Staff Collaboration: Every School’s Secret Treasure

In schools across the country there are educators full of wisdom, experience, new ideas and unique personal skills. We all have wonderful ideas and information to share. We all love helping and we’re pretty good at being supportive (that’s a big reason why we chose this field). Yet most teachers are very isolated in their [...]

What is Academically Rigorous?

Today, as I was searching the internet for information on effective nap time routines, I came across an older article from the Washington Post, “Preschools Break From Nap Time“. Apparently Superintendents of  public schools in Virginia and Maryland eliminated nap time from their preschool day because it is precious academic time that is wasted. Nap [...]

Is Your Program Taking Advantage of Federal Stimulus Funds?

Did you know that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), or federal stimulus package, includes a decent amount of funding for improving early childhood education? And if our legislators have done any reading on current economic research, they will realize that funding early childhood programs is a great use of federal money. The return [...]

Get in the Habit of Starting the Day Right

For most families, the time between when the alarm goes off and when we get to work is the busiest, most stressful time of the day. We wake up tired and move non-stop getting kids out of bed, getting everyone dressed and fed, packing up daycare bags, school bags, work bags and herding the kids [...]

Tackling the Transition Time Challenge

Whether you are working with toddlers, preschoolers or young elementary school children, the most challenging parts of the day tend to be those moments when everyone must stop what they are doing and transition to starting the next activity. A recent article in Child Care Information Exchange, “Eliminating Transitions“, tackles this issue head-on and asks, [...]