Quality for Kids | first5amador

First 5 California IMPACT (Improve and Maximize Programs so All Children Thrive)

is a high quality early care and education program to improve a child's readiness for school and prepares them for success in kindergarten and beyond.

Amador Quality for Kids is for licensed early care and education providers

and is based upon well-defined high quality standards. It offers support and incentives to assist early care providers in reaching higher levels of quality.

If you are a licensed family child care provider or a preschool center staff/director in Amador County it's easy to sign up!

Give us a call at First 5 Amador to get started , (209) 257-1092.

To learn more about this statewide initiative, visit Quality Counts California.

Provider Profile

Alyshia Drake of ‘Grow From the STEM’ large family child care home in Sutter Creek is in her second year participating in the Amador Quality for Kids program.

As a youth Alyshia traveled the world,

attending college and teaching

English as a second language to

adults and children in Europe and

Asia. After a decade abroad Alyshia

returned to her family home in

Amador county to be nearer to

family. Alyshia worked in several

interesting positions but was never

really satisfied with her career path.

At the late age of forty-one Alyshia

and her husband, Ryan welcomed

their son Roman into their lives. As

always with moms, it was love at first sight. Roman was a sweet tempered, smiley baby who stole everyone’s hearts. After maternity leave Alyshia realized the one thing she had been destined to do was be a parent. She felt she may not have time to parent a dozen kids, but she could do the next best thing: she could provide excellent care and be the best possible emergency back up mom to other people’s kids.

Now in her fifth year as a daycare provider, Alyshia’s facility has begun to grow and is preparing to grow yet again. She and her staff member, Lilliann Salmassi, are not only participating in the Amador Quality for Kids program, but working on degrees in Early Childhood Education.

In all the years of providing care Alyshia has always kept in mind her first love: caring for infants. For her next big growth spurt Alyshia hopes to open a small center which will have special focus on providing much needed infant, toddler and preschool care to our local community.

”The Amador Quality for Kids program is awesome,” Alyshia says. “We’ve both learned a ton through the training seminars and we love having Miss Tassie come and read with us once a month. It’s a GREAT feature for us, too. Parents love to know we’re getting the training we need, and love the idea of someone from First 5 having eyes on our crazy scene once a month. We’ve also learned a ton about curriculum for our preschool and toddler crowd. Our kids have done several learning programs we would never have thought to provide if we hadn’t participated in the program.” Alyshia has also earned stipends through Amador Quality for Kids, and will be teaching a “Math is Fun, Fun is Math!” workshop for First 5 Amador, on January 30, 2020.