No more nannies

Leaving children with a babysitter can be a nightmare. From the crying and screaming of the kids to the sitter’s raiding of the refrigerator, a variety of things can go wrong. In comes KidsPark. With locations all over California, KidsPark offers hourly care by trained professionals for children aged 2 to 12. Mother-daughter team Lynnda Breidinger and Dionna Kawaoka have opened a new Chico location, in the Ross shopping center, and aim to provide a fun, colorful, activity-filled environment. Children can do arts and crafts, cook “dinner” in the playhouse, sing karaoke and finally head to the Mountain of Energy, where they can run around to their heart’s content before crashing in the comfy rest room. And parents, KidsPark is open until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, so you can have fun, too. For more information, call 894-6800 or visit www.kidspark.com. Hourly rates are $7.50 for one child, $11 for two and $2 per additional child.

What is it like working with each other?

Lynnda: Dionna was going to go to law school, but she’s always been great with kids. So I approached her and said, “If we do this KidsPark, will you run it? This could be your thing, your niche in Chico.” After graduating [college], she went back to school for child development and early childhood education, and she’s just done a tremendous job. I’m very proud of her.

Dionna: We’ve always gotten along really well. It helps working with family, too, because when I’m stressed I can just come to her and let it all out.

What can children, and their parents, expect from an average visit to KidsPark?

Lynnda: A lot of fun. Aside from the Mountain of Energy, the basketball, the crafts, the Nintendo and all of that, we also have a lot of books that work with the Accelerated Reader program at schools, so kids can read a book and take a test the next day for points. We also do homework help, morning preschool curriculum and birthday parties on Sundays.

Dionna: A big focus is teacher interaction. We schedule for a ratio of one teacher for every six students. This lets us not just supervise and watch them, but we actually get to get on the ground and play with them.

About how many children come in and out each day?

Dionna: Right now I’d say about 15 or 20. That’s slow for us. We’re hoping it will pick up.

Lynnda: Our goal is to have 12 an hour, because the children will have more fun with other children to play with.

Why do you think KidsPark will be successful?

Lynnda: There are a lot of parents that don’t have family in town, and they don’t feel comfortable leaving their children. We’re all licensed, educated, we’ve all been fingerprinted and done background checks. This is just a safe place to bring your child.

Dionna: This is a place where children want to be.

Lynnda: Also, they don’t have to be in a program here, you don’t have to pay whether you take them or not. With this concept, you bring them, and you pay if you bring them. It’s a nice way to ease into that separation for the parent and child. A lot of the time, the parents have a harder time than the child!