Busy Bees Home Daycare | Ottawa Home Daycare | Orleans Home Daycare

About Busy Bees

Dear Parents;
My name is Tonia Arkett and I am the proud mother of a one year old son named Kieran. I feel my greatest accomplishment to date is having raised a remarkable child. He is healthy, smart, ridiculously happy, curious, and gentle and loves people. Kieran and I would love to share our home and spend our days with other small children.

My childhood was spent in Ancaster, Ontario. I then lived in the Welland/ St. Catherines area during school, Toronto for four years and currently live in Orleans. Since I can remember I have always loved children. At the age of 13 I took the babysitting training course and spent the rest of my teenage years as a successful and busy babysitter. Things came full circle when at age 20 I worked at the Ancaster Information Centre and Community Services, where one of my duties included teaching the same babysitting training course I received to 12 -14 year olds. After three years of school where I studied television and film production, I began my career in the TV/ film industry which lasted 6 years. Although it would seem impossible to find a correlation to the childcare business, I was able to work on projects that related to children. A highlight occurred in 1999 when I worked on the feature film, "Thomas and the Magic Railroad". A lot of the work I did was based on research of child psychology and child based test marketing. I also produced and directed a series of anti-bullying videos in partnership with the Ottawa 67's, which was distributed throughout all the Ottawa regions' school boards. Throughout the production of these videos I collaborated with three leading Canadian child psychologists, teachers and the St. Lukes (Barrhaven) grade one class.

In 2005, after I discovered I was pregnant, I left the television business to pursue an education and experience in childcare, as I knew I would one day have my own home daycare. I truly believe that the most rewarding and meaningful work I could do would be to raise my children myself and at the same time educating and enriching other small minds. I took night classes at Algonquin College in the Early Childhood Education department, excelling in all of my studies and receiving A's in each class. During the day I worked at the Ottawa Athletic Club (OAC) playcare where I interacted with children of various ages. This was a great hands-on experience and I sadly had to leave when my son was born. I intend to finish my studies in the early childhood education field and receive my diploma. I have also joined the Child Care Providers Resource Network and continue to take their many wonderful training workshops. I am continuously educating myself and also building my portfolio by attending workshops through the Ottawa Early Years Centers.

I feel very blessed to have the opportunity to run my own home daycare. My husband is a loving and wonderful person who has encouraged me to follow my heart and do what makes me happy. I hope I can share my enthusiasm and love with your family.