childcare is an essential part of our whole system. It's ideal for birth to three because of the smaller setting, but I believe that parents need a choice. And right now parents are finding whatever spot they can get. They're putting their kids on numerous wait lists, and then the first one who calls, they take that spot. But parents should have a choice of what kind of... If they want their child to go to an academic center, a larger center, a smaller, a play-based like ours. If they want Montessori, they should have these options and they don't know, and that's why it's really important to advocate.
Kelly Scanlon:
So what's the solution? As you say, the need for childcare right now is outweighing what's available. I personally know many people who are in the situation where they're on the wait list that you described, and they have jobs to go to and other responsibilities. So they do, they take perhaps the first one that becomes available before they even get on the list, hopefully they have vetted, but what is the solution?
Kelly Raines:
I personally believe there needs to be investment in early childhood. Investing in those first three years especially, we get payback exponentially in fewer needed special services for the kids. Even as far as into juvenile delinquency, this all drops down when we have that quality early care. The current system we have only works on the backbones of the teachers. I speak with teachers all the time who are working 10 hours a day with two five minute breaks. You don't get overtime because it is the kind of company that they'll work that around and you need to maintain those ratios. So childcare is a business where the workers can be exploited more. So the current system, in order to pay your staff a wage that they can live on and not need government assistance to give them benefits and paid days off, creates too high of a tuition for parents unless we increase ratios, which then makes quality less. So there's going to need to be, in order to make a system that benefits everyone, both the families and the providers and the children, there's got to be some investment. It's just not a sustainable system.
Kelly Scanlon:
When you're talking about investments, you're talking about a foundation for the children themselves that works for them and serves them well throughout school and teaches them the skills that they will need to be successful starting at that very young age of zero to three. You're also talking about building a foundation in terms of a wage base and a work structure where you have benefits, where you have vacation, where you have paid breaks, so that perhaps more people would even want to come into the profession. And you don't have necessarily teachers that can't take a five-minute break to grab a sandwich or run to the restroom.
Kelly Raines:
Right. Because so many centers are understaffed right now. They're closing classrooms because they can't get enough people, and you can understand it. You can sometimes make more money at McDonald's than what you can make in early childhood settings.
Kelly Scanlon:
So for many of the workers, would you say that they just have this love to do this kind of work?
Kelly Raines:
Yeah. I think that's why most people who stay in it just love the kids and want to help the families, but it's unfair that they have to sacrifice their own needs sometimes to care for the children.
Kelly Scanlon:
How is your work at Birdsall House supported?
Kelly Raines:
Well, we are a nonprofit, so I have a very supportive board that helps us. We get support through community networks created by family childcare. There's a network for those through the Family Conservancy and Child Care where of Missouri have groups that you can turn to for help and support. No, financially we're supported through tuition, through grants, and through the generosity of people who share our vision for childcare.
Kelly Scanlon:
What's your vision for Birdsall's future?
Kelly Raines:
My vision is to see Birdsall Houses scattered throughout the Kansas City area. We're in Midtown right now, and I would love to see us move through the East Side. Birdsall House creates a community that lots of people don't have anymore. They don't live near their families. We don't have the small community schools, the neighborhood schools that we used to have. So small centers like Birdsall House allow families to connect and to have a support group for each other. We'll have parents talk about how they love seeing hand-me-down clothes. Sometimes the ones that they loved, but their kids refuse to wear on younger Birdsall House kids. When someone has a birthday party, it's like a Birdsall House reunion. So I would love to see us be able to put these small community hubs in other neighborhoods around Kansas City.
Kelly Scanlon:
So are there others operating throughout the country that are similar to the model that Birdsall uses?
Kelly Raines:
There are. They tend to be more on the coasts with the complete play-based, and we also, I haven't mentioned this, have an edible yard. We grow mulberries, raspberries, peaches, cherries, mint, everything in the yard, the kids can pick and eat. There's sorrel that grows naturally in the clover flour, so the kids kind of can snack all day long in the backyard, but there's not a lot of that here in Kansas City, and a lot of them in other areas are more like cooperatives.
Kelly Scanlon:
What do you mean by that?
Kelly Raines:
Where the parents work, volunteer at the centers, but a lot of the families around here, that's a luxury that they're not... They have to be at work all day long, so that's not feasible in the communities that we have right here in Kansas City.
Kelly Scanlon:
With all that you've said, and with all of your experience that you have in early childhood education, what does the ideal ECE system look like to you?
Kelly Raines:
It looks like one, again, where there's options for the parents. Now, I, of course, believe the sorrel House's philosophy is the best way with the small groups, with the child led. But parents, there are others who really want that academic focus. So there should be, again, options for parents and just a lot of early childhood centers so that the parents don't have to just go with whatever.
Kelly Scanlon:
If someone wanted to get in touch with you to learn more about sorrel or about the philosophy behind the activities at Birdsall or would want to get involved as a donor or as a volunteer in some way, what is the best way to do that?
Kelly Raines:
The best way would be to email me at birdsallhousekr@gmail.com. We would love volunteers. We're looking for board members all the time, so if anyone is looking for a board position, we would love to hear from them and anyone who would like to learn more could just shoot me an email. And we also have our website, birdsallhouse.org, and that's spelled B-I-R-D-S-A-L-L and House, H-O-U-S-E.
Kelly Scanlon:
.org. Kelly, thank you so much for spending your time today to talk with us about this wonderful resource right here in Kansas City. Thank you for what you're doing for the children and for their families, and ultimately for the community. We really appreciate it.
Kelly Raines:
Well, thank you for giving me the opportunity. It has been fun.
Joe Close:
This is Joe Close, president of Country Club Bank. Thank you to Kelly Raines for being our guest on this episode of Banking on KC. At a time when lack of access to childcare is impacting families and even the economy, Birdsall House is offering an alternative that respects the caregivers, the families, and the children. Kelly believes caregivers should be paid living wages, families should have flexible and affordable care options and children's days should be filled with play and exploration. As Kelly says, when explaining her formal advocacy efforts for early childhood education, we receive exponential payback when we invest in children, especially in the first few years of their lives. It's one of the best investments any community can make in its future. Thanks for tuning in this week. We're banking on you Kansas City Country Club Bank, member FDIC.