The Fiscal Cliff

The following is an explanation on how the Fiscal Cliff will event young children!!  This is an taken from the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

A fair budget and a reduced deficit are important, but those goals should be met without making dramatic cuts to child care, Head Start, education, nutrition programs, or other basic needs of low- and moderate- income children and families. Right now, Congress and the White House are negotiating the "Fiscal Cliff" – not only about who should pay more or fewer taxes, but also about dramatic cuts to spending on critical programs (including Head Start, child care, child nutrition, and many more services for children and families). Because roughly 75% of public funds for early childhood education come from federal funding, the federal spending cuts being discussed would have significant consequences. If Congress and the White House do not change the automatic cuts (part of the Fiscal Cliff called sequestration), then 100,000 children will lose Early Head Start and Head Start, and roughly 80,000 children will lose child care assistance.

There are three components to the current budget negotiations:    

1. Sequestration: Unless Congress and the White House take another path, starting January 2, 2013, there would be automatic cuts of roughly 8% to domestic discretionary programs– including Head Start, child care, K-12 education, WIC, early intervention and many others. This would mean roughly 100,000 children losing Early Head Start or Head Start and 80,000 children losing child care assistance. Find out how big these cuts would be to your state here. 
2. Revenues and tax spending: Another element is the debate about revenues and tax spending: who should continue to get the tax cuts and who should fairly be asked to contribute more? The top earners (those making more than $250,000 a year) have seen the greatest benefit from the tax cuts made in 2001 and 2003. If the 2001/2003 tax changes ended for those making over $250,000, the Treasury would raise another $1 trillion over the decade; this could help reduce the deficit and allow for more spending for critical programs. 
3. Entitlements: Yet another part of the debate is what to do about entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. 

 

Imagination? Where has it gone?

When I was a little girl my mom would tell us to "Go outside and play".  We lived on a farm and did not have close neighbors that had children. We had to find something to do.  I remember riding my bike to the creek to look for tadpoles, making mud pies and trying to give baby kitties rides in my wagon.  They looked so cute with my baby doll's clothes on them, although they would beg to differ.

We had to make our own fun, use our imaginations.  I did not have a Barbie house but my cousin and I would make furniture using washrags to cover blocks of wood to make Barbie a couch and use thread spools as her end tables.  We did not have plastic play food, we used boxes and cans from my mom's kitchen.

Imagination has been said to be the engine of ideas.  Now, there seems to be an imagination deficit.  There are battery-operated toys where children sit passively watching something.  Watching television, playing computer games and DVD has become the pass time children choose too often.

I feel that the job I have at Stepping Stones has a direct impact on the families and children that we serve.  It is such an important time in their young lives and it is truly a privilege to be part of it.  Stepping Stones provides an environment that fosters creativity by doing the following:

• We focus on the process rather than the product
• Materials are accessible for the children to explore and experience
• We allow children time to engage in their play so they have time to spark their curiosity
• We allow children to smell, taste, hear and feel new experiences

Stepping Stones is a place of joy with children laughing and teachers making every moment an experience where children learn something new.  Helping them to use will carry with them their whole lives and that is priceless!  Imagination helps you understand the order of our world.

Routines For Learning...

It is well known that when parents get involved in their child's learning, children are more successful.  You can help your child to get off to a good start by creating these routines or habits at home.

• Remind your child of the rules such as- reading or do your chores before play or television. This shows them that learning is a top priority.  Make sure they have a comfy place to read or draw that is safe and a place of their own.
• Make time to look at their papers/work that they bring home from school or child care.  Put important dates on your calendar.  This shows them that they are important to you.
• Try to eat dinner together.  Take time to ask your child what one new thing they learned that day.  It might make for some interesting table conversation.  Try to have the television off to better encourage conversations!

TIME OUT or TIME IN??

I read something interesting by David Elkind today entitled, "Children with Challenging Behavior".  He feels that their are two forms of discipline: instructive....which is a matter of teaching children social skills and attitudes and punitive.... which is a matter of stamping out misbehavior through punishment.

Here is an example that demonstrates the difference.  Suppose a child is acting up and disturbing the other children.  If we take the punishment perspective, we might use the "time out" technique and put the child in another room or in an area away from the other children.  We assume the removal will teach the child to be less disruptive in the future.  If we take the instructive position, we might have a "time in".  That is, we might sit with the child and try to find out why she is upset.  It might be the case that the child has the right to be angry because she/he was called a name, got pushed etc.  Once we have the idea of why the child was troubled, we have a much better chance of helping him calm down and rejoin the group.  In a "time out", a child learns that her/his feelings are ignored and therefore no value.  A child given a "time in", learns that their feelings are important and will be attended to.  Which child is more likely to act out again????

Then and Now.....

In 1983 when I started at the VA Child Care Center, things seemed to be 'simple'.  Nearly 30 years later, we have more educated staff, quality learning tools, greater technology, new hanicapped-accessible facilities and the capacity to serve 20 times more children and families in our community.
State-of-Art-Playground

As the kids came in from playtime recently, it reminded me that when we opened, we didn't have a playground fence, we had only one tire swing and a wooden sandbox with no sand.  Now in 2012 at Stepping Stones Early Learning Center, we have a handicap-accessible playground complete with a ramp so all childen can get to the top of the playground structure.  We have a garden for the children to plant vegetables, a huge covered sandbox (to keep the critter droppings out), a cement trike path to practice being "Sammy Swindel", lots of toys that have their very own storage shed and a huge shade structure over the playground for sun protection.  Now, children are able to play outside even on rainy, drizzly days or very hot ones.

Small First Steps

In 1983 we had six teachers, one cook, a bus driver, a director and 14 children.  Only the director and one teacher had a degree.  We did not have a bus, but rented a van from the Apostolic Church.  Aunt Lucy was a marvelous cook, but we were not in the State Food Program and had no real guidelines.  We washed all the dishes by hand.  We did not have a janitor, so the staff took turns each week cleaning the floors and bathrooms.

We did not have a copier, so staff traced off pages for the children to color.  We did not have any computers for adults or children.  We used adult tables and cut off the legs to make them shorter for the children.  We had no bulletin boards, very few toys or shelves for toys and used large barrels for trash cans.

Children had to go down the hall to the bathrooms and were often made to wait in long lines.  We had one black and white TV.  We were down in the basement and prayed that no one with a handicap would want to enroll, because they could not get down the steps.

We had to fundraise almost every week; soup and salad luncheions, BINGO, Halloween Haunted Houses, July 4th cook outs and bake sales.  Critters were bountiful at the VA Child Care Center- from mice to voles, cockroaches to spiders, snakes to fox under the outdoor shed and the ever-dreaded bats and birds flying about.

Big Leaps

Now in 2012 we have 20 teachers with degrees, 15 assistants, 3 cooks, 3 janitors, 2 administrators and 224 children with room for more.  We have lap tops for the teachers to use with wireless internet, a color copy machine, laminator, resource library and conference and work room.  The children have child size everything, tables, chairs drinking fountains, potties and sinks in their room, lofts to read books in, computers and coming soon, IPads to use in the preschool classrooms thanks to the State Voluntary Preschool Program.  Today we do 1 or 2 fundraisers a year and hire ABC Pest Control to control the critters!

In 1983 we were located in the basement of an old VA building built in 1923 for nurses to stay in while they were in nurses training.  Now we are in a new building build in 2006 for
children and staff.

In 1983 were barely licensed wtih the Departmen of Human Services.  We owed money to the IRS and did not have an accountatnt.

Now we are licensed with the Department of Human Services and Accredited with the National Association for the Education of Young Children for the past 12 years.  We recieved a Quality Rating Scale (QRS) level 5 (5 IS THE HIGHEST RANK POSSIBLE) from the Iowa Department of Human Servies.  We do not owe the IRS money and have an accountatnt for our finances.

In 1983 kids were cute then and in 2012 kids are cute now!

We are very proud to have a long history of growth, change and improved service.  But when I look at THEN and NOW.....I'll take NOW any day!

My First Blog

Today I am writing my first blog.  It is bringing me deeper into the world of technology.  I have to tell you that I have an IPhone, ITouch, Nanno, a MacBook, and got an IPad for Christmas.  I am trying to post things on my personal Facebook page as well as a Stepping Stones page.  I wonder what I did with my time before I had to check email, Facebook, blog sites, YouTube etc.  Do you think all this technology is a good use of our time?  We worry about our children not getting enough outside time, but I think we should be worrying about adults and how much time we sit at our computers.  We need to get our outside time too!  Do you agree? Facebook