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

How to Create a Cool Place for School-Age Children

08 01 20

I began transforming my school-age program in the spring of 2010 with the help of a Missouri T.E.A.C.H. project Pilot grant. The information and resources that I gained while completing nine college semester hours of youth development training hours inspired me to create a cool place for school-age children.

In this blog post, I will share with you 5 ways to create a cool place for school-age children:

1. Solicit feedback from the children. Ask the children what type of activities that they would like to see in the program this summer.

2. Assess the environment and added materials that are appropriate for their age group. Changed the classroom centers to ,”Clubs.” School-age children love to belong to clubs and this makes the environment a cool place to explore. For example, The cooking center is now called the, ” Cooking Club” and the Art area is now the “Art Club.”

Fun materials to add to your environment: Games, clay, paint, paper, scrap booking materials, yarn for crocheting, hobby magazines, wood working materials, variety of books, dress-up clothes, blocks, large cardboard boxes, computer, sports equipment, puppets/theater, dramatic play prop box (hair dresser, store,etc)

3.  As you make changes  observe the children to see how they are responding to the environment. If the  children seem to be very involved in the materials and more focused…you did a great job!

4. At my childcare center, we plan a cool and fun-filled summer camp every year. The weekly activities are theme based and there are  a variety of field trips planned every week. For example: Mondays- Park Day; Tuesday- Visit a local attraction; Wednesday- Free Movie Camp; Thursday- Library (Summer Reading Club) Friday- Visit local attraction.

The parents are responsible for all field trip fees and the field trips are planned for the entire summer. Furthermore, the last week of camp is back to school fun and we plan a big back to school party for the children.  See my website for ideas

5. Ideas for the Fall Before/After School – Kids Club- In many cases parents need some place for their school-age children to go before/after school and creating after school club activities, is a great way to keep the children from getting bored. Some of the after school kids clubs could include: Art, Science, Music, Cooking, Drama, Technology, Math, Literacy Club. For more tips on how to create clubs visit, After School Training Tool Kit website.

Cool Summer Camp Marketing ideas:

  • Add a large Summer Camp Here Sign in your window (if permitted)
  • Market your summer camp program on your website and on your social media pages
  • Decorate your windows with summer decor
  • Be sure to insert Summer Camp Enrolling signs in your van window (if permitted)
  • Issue Summer Camp Flyers to your local schools
  • Offer incentives for parents who refer families to your summer camp

For more marketing ideas, check out my Marketing 101 Toolkit.

With your Child Care Business in Mind,

Shiketa Morgan

Follow my Child Care Business Tweets @ccarebusiness

 

Category:

Child Care Center, Curriculum, Family Child Care, Program Planning, School-Age Program

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Building a Dynamic Preschool Program Begins With The Curriculum

07 27 20

Bradley Russle 2Today I want to inspire you to create a dynamic preschool program. In fact,  I believe that a dynamic preschool program begins with the Curriculum. Furthermore, I have discovered that parents tend to choose child care program, based on their curriculum program.

Please allow me to use my Center as an example. In my Child Care Center, I pull ideas from several researched based Curriculum programs, including:

  • Creative Curriculum
  • Reggio Emelio
  • Project Construct
  • High Scope
  • along with Biblical Principles from Abeka Curriculum

Moreover, our goal is to meet the developmental needs of the children and provide a high quality preschool program. Furthermore, I have found it to be so  boring to use one curriculum and this is why I pull principles from the curriculum programs listed above.

Furthermore,the principles that we implement in my center (from the curriculum programs listed above) have been proven to prepare our preschoolers for school success!
I am in no way endorsing any of the curriculum programs above, however, I am encouraging you to take a closer look at your Curriculum and consider getting new ideas for your Child Care or Preschool Program.

Also, it is vital that you pick and Implement a curriculum model that fits into the mission of your childcare program.

Curriculum is not only about learning the alphabet and numbers; however, Curriculum is what you do from the time that the kids arrive until they go home.

preschool

Here are 5 Easy Ways to Create a Dynamic Preschool Curriculum Program:

1. Start by Creating a brochure that describe your Curriculum in an overview format: Monthly themes, the letter, shape, color of the month, character development topic, social skills focus, etc) By reviewing the researched based curriculum programs above, you will gain some ideas for your brochure.

2. Set-up enriching learning centers in your classrooms.

3. Create a Daily Schedule

4. Require that your staff complete and post lesson plans. (based them on the curriculum theme and developmental needs of the children)

5. Create a System that tracks and assesses the development of the children in your program.

In the event that you need assistance with your preschool program, Be sure to schedule a coaching session with me today. I’m just a phone call away! Click here

Shiketa Morgan

Category:

Curriculum, daycare, preschool

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