Has This Happened to you?

I was speaking with a childcare owner the other day. She was feeling quite discouraged. We had worked together just this past Spring on improving her Toddler room and the outcome was very impressive! Little by little, with the trust and eagerness of the educators, their consistent follow through of new routines, appropriate child guidance and effective engagement, and with the owner’s consistent supervision and guidance of the staff, it really paid off!

Children were calm and content as their day unfolded and even transitions were seamless. And guess what? Staff were happier and more relaxed! It was a room transformed and children were engaged and focused (well, as focused as toddlers are able of course!).

Unlike previously when these same toddlers roamed the room aimlessly grabbing the odd toy or materials while looking for something more interesting to hold their attention. Sound familiar?

“After all that hard work” the owner said, “and we are almost back to where we started!”

Was this because the educators did not remain consistent? Or because there were new children in the room? No. Sadly, it was because both staff moved on to other centres.

Everyone knows how difficult staff turnover is.. for the children, for families, for the rest of the educators, owners/directors - everyone is significantly impacted.

From my experience, educators typically do not move to another centre because of more pay. They go because of everything else! Let’s face it, the early childhood field has never been a high paid career. I have never heard someone say “I do it for the money”. First and foremost they do it because they love children and they want to make an impact on children’s lives. Basically they give up the big bucks to make a big difference and so what do they need in return?

Educators need to feel valued. They need to feel professional. They need to feel empowered!

Tim Horton’s coffee and doughnuts on Friday and pizza for the staff meeting is a lovely gesture of gratitude, but trust me, it’s not enough.

Staff appreciation is much more than this. It’s much more than team building and treats.

*How do you get educators to feel good about their work?

*Where do you find educators who take their work as seriously?

*How do you motivate and empower educators?

*How do you get educators to stay?

Only a successful leader knows the answers to these questions! Stay tuned!

Management Leadership Series coming soon!!

Summer Time Fun for Out of School Children!!

There are 4 more weeks of school left and pretty soon you will have a full house of school age children looking for something to do.

Click on this website for extra tips and direction. http://ecap.crc.illinois.edu/eecearchive/books/projcat3/section1.html

Here are some suggestions to get you started:

1. Act out a story.

a. Choose a book (or topic) the children are currently interested in.

b. You will need a Director, Producer, Costume Designer, Script Writer, Actors, Set Designer, etc.

-Allow children to choose which role they would like to play

-If more than one children are interested in the same role, they may share the role or

Pick name out of a hat

c. Allow children to take control of the project while staff facilitate.

d. Request parent donations for specific items required for costumes or for the set.

e. Think out of the box and have fun!

2. Create a city with recycled material.

a. Some children may be interested in drawing up plans for the city (Engineers)

b. Paint boxes, tubes, etc for buildings

c. Gather natural material for trees and foliage

d. Encourage children to come up with their own ideas. They may not want it to be realistic but science fiction.

3. Design and play your own board game

4. Make paper

Supplies: How to Make Paper

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· Window Screen. This sliding window screen is economical and reusable.

· Two Plastic Wash Tubs or similar

· Washcloth/rag/burp cloth/large piece of felt

· Water

· Torn paper from newspaper, tissue paper, magazines, etc. Be sure that it’s staple and tape-free (You can also add grass, dandelions)

· Blender <<This is my favorite economical workhorse machine.

· Small seeds (optional)

Instructions: How to Make Paper

a. Tear the paper into tiny strips, about 2″.

b. Place your window screen on top of one of the plastic tubs

c. Place your window screen on top of one of the plastic tubs

d. Add paper to the blender, cover it with water, and run the blender on a low speed. Since you will squeeze all the water out of the paper pulp, you can’t really have too much water. If the blender doesn’t move easily, add more water.

e. Run the blender a little bit faster until you get the paper mixture into a nice, smooth pulp. Ours is kind of chunky because my kids wanted it that way. Yours can be smoother.

f. Spread the pulp thinly and uniformly across the screen and then layer a cloth diaper or towel on top to absorb the extra water, while also pushing the water through the screen into the tub. Get the kids involved.

g. Place one hand firmly on top of the cloth while you flip the screen over onto a table or countertop that can handle water.

h. Remove the screen and put the cloth with paper pulp in a spot where it can dry, undisturbed, for about a day. The thicker the paper, the longer it will take to dry. (You may cover it with a cloth and iron it with adult supervision)

5. Make Salt Crystal Geode Materials

· salt (table salt, rock salt, Epsom salts, etc.)

· boiling water

· food coloring (for colored crystals)

· eggshell

· small bowl

Make the Geode

A natural geode forms when crystals deposit inside another mineral. Your mineral is the calcium carbonate of an eggshell.

To get the base for the geode, crack open an egg, remove the egg, and keep the shell. Rinse out the shell and let it dry.

Find a small bowl or cup that is bit larger than your eggshell.

Boil enough water to fill the bowl. An easy way to do this is to fill the bowl with water, empty the water into a glass measuring cup, and microwaving the water until it boils.

Make a saturated salt solution. Stir salt into the boiling hot water until no more salt will dissolve. You’ll know you have a saturated solution when a few crystals remain at the bottom of the container. The solubility of salt depends on temperature, so it’s best to use boiling hot water.

If you want colored crystals, add a few drops of food coloring to the solution.

Place the eggshell in your container. Pour the salt solution into the shell. It will overflow the shell, which is fine. Pouring the solution into the shell keeps it from floating.