Inspirational and Empowering Child Care Business Owners To Build Successful Child Care Businesses

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Kids Love Sensory Play

“Creating a Child Care Business That Kids Love”

As I wrap up the theme on creating a childcare business that kids love, I thought it was appropriate to end the theme with ” Kids Love Sensory Play.” I chose sensory play, because it is open- ended and there is no right or wrong way to explore sensory materials.

In fact, kids love to play in anything that is messy! Today I want to inspire you to plan and encourage more sensory activities in your childcare program.

According to Elaine Lambe  (Educational Consultant), “Sensory play is currently seen as one of the key areas of play for babies and young children and a crucial part of their development. Sensory play is play that involves the use of one or more of the five senses, touch, sight, smell, taste and hearing. Our senses are our guide through the world around us and for babies and young children they provide endless opportunity for fascinating discovery.”

Today I want to share with you  five sensory play ideas that kids really Love:

Exploring Shaving Cream “It’s messy, yet it is fun! Kids can make shapes or even practice writing their name in the shaving cream.

Source: Cultivated Lives

Colored Rice Explorations. This is a Pot of Gold Activity planned back in 2011. The teacher dyed the rice yellow, by soaking the rice in yellow food coloring and by adding a small amount of alcohol. Then she let the rice air dry over night. The kids love to feel, scoop, sift, explore the color and measure the rice.

Exploring Cornmeal. The first time that I saw kids playing in cornmeal was in my child development laboratory Class back in 2002. I didn’t think it was quite educational back then, however, now we love to add cornmeal to the sensory tables to encourage the children to; explore the cornmeal by feeling, measuring, scooping, writing in the cornmeal and whatever they discover that they can do with the cornmeal that will enhance their play.

Source: Not Just Cute

Colored Water. This is a great way to teach children their colors or to spice up the water play!

Source: Not Just Cute

Styrofoam Fun! Don’t throw away anymore Styrofoam, save it for sensory play!

Source:Loving and Learning in Pre-K

I realize that many of the sensory activities above may not be appropriate for children under the age of three, however, it is appropriate for a toddler to explore water play or to play with edible  home-made playdoh or with pudding.

Whatever sensory activities that you decide to incorporate into your program, I know that the kids will enjoy it because Kids Love Sensory Play! Feel free to share sensory activities that you offer in your program and share your thoughts about this blog post.

With Your Business in Mind,

Shiketa Morgan

Resource Links

http://play-activities.com/blog/sensory-play-%E2%80%93-part-1-%E2%80%93-introduction-what-is-sensory-play/

http://childcareandbeyond.tripod.com/sensoryplay.html

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Category:

Activities, Child Care Center, Curriculum, preschool, Quality Care

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How to Get Your Parents and Staff to Buy Into your Vision

One of the toughest task of a leader is to get the people who follows him or her to catch their vision. Have you ever tried to implement changes in your childcare business and they were rejected by parents or staff?

Those changes could have included: tuition increase, new curriculum, your goals for the year, fundraiser changes, classroom changes,etc.

Whatever your vision or plans may be, I know how disheartening it is to have your vision rejected. If your vision has been rejected, I must let you in on a little secret; people must buy-in to the Leader before they buy into the vision.

If your Vision is often rejected by parents or staff, it’s simply because they have not bought into you. I remember when I decided to move my home daycare to a center. Out of 7 children only one child came with me. I asked the families that decided not to come with me, what inspired them not to come with me and their answer was; because we wanted our children in a home daycare not a center.

In other words, the parents wanted me to care for their children, not someone else. In fact, the one parent that came with me, she really trusted me with her son and I was her son’s first caregiver. Eventually, another one of my long time families, decided to come along, after visiting the center. The family realized that I was still a big part of their child’s care and they were compelled to enroll their child into the center.

Have you ever had an employee to reject your vision or plans? I have and the secret to winning that staff member’s vote is by finding out why he or she rejects the vision. Also, work on creating a win-win relationship or making a decision on if the employee is right for your team.

Like the good book (The Bible) tells us; How can two walk together unless they agree. Today I am going to share with you six ways to get parents and staff members to buy into your vision:

1. Work on building relationships. With parents, start discussions at pick-up or drop-off time to show them that you care. Make an effort to talk with staff members daily to see how they are doing and strive to learn something about them.

2. Be honest and authentic and develop the trust of parents and staff members. People tend to have more respect for someone who is open and honest with them at all times.

3. Hold yourself to high standards. If you believe in being professional at all time, be professional. Also, if your goal is to offer the highest quality of care, demand that those practices be honored at all times.

4. Give parents tools to be better parents. Equip your staff members to do a better job.

5. Help them to achieve their goals. For example, my assistant director is a girl scout leader. Every year I support her girl scouts by allowing her to set-up a cookies booth at the center. I also get free cookies every year! For my staff, I find out about their personal goals and strive to assist as much as I can.

6. Everyone is a leader. In fact, parents are leading their children and teachers are leading kids or other teachers. Moreover, this is why it is vital that you also promote leadership development or simply helping them to grow as leaders as you grow.

In summary, if you want others to buy into your vision, follow the 6 -steps above and they will buy into you!

Shiketa Morgan

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Source: 21 Laws of Leadership

Category:

Administration, Child Care Center, Family Child Care, Leadership, parent communication, Program Planning, Quality Care

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