DEAP Child Care Education and Support

We were recently reading a Facebook feed from The Ooey Gooey Lady (who will be appearing in Billings on Septmeber 29) and she asked her readers to tell their favorite dry ingredients for use in a sensory table. Here are some of our favorites and some of the more interesting:

• Sand and glitter
• Instant mashed potatoes (add water later….then add food-coloring with water in droppers)
• Nuts and bolts
• Rice
• Beans
• Birdseed
• Flax seed
• Grain or other dried livestock feed
• Cocoa bean mulch
• Coffee grounds
• Pom Poms
• Dried noodles/shells/macaroni
• Cooked noodles/shells/macaroni and dyed with food color
• Flour…cornstarch…salt…or any combination of the three
• Dry cake mix (hint: get the expired box from your grocer!)
• Flat, smooth stones
• Aquarium rocks

….and so much more! Many posters commented that they like to hide gold coins or other “treasures” in their dry sensory table for kids to find.

How fun! Follow Lisa The Ooey Gooey Lady on Facebook – just search for Ooey Gooey!

Finally, a very thoughtfulposition statement on using food in the classroom/child care: http://msooey.tumblr.com/post/18191787480/using-food-in-the-classroom.

Announcement

Child Care Training has announced they “will be transitioning to a more feature-rich online learning environment on May 29, 2012.” The ChildCareTraining.org site will go down on May 29, 2012 and will not be back up until June 1, 2012.

The new system is from Moodlerooms, and is based on Moodle 2, the newest iteration of the world’s most widely-used e-Learning software. Moodle has become known for its ease of use and flexibility; and the new and updated features of Moodle 2 will expand ChildCareTraining.org’s potential for teaching and learning online.

ChildCareTraining.org is dedicated to making this transition to the new system as seamless and transparent as possible. They are asking users to alert ChildCareTraining.org Helpdesk if you have any questions or concerns, experience any difficulties, or identify any lingering issues with the software.

ChildCareTraining.org Helpdesk
cct@childcareresources.org
406-728-6446

ChildCareTraining.org looks forward to completing this strategic initiative and improving its offerings.

The Three Bears Rap by Ooey Gooey Inc.

Lisa Murphy, the Ooey Gooey Lady, will be coming to Billings on September 29 for the first time in Montana!

Stay tuned for details.

National Child Care Provider Appreciation: May 2012

May 2012 – The second Sunday in May has long been recognized as the day to honor mothers and their commitment to children. The Friday before Mother’s Day, May 11, 2012, is Provider Appreciation Day, a special day to recognize child care providers, teachers, school-age program staff, child care center directors and staff, and all those who work with children and are responsible for their education and care. It is estimated that nearly 11 million children under age 5 are cared for by 2.8 million child care providers in the United States.

Locally, DEAP Child Care Education and Support is leading this effort.  “Every day, nearly 100 licensed, registered, and legally certified child care providers care for children in southeastern and eastern Montana,” says Sarah Peterson, Director of DEAP Child Care Education and Support. “The children and parents of eastern and southeastern Montana depend on our child care providers. May is the time to recognize the hard work and dedication of these providers and to acknowledge their contributions to quality care.”

“It takes a special person to work in the child care field, and these individuals are often unrecognized,” says Peterson. “This day offers an opportunity for parents to show their child care providers their appreciation. And even after May 11, any time is appropriate to thank those who work in this field.”

DEAP Child Care Education and Support is sponsoring a contest for Provider Appreciation Day. Write, email, or fax to tell us why your child care provider is appreciated by your family! All entries will be entered into a random drawing to win a $50 pre-paid VISA debit card for you and your child care provider! Two entries will be selected. All child care providers must be licensed, registered, or legally certified by the state to be eligible. Send entries to DEAP CCES, 2200 Box Elder, Miles City, MT  59301, email to speterson@deapmt.org, or fax to 406.234.7018 attention CCES. All entries must be received by 5 p.m. May 18.

To learn more about Provider Appreciation Day or for ideas on how you can thank your child care provider, visit www.providerappreciationday.org.

Here’s a link to a thought-provoking article from Jeff Johnson of Explorations Early Learning, where he offers opinions (and lots of source links) regarding the popular “Your Baby Can Read” series. 

http://www.jeffajohnson.com/2012/02/selling-snake-oil-to-fearful-parents.html

Our favorite passage? If you want your child to become a life long learner, talk to them (early and often), put books in their hands (early and often), read to them (early and often), and let them see you reading (early and often). 

Beginning in January, 2012, we will be highlighting one course each month from www.childcaretraining.org, Montana’s online distance learning platform. We’d like to encourage all practitioners to check out the website, as it is a great way to meet your professional development needs!

Here’s an introduction to get you started. For more information, please call Sharon Humphrey at DEAP, 406.234.6034 and she’ll walk you through the process, or you can call CCT.org directly at: 406.728.6446.

“Professional Development for Early Childhood Practitioners”

www.childcaretraining.org

Introduction

The Child Care Training organization is an online education tool for Early Childhood Practitioners to gain professional development training hours when it is convenient for them.

 Create a CCT User Account

Creating a user account allows you access to additional information on each of the courses listed as well as enrollment. There is no fee associated with creating a user account.

 Course Selection

After creating a user account and logging in, review the available courses by going to the Course Catalog. Select a course that interests you by clicking on the title – the title is an active link. The Course information page opens and displays:

• Instructor’s  name(s)
• Cost
• Credit Hours
• Level of Training
• Course Description
• Course Author

 Located at the bottom of the Course information page is the payment button “Send payment via Paypal.” If this is the course you would like to take, click the payment button to enroll.

 Paying for the Course

Although the CCT site has Paypal as its payment processing agent, you do not need to have a Paypal account. You can use a debit card or credit card (Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or American Express) to secure your enrollment.

  There is also a “Bill Me Later” option which is a Paypal service for Paypal account holders.

 If you decide this is not the course for you, you can click the “Back to Course Catalog” button, located just below the payment button, to return to the list of available courses.

 Enrolled Courses

Once enrolled in a course, courses are self-paced and you have 90 days in which to complete it.

 Your CCT Account

As new courses are added to the CCT Course Catalog, you will receive a courtesy email letting you know. Your CCT user account keeps track of the courses you have taken.

From the Early Childhood Project:

NEW Distance Learning Options Approved

We have approved some new training options for practitioners in Montana. Some of the PBS TeacherLine courses are now accepted as training hours for both licensing and the Practitioner Registry annual training hours. First go to the ECP website and click on Training Approval and scroll down to Distance Learning to see specific training that has been approved. The PBS website, http://www.pbs.org/teacherline, will give you course descriptions.

The other newly approved training is through the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC). There are 2 online family child care training courses. Each course is worth 45 clock hours. Both classes are stand-alone and may be taken one at a time or at the same time. The titles of the training are

Teaching and Learning in Family Child Care and Creating Safe and Healthy Family Child Care Environments.

To read more about these two options and to register visit http://nafcc.org and click on Training Institute at the top of the page. Select “Family Child Care Training” to access information.

Submit your certificates of completion to the ECP so we can add them to your Professional Development Record. We are excited to be offering more Distance Learning options for practitioners. We also love to receive feedback so please feel free to let us know how you liked these offerings. Montana is always monitoring the quality and value of the trainings that we approve so your feed back is important to us. Enjoy!

 ECP’s Fall 2011 News Sheet – Fall 2011 News

LIKE our YouTube video (visit YouTube.com and search for DEAPCCES to find our channel) - we could win Jeff back for another round!

Providers – please start using the new immunization form here: Immunizations.

It does not have to be on blue paper or on cardstock, but it is being requested that you start using these forms now.

Call us at 234-6034 with questions~

DEAP Child Care Education & Support is pleased to introduce Professional Development Memberships! For $50, you’ll receive a membership card, which entitles you to ANY* training or professional development event sponsored by us between November 1, 2011 and September 30, 2012! This means you can pay once, and attend any event of your choosing for the rest of the year – conferences included!

Just call Sharon or Gail at DEAP CCES at 406-234-6034 for information or to purchase your membership! Remember, the event must be sponsored by DEAP CCES!

*Excluded events include the Certified Preschool Course and Infant/Toddler Course.