Tyler Hore:
The Accidental Educator
He didn’t plan on working in child care. Seven years later, there’s no doubt: this is his place.
Tyler Hore
Tyler Hore didn’t have a plan for after high school. He stayed for a victory lap and landed a six-month co-op placement in a kindergarten classroom. Something clicked in that room: he’d found his passion. When the placement ended, he wanted more. He applied to the child care centre down the hall, got the job, and never looked back. He started out in Mindemoya, and when he moved to the centre in Little Current, he knew he’d found home.
I was able to be weird and just have fun, but also work. I knew this is where I wanted to be. This is my home. I'm going to be here, and I don't see myself leaving any time soon. This is my place.
- Tyler Hore
A big part of what keeps him there is how much he has in common with the kids. At 26, he still collects toys: Lego, Pokémon, and Barbie and Monster High dolls, which he used to keep to himself. Child care changed that. Now he brings his collection in to share, and the kids light up when they realize the grown-up in the room loves the same things they do. Kids are naturally silly, and being around them gave him permission to dance weird, sing loud, and not care who’s watching.
I've always loved Barbie and Monster High and dolls, but I was always like, I can't like that. Working in child care taught me: you know what? I like Barbies. Here's my Barbies, kids.
- Tyler Hore
His own family still teases that he sits around watching kids play all day. The reality is he’s constantly observing, learning how each child learns, and building on it. Some of the school-age kids in his care today are ones he’s known since they were crawling on the floor, and now they’re running the group.
We're observing how they're playing. We're learning from their play, and how we can build their learning through their interests — what we can do to build activities to help them grow as a human being.
- Tyler Hore
The moment he’s proudest of came years ago in Mindemoya. He was brought into a group to help a boy everyone had labelled the problem child. Tyler didn’t walk in with any of those assumptions. He watched what the boy was interested in, built activities around it, and met him at his level. By the time they went their separate ways, the other kids were the ones asking to play with him.
I went in thinking: okay, he's a kid, he needs support. How can I support him? I wanted him to feel a part of the group, not an outcast. It was about seeing the whole child, and not defining him by those moments. He was still a kid. He was still learning. It was one of my proudest times as an educator, seeing the change in him and knowing I was able to help.
- Tyler Hore
Tyler is now a child care supervisor in Little Current. He’s learning to be a mentor to former co-workers who are also his friends. His goal is to keep pushing his team and himself, and never let the days get too comfortable. He’s also constantly trying to recruit friends into the field.
They're like, 'I don't know if I'd like working with children.' You don't know until you try. I never thought I'd be in child care, and here I am, and I'm loving it.
- Tyler Hore
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