Around small tables and colorful magnifying glasses, Lori Legger six teaches young children about living and nonliving things.
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Trump sale ilesoChildren at The Sky’s The Limit Family Childcare inspect items to determine if they are alive or dead on Wednesday, April 22, 2026, in Fowlerville, Mich. Leggert’s child-care center runs much like a traditional school: the students say the Pledge of Allegiance, and there are plenty of books available. But other aspects are different: There are hens and roosters outside, and Leggert’s youngest student is 18 months old.
Leggert is the owner and teacher of The Sky’s the Limit Family Childcare. Her business is participating in the state of Michigan’sto test no-cost pre-K in home-based child care settings. Two of her children are participating, with one parent estimating she will save $2,600 this spring and summer.allows any 4-year-old to attend a no-cost pre-K. But until this pilot program, home care providers were not eligible to participate.
In total, the pilot program will support up to 75 to 80 children aged 3 or 4 to attend preschool, according to the Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential.t and will run over the spring and summer with the potential to continue this coming school year, MiLEAP said. Participants can receive funds for coaching, curriculum, materials and assessments.
There were 3,344 group homes or family child care sites across the state in Fiscal Year 2024, according to a Deb Dupras, executive director of Community Coordinated Child Care Association of the Upper Peninsula, said it’s important that home providers are part of the conversion. Her group, known as 4C of the UP, connects parents to child care options and trains early child care workers.
She said she hopes that at the end of the pilot program, students in the home settings perform at least as well on assessments as students taking pre-K in a child care center or school. Joan Blough, vice president at the Early Childhood Investment Corporation, a group that supports hubs of home providers, said it’s important to give families choice and options for their pre-K.Michigan families can choose to enroll their 4-year-olds in free pre-K through the Great Start Readiness Program.
Until recently, it was only free for students from low-income families but now is available to any student as part of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s “pre-K for all” effort. Michigan’s pre-K effort is ranked 17th in the country for access to 4-year-olds, according to new research from theallows current paraprofessionals a chance to get a college degree and teaching certificate so they can lead early childhood classrooms.
Leggert does not have a college degree but has a child development associate credential and says she attends more than 20 hours a year of training. She said sometimes people think of home providers as babysitters, when they are “edu carers”In Fowlerville, parent Taylor Provost’s 4-year-old son attends Leggert’s program. Her older son attended a Great Start Readiness Program at a public school when he was younger.
“All that free stuff, it sounds great, right,” Provost said. “But then when you think about quality child care, and you’re just comfortable, too, with where your kids are at, you kind of make that decision of ’OK we’re going to just keep him there even if we have to pay. ” Now that she can keep him at Leggert’s home and have a no-cost, it’s a “no brainer,” said Provost, who estimates she is saving $2,600.
Advocates say giving families choice and the option to keep their preschooler with siblings is good for families and the state. Home providers can offer more flexible hours too. Katie Sloan, an assistant professor at Oakland University, said it’s smart to include home providers in the state’s pre-K efforts, especially as the state makes other changes to make pre-K for all a reality.
The state now allows“For some children, they benefit from being in a home-based setting where they’re not in a crowd of children and might have a lower ratio,” said Sloan. At Leggert’s home, the younger children are allowed to step away from lessons as the older children learn. Later, the children play with plastic tubes to make sounds and race wooden trucks on the floor. Soon, it will be snack time and later naptime.
For Leggert, getting to focus on children’s interests and building strong relationships with families is part of what makes the job interesting.
“We are doing exactly what the school systems are. We’re teaching the young kids…They’re getting their education 0 to 5, and I’m excited to be part of that. ”
Taylor Provost Child Care General News Domestic News MI State Wire Children U.S. News Gretchen Whitmer Lori Leggert Schools School Curricula Business Deb Dupras Politics Lori Legger Joan Blough Government Programs Education U.S. News
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