Managing cash flow is an incredibly important skill for a center director. Even a center with an annual budget showing a healthy surplus may experience brief periods where funds in the checkbook are insufficient to pay all the bills. To discover how successful directors manage cash flow in tight times, the author surveyed members of the "Exchange…

Providing benefits to the employees are well-proven motivators. Many child care center owners and directors have discovered that employee benefits can eliminate the need for incentive compensation. This article discusses the importance of fringe benefits to find, attract, and retain workers in a company. It also discusses benefits that employees…

Staffing and scheduling are just one part of a center director's job. Most do not give it the time and attention it needs. It is a task that requires organizational skills and interpersonal skills to put together a staffing pattern that works for the people and the center. In this article, the author shares some of the discoveries she has learned…

Published annually since 1997, Newark Kids Count tracks key trends in child health and well-being in New Jersey's largest city with the latest statistics available. Newark Kids Count includes the latest statistics, along with five-year trend data, in the following areas: population and demographics, family economic security, affordable housing,…

In this article the author describes how she and her partners started The Learning Tree Montessori Child Care, a Montessori program with a different approach in Seattle in 1979. The author also relates that the other area Montessori schools then offered half-day programs, and as a result the children who attended were, for the most part,…

This colloquium discusses recent trends where early childhood education and care has shifted from being a community service to that of big business. Years of neo-liberal reform have created market conditions favourable for large corporations to provide childcare within Australia. This situation raises some issues and concerns, particularly in…

In this article, the author talks about his experience as an 11-year-old swimmer and shares the lessons he learned as a member of the swim team. In his experience as one of the slowest team members, he discovered that slow and steady does not win the race, and when the focus is only on achievement, one loses the value of failure. As an adult, he…

The age of child care building on a wide scale really began in the 1970s. Before that, there had been a history of day nurseries going back to the turn of the century and Lanham Act centers during World War II to provide care for "Rosie the Riveter" mothers in the work force. The "purpose built" child care center was an economical box with almost…

This study describes the development of a parent resource center at a university child care center. The parent resource center is funded by a federal grant and is designed to provide support to low-income student-parents on campus. Early childhood education interns work in the center to learn how to build family relationships. The program has been…

As Arizona strives for a first-rate educational system, the foundation of care and education for our youngest children remains far too weak. This new report, "A Decade of Data: The Compensation and Credentials of Arizona's Early Care and Education Workforce," marks ten years of data on trends in the wages, benefits, and education levels…

State pre kindergarten programs have grown dramatically in the last two decades, and much more attention is being paid to the school readiness of children. Six states, Georgia, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Wisconsin have policies in place or a goal to move toward universal access to pre kindergarten, and other state leaders…

Discusses issues in establishing and managing a tuition assistance program for child care centers, including target groups, sources of aid, determining need, and whether to use an external financial aid service. (JPB)

Discusses ideas for establishing rituals and celebrations to ease enrollment and staffing transitions during the child care center school year. Recommends ways to make transitions part of the curriculum through the use of daily routines, picture books, celebrations, and gift giving to mark significant events and changes. (JPB)

In this article, a group of five preservice teachers and a teacher arranged to try a few activities at their campus day care. Together, they created and tested a series of learning centers involving rocks and minerals. Since minerals occur in such a wonderful variety of colors, they formed the basis for an engaging lesson on color sorting. This…

Helping staff get along with each other can sometimes be more challenging than helping young children get along. A director can feel like a referee instead of a leader of professionals when staff bicker with each other. Many directors find that efforts made to strengthen everyone's skills in giving and responding to feedback help a great deal.…