In this issue:

Success Comes in so Many Shapes and Sizes
Planning Those New Year Resolutions
Kids in the Kitchen
OCC Members Area Update
Omaha World Hearld Ad is Running
January Book List
Promoting Family Involvement
Policy Pointers - Child Care Family Conferences
Free Play - Play Doh
Resource Links That May Help...
ChildCare Share Resource & Support Group in Omaha

Success Comes In So Many Shapes And Sizes

Everyone has his or her own definition of success and what constitutes living a life with greatness. Success comes in so many shapes and sizes that it can often go unnoticed if you do not take the time to recognize the many facets that exists your life.

Success is the person who lives their life as an example to others and actively shows those around them how to achieve more in their personal and professional lives.

Truly successful are those who do the things that make them happy.

Success is the Childcare Provider who works hard and at the end of the day has made a positive impact on the lives of so many. In many cases far more then they may ever realize.

Success is taking time out throughout your busy day to understand that you are in fact an amazing person, and acknowledge that your contributions make this world a better place.

Success is so many things, and reaches so far into various areas of our lives. All to often we run through our days not realizing that we are already successful in our own right. While it is true we may not fit into the mold of what society labels successful people as having, make no mistake about it...You are an achiever just the same.

Starting today, take time to honor your many accomplishments all the while taking comfort in knowing that many more such accomplishments still await you. Remember this, greatness is part of who you are.

Planning Those New Year Resolutions

Preparing New Year's resolutions is an individual choice. Here are a few suggestions that may help your resolution actually make a difference:

1. Join a Support Group ExclusivelY for Childcare Professionals

Omaha is blessed. We have several support groups in our community to help support your business, provide training, resource, public awareness and support services to family child care providers in Omaha and surrounding communities. If you have been thinking about joining but hesitate to do it, now is a wonderful time to become a member and meet other providers who share the same goals you have.

2. Affordable Marketing – Where do you turn? In the New Year its one simple Click & Go….

Need to get the work out that you’re available and that you have an opening? Omaha Child Care Directory offers childcare related businesses the opportunity to advertise FREE OR by Annual Subscription.

Listing Options:
Free Listing Includes: Business Listing - Name & Contact Only. Simply.....Click & Go
 
Tier I Listing Includes: Full page Business listing w/link to your website. Includes: graphic OR Logo OR Banner OR Photo's), A Tier I listing and a link from the Omaha zip code map (advertising for 12 months) an exclusive listing on the Tier I Subscriber page, FREE Membership to Omaha-ChildCare Resource Center. Fun Activity Suggestions. Only $25 per year...Click & Go

3. Why have a Website?

Make a plan for yourself that includes a year of networking with childcare professionals, early childhood educators and other individuals or groups interested in supporting the early childhood profession, sharing your interests and concerns and promoting quality child care in our community. To learn more visit www.childcarebydesign.com

4. Network with other childcare professional’s

Make a plan for yourself that includes a year of networking with childcare professionals, early childhood educators and other individuals or groups interested in supporting the early childhood profession, sharing your interests and concerns and promoting quality child care in our community. Vist www.childcareshare.net

5. Think "Professional Development"

Map out your plan to achieve your CDA degree or begin the process of Accreditation. Contact Brandee Lengel, Coordinator, T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood NEBRASKA  (402) 476-5658 (Lincoln) or check out the website teach@nebraskaaeyc.org and enroll. These are all designed to give you tools for success in the childcare industry. You deserve it, Go for it!

6. Tiny Steps – One Day at a Time

Nothing big gets accomplished in one day. Resolutions are set in one day, but accomplished with a hundred tiny steps that happen throughout the year. New Year's resolutions should be nothing more than a starting point. You must develop a ritual or habit for revisiting your plan.

And finally...

7. Remain Flexible

Expect that your plan can and will change. Life has a funny way of throwing unexpected things at us, and flexibility is required to complete anything but the simplest goal. Sometimes the goal itself will even change. Most of all, recognize partial successes at every step along the way. Just as a resolution isn't accomplished the day it's stated, neither is it accomplished the day you reach your goal. Rather, it's accomplished in many small increments along the way. Acknowledge these incremental successes as they come.

 GOOD LUCK!

Kids In The Kitchen

Honey Muffins & Fun Toppings

Get those kids in the kitchen with their aprons on and measuring cups. Let's have some fun in the ktchen....

2 tablespoons honey
4 tablespoons melted shortening
1 egg, well beaten
2 cups flour
1/4 cup milk
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

In large bowl beat honey and melted shortening; stir in egg. In another bowl sift and mix together  dry ingredients. Add to first mixture alternately with the milk. Beat well. Spoon batter into greased muffin pans, filling cups about half full, and bake at 375° for about 20 to 25 minutes. Makes 1 dozen muffins.

Brown Sugar and Nut Streusel Topping

1/2 cup walnut pieces
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon cold butter

Chop the walnuts into small pieces. Stir the walnuts, brown sugar, and cinnamon together. Cut in the cold butter with a pastry knife or two table knives. Spoon the streusel mixture over the muffin batter evenly before baking.

Cinnamon-Sugar Topping

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon good quality cinnamon
6 tablespoons butter, melted

Enjoy!

OCC Members Area Update
The Omaha-Childcare Directory 'Members Area' has been updated to include our January 2010 Printables. Loaded with ideas and suggestions to use in your classroom or family childcare program.

Omaha World Herald Ad is Running
Omaha-Childcare.com is running an advertisement in the Movie Facts brochure at Village Point Theatres, 204 N. 174th Street, Omaha in Village Point Plaza. We plan to place an ad in the Omaha World Herald for a 30 day run mid February. Help ensure the website is UP-TO-Date. Check your Tier I page and send your updates. If you have openings, let me know so I can post them on your page. Let’s help parents easily find you using our Looking4Childcare form in your zip code area.

The ad will run through Mid March. Parents visiting our site will be contacting you while looking4childcare. Please respond as soon as you can. If your Tier I page needs to be updated with current information, please contact the Administraor with your changes.

January Book List

Reading together promotes reading readiness skills, learning to read, and enjoyment of books. It also introduces the concepts of beginning, middle, and end. When parents and caregivers read to children, both learn more about themselves and the world and children gain preparatory reading skills.

Adults and children choose a book to read together. Here are some selections:

  More, More, More Said the Baby, by Vera B. Williams

  On the Day You Were Born, by Deborah Frasier

  Designed by God So I Must be Special, by Bonnie Sose

  I Like Me, by Nancy Carlson

  Owl Babies, by Martin Waddell

  The Quilt Story, by Tony Johnson and Tomie dePaola

Promoting Family Involvement

Do you feel frustrated when the activities you do with your children are met with minimal enthusiasm from parents? Do you feel like your parents don’t know what you do all day with their child? We know that they are busy, but it would be really nice to get them involved somehow. Here are some ways to form a partnership with them to help them feel more involved with their child’s day to day activities.

• Share news, schedule and calendar of events through monthly newsletters

• Keep a parent board with helpful articles, monthly themes, birthdays, pictures, etc.

• Schedule a mommy/daddy tea party or other themed event.

• Ask parents to complete an annual or semi-annual questionnaire about your childcare. Be prepared for positive and negative feedback!

• Keep a suggestion box so parents can contribute ideas.

• Create a short daily journal for infants and toddlers that includes things like; foods they ate, time they napped, new things they did, etc.

• Create awards/certificates for older children “Caught being Good”, “Guess what I did today?” etc

• Create a childcare newsletter to hand out to parents describing your program or planned activities so they can incorporate them at home.

Policy Pointers – Child Care Family Conferences

When parents enroll their child in your child care, you assume the responsibility of giving them assistance with special needs in relation to their child's adjustment, growth, and development.   

One of your main goals should be to offer quality assurance child-care. In order to maintain such a standard, communication with each family is a very important element to your continued success. For this reason, I would recommend scheduling Parent – Provider Conferences at least once a year, preferably in January to start the year out right.

Childcare conferences are designed to benefit everyone involved. During the conference you will be presented with opportunity to discuss a child’s progress, any future needs and adjustments in relation to the child. You may choose to ask enrolled families before your meeting to evaluate your job performance by filling out a form and returning it to you.

You can both any problems we have encountered since enrollment and work together to find solutions for improvement.  Inform families of any changes you will encounter during the upcoming year.  Distribute your 2007 tax statement at the time of your conference. Schedule appointments that are convenient for everyone and remind parents no children are allowed.

Free Play - Play Doh

Benefits of free play:
Free play, besides being fun, boosts the natural qualities that all children possess: curiosity, enthusiasm, a love of discovery, and the drive to "figure stuff out." In addition, free play lets children control their environment, which builds self-esteem and provides and outlet for creativity. Child development experts say that free play is crucial for children's intellectual and emotional growth.

PLAY-DOH meets all of the criteria for free play:

• It's open-ended. A piece of PLAY-DOH compound can become absolutely anything a child wants it to be.
• There are no outside rules, restrictions, or rewards. The fun of the play comes from shaping and playing with PLAY-DOH compound any way the child wants. A plastic dinosaur is always a dinosaur, but a PLAY-DOH dinosaur can become a bug or a bird or an ice cream cone in just a few seconds!
• It stimulates imagination and learning. Watching children using PLAY-DOH compound, you can see that different parts of their brain are engaged at the same time: motor and sensory skills (texture, color, shape, etc.), imagination and creativity, and social skills, in the case of group play. All of these skills are key to your child's development.

Express Yourself
Is your child having a bad day? Encourage openness and shared feelings with this together-time activity. Help your child make a face out of PLAY-DOH compound and make the expression that matches how your child is feeling: sad, angry, scared, shy, etc… Discuss with your child why they are feeling that way and what can be done to turn that t PLAY-DOH face – and their own – into a smiling one.

Counting with Colors
Roll balls using different colors of PLAY-DOH compound and count them with your child. Then ask your child to count the number of green, red, etc. Once your child has mastered counting, try teaching basic addition and subtraction skills.

Tic Tac Doh
Make a tic tac toe grid using PLAY-DOH compound. Then makes Xs and Os, or your own imaginative creations, to use as game pieces.

Add to the Fun
Does your child have a play kitchen, grill or workbench? Help them make pretend food and tools that they can use along with ones they already have. The possibilities are endless when preparing a “meal” out of PLAY-DOH compound. Kids can also have fun hammering and “fixing” their PLAY-DOH creations.

Rainy day creativity
Let's face it. Both kids and their parents can catch cabin fever on cold, rainy days when going outside isn't an option. Even the slickest battery-operated toys start to seem boring. But open up a few fresh cans of PLAY-DOH compound, and kids suddenly go from cranky to creative.  

Resource Links That May Help....

Search our Tier I Subscribers List
Professional Training Opportunity
Omaha Area Provider Websites
Need a Website? Visit Childcare by Design
PreschoolPreschool.com

ChildCare Share Resource & Support Group in Omaha
Are you interested in promoting professionalism in childcare, in making a difference in our community and helping all our children experience success? The philosophy of Childcare Share is to develop friendships, lend emotional support, to meet the needs of the childcare professional by building strong partnerships in networking and supporting each other; in offering encouragement and inspiration through mutual respect.

Our objective is to assist each other in acquiring the skills, attitudes, and habits it takes to give the children entrusted to us and the families in our community the best we have to offer. If you do, then we share the same goals.

Membership is open to anyone who shares our Goals. We Welcome everyone!

Atonement Lutheran Church
4530 N. 85th
Omaha, NE 68134

On-line registration

2 Hours - In-Service Training Offered.
Come & enjoy the company of a group of like-minded professionals.

www.childcareshare.net

Feel Free to contact us with questions on how you can join.