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GSA Child Care Centers across the country are preparing for The Week of the Young Child, April 10-16, 2016. GSA Leaders and Child Care Providers are planning activities to celebrate and recognize our 100 programs that meet the daily needs of over 7,600 children and their families. This is a great time time to get involved. Theme's for the week include:
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Music Monday: Sing, Dance, Celebrate and Learn
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Taco Tuesday: Healthy Eating and Fitness and Home and School
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Work Together Wednesday: Work Together, Build Together, Learn, Together
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Artsy Thursday: Think, Problem Solve, Create
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Family Friday: Sharing Family Stories
Be sure to share with your Regional Child Care Coordinator how YOUR center celebrated Week of the Young Child. We would love to share them in our April Child Care Now Newsletter.
If you would like more information on Week of the Young Child, visit: https://www.naeyc.org/woyc
 GSA Child Care Center gets high marks for Emergency Preparedness
Green Tree Early Learning Center sets the bar high in Seattle in preparing for emergencies. In a recent interview with KUWO.org, Child Care Center Director Cathy Prygrocki shares the center’s best practices in preparing young children for real life emergencies, such as earthquakes. They practice regularly with teachers and children to be sure that everyone knows what to do in each emergency situation. Teachers are well trained and receive annual emergency training. GSA works closely with the program to ensure the center has an effective Occupant Emergency/ Disaster Plan.
Congratulations to Green Tree for being recognized for your important work. For the full story visit: http://kuow.org/post/are-seattle-daycares-prepared-big-one
One question often raised by Boards is how they can help their Provider through the arduous process of achieving and maintaining NAEYC Accreditation. Sometimes the Director will assign specific tasks to Board members, such as tallying surveys, and sometimes they will just expect the Board to support the center as a cheerleader or with planning a celebration after a success. However, there are some very specific ways that Boards can help Providers meet the criteria in the NAEYC Standard 8 for Community Relationships.
In federal child care centers, the community can be the agency or agencies that sponsor the center. For example, all of the criteria in 8B address “Assessing Community Resources”, Boards can help Providers meet this standard by including their child care center in their community garden, in their CFC activities (especially when the Board is a CFC recipient for child care scholarships), inviting the center to an agency art exhibit or other cultural event, or having an employee with a special skill come and talk to the children about their job.
Another example are the criteria in 8C, which address “Acting as a Citizen in the Community”, Boards can help Providers do this by co-sponsoring a Lunch and Learn for the agency on topics such as SIDS prevention or biting, participating in an agency-wide fair, participating in an event such as making sandwiches for the homeless, having a children’s art show in the cafeteria, or having an agency leader volunteer to come do an art activity or read a special book to the children.
And finally, don’t forget to help your Provider celebrate the NAEYC Week of the Young Child, which is going to be April 10th through 16th this year. We challenge you to be creative, take photos, and share your story with us in next month’s newsletter! |
