This week we had our unannounced annual licensing visit at our Hamline location. It's always stressful as no one wants a citation, but citations can be learning experiences. Ashley was prepared and the licensor was impressed with her organization. We will get a fee for a background study violation...we had a staff with two spellings of her name and so there was an issue with fingerprinting...a little out of our control. We received 3 fix it tickets; one for missing an address for an emergency contact, one for not having the names of the cereals on the menu and the third for plungers being in the upstairs bathroom that the Pre-K class is using during construction. Everything was corrected that day and Ashley sent off the corrections to the licensor a few hours later. Good work Ashley!

Our First Annual Summer Picnic is in the books. The rain stayed away and we had a little over 50 staff, parents, grandparents, aunts and children attend. We learned a few lessons that we will fix for next year. We will change the time to 10-1 so that we don't interrupt nap time. We will do the raffle a little differently and have a lot of smaller prizes so the children have a better chance of winning and we are thinking about hiring Bob the Beachcomber to come and party with us. Overall we think our first picnic was a success and we had a great time! 

Today Ashley, our Hamline Site Supervisor, Hareen, our Curriculum Coach and I met with our Preschool Team. This fall we will have 6 preschool classrooms between the 3 locations...very exciting! In previous years our program has been infant-toddler heavy so this has been quite a new adventure for us. We have a wonderful team of smart, passionate and dedicated preschool teachers, each who bring a new perspective on teaching and learning to our program. We reviewed our partnership with Saint Paul Public Schools (SPPS) and how their Early Childhood Workshop (ECW) curriculum fits into our programming and our Kindergarten Readiness goals. The teachers all worked on their fall daily schedules to ensure they included the Early Childhood Workshop components such as Morning Meeting, Small Groups and Regroup to Revisit. The staff will have the opportunity for additional training on ECW this September with SPPS. Hareen and I will be working with the teachers to help them understand how to individualize and plan for the different age preschoolers each classroom will have, as some will have just older, just younger or a combination of 3-5 year olds. 

More information about Early Childhood Workshop, our assessment process, and our curriculum will be provided at our September Parent Meeting!

We are closed Friday, August 30th so that all the teachers can receive training and support with our Teaching Strategies GOLD assessment system and our Curriculum framework. 

I'm looking forward to watching our preschoolers grow and bloom this year!

Hello Families, Teachers, Friends and Family Members!

Welcome to my blog! I wanted to find a way to communicate the exciting things that are happening in our program and that I encounter while working in the field of Early Childhood as a Director, an NAEYC Assessor and an Early Childhood Trainer. Sometimes I might share a funny kid quote, a kind word from a parent about a teacher, or a program or staff accomplishment. Unfortunately, sometimes I might share a disappointment (such as the recent delay in our childcare licensing process at our newest location in Inver Grove Heights) or a frustration about the lack of support for those in our field. Whatever it might be, I hope you will enjoy going on this journey with me!