Who We Are
Hello there
We are a collective of educators, parents, children and extended community members who are passionate about the shared responsibility of raising kind, resilient, creative and confident children who know the importance of staying connected to their heart, their unique aspirations and the community that holds them.
We believe in truly child-centred care, grounded in genuine relationships and authentic experiences. We are Just Like Home.
Proudly, we are a locally-owned and operated family business. That means, when you join Just Like Home, either as a family or an educator, you are lifting up and supporting our shared community.
My Story
Just Like Home Childcare was established in 2020 with a vision close to my heart: to create something outside of the corporate childcare world, rooted instead in community. I wanted women in our region to have meaningful, rewarding work that supported their work, life, and family balance. And I wanted children to be cared for in the place that is best for them — a home.
My background in health, social services, and education showed me how vital it is to care for the whole child — not just their learning, but their wellbeing, their sense of belonging, and their joy. I dreamed of a service that would honour childhood as the sacred time it is: a time for play, imagination, connection, and wonder, all nurtured in the warmth of a home environment.
That dream became Just Like Home. Our educators, each with their own unique gifts, share a commitment to creating peaceful, trusting spaces where children feel safe and seen. With only four children to one educator, every child has the freedom to lead their own day — to explore, create, and grow at their own pace, in a place that feels familiar and secure.
The care families receive with us reflects the love and nurturing of parents, held within the safe embrace of our educators and our wider community. No matter which educator or programme you join, children are offered daily opportunities to connect with nature, engage with their local community, experience real-world learning, and deepen their friendships.
At its heart, Just Like Home is about more than childcare. It’s about supporting women to thrive in meaningful work that balances family and livelihood, and ensuring children across Otago and Southland are raised in environments that honour the truth we hold dear: home is best.
“Cherishing childhood, empowering women, strengthening community.”
Our Philosophy
Just Like Home is grounded in the whenua we live and work on, Lake Wānaka, the Hāwea and Cardrona valleys, the mountains that shape our seasons, and the small, connected communities of Wānaka, Hāwea, Queenstown and wider Otago and Southland. This is not a backdrop to our programme; it is our programme. Our educators take tamariki to the lake edge, into the forest, onto local tracks, and into the rhythm of community life, the library, Mini Muscles, Playgroup, the people who know their names. Nothing flashy. Just real, and ours.
For our youngest tamariki — nurturing natural rhythms
Our approach for infants and toddlers is grounded directly in the Pikler philosophy, brought to us through an educator trained at the Pikler Institute in Budapest, the source of this pedagogy itself. In calm, unhurried, home-based environments, tamariki move at their own pace, uninterrupted, trusted to explore freely from the ground up. This isn't a borrowed label; it's a lineage we carry with care into the everyday rhythm of homes across Wānaka, Hāwea, Queenstown and Otago.
For tamariki aged 3–5 — exploration through nature and play
Older tamariki are trusted with real risk, real weather, and real places, muddy tracks, cold lake water, steep hills, and the small triumphs of getting there under their own steam. Child-led play and time outdoors build the problem-solving, resilience, and independence that no indoor programme can replicate.
What holds it together
Small group, home-based ratios mean tamariki are truly known, by name, by whānau, by story. Our educators are part of the same community as the families they serve; this isn't a service delivered to Wānaka, Queenstown, Otago and Southland, it's woven through it. Grounded in Te Whāriki and honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi, we see tamariki as capable, connected citizens now, not simply people they are becoming.
Just as a tōtara grows slowly, shaped by wind and season, tamariki flourish when given time, trust, and a real place to belong. That place, for us, is here.