Welcome to Wood River, Nebraska. Their Communities for Kids (C4K) core team is proud to announce the opening of their childcare center, Stick Creek Kids. But like most dreams, the team hasn’t always walked on a smooth path. But rather than backing down, they embarked on the challenging road. Together, with the help of their community, the center’s doors will open. Read more about how this community accomplished this remarkable feat.
On Saturday, April 24, from 9:00-10:00 a.m. the counties will hold back-to-back Zoom sessions, one in English and one in Spanish, to inspire conversations about the bi-lingual experience in childcare. The event, titled “Supporting Spanish Speakers in Early Childhood,” offers providers insight into Latinx cultures and invites Spanish-speaking families to better understand the requirements of the American educational system and to engage actively with the providers who care for their children. Read more about this event!
Long before COVID, Ord has proven to be a place of reinvention. Most recently, one of the town’s most pressing projects has been to address the childcare scarcity. Some of the women behind this effort are Loup Valley Childhood Initiative core leaders and Ord residents, Melani Flynn, Katie Walmsley, and Kristina Foth. Read more about how these women and their community work to create quality childcare.
Early childhood professionals are at risk for developing compassion fatigue due to the demanding nature of their everyday work which is now paired with the stress caused by the pandemic. Not only are early childhood professionals effected in their own lives by the threat of COVID, but they also must care for children and families experiencing a wide range of effects, such as lost jobs, unstable housing, or isolation from family and friends. If you or someone you know is suffering from compassion fatigue, here are some definitions and coping tips.
Many professionals, especially those who work in early childhood education and care, but also teachers of every age tend to shoulder a tremendous amount of responsibility. You walk into a classroom, make decisions, then hope that you did the right things. The truth is, no matter how skilled, every talented professional will occasionally feel alone or overwhelmed. These are the moments when the Early Childhood Professional Learning Series can help. Read more about early care providers Arlie Herrick and Dee Coble’s experiences in participating in the Series.
Nebraska childcare providers are making headlines. Today, we bring you a success story from Buffalo County’s Rooted in Relationships initiative and a provider named Rachel Pierce, the owner of Creative Kids Child Care. Today, Rachel will share the benefits and perks of being part of Rooted in Relationships (Rooted), which is one of the Nebraska Children and Families Foundation’s Early Childhood initiatives.
Although our lives are flooded with information, for many working parents, one worry looms large on a Sunday night: who can care for their children when they go to work? This concern is neither a lullaby nor a bedtime story but instead a keep-you-awake-at-night concern, particularly for rural Nebraskan parents.
“When can you have a baby?”
This is the question that Becca Paulsen will ask her childcare provider when Becca is thinking about having a second child.
This leads us to our next question:
How do young parents find childcare in homey, comfortable, close-knit small towns?
Read on.
Any well-meaning parent or caregiver may think that when they put a child in time out, the child’s negative reaction and acknowledgment of her misbehavior means she is well-aware of what she did wrong, has accepted her punishment, and has taken back her behavior. When lacking an alternative, we generally enact disciplinary measures that we have been raised with and know best, but Time-Outs aren’t always effective. As part of the Rooted, Jana and her team have attended trainings that teach them evidence-based, Pyramid Model strategies that help build relationships between the children and their caregivers while at the same time decreasing challenging behavior.
In 2015, when Boone County, Nebraska was considering plans to address their childcare shortage, Jay Wolf, and other Boone County Foundation Fund (BCFF) core team members, said, “We know we have a childcare shortage; we need solutions, but we’re not interested in building a center.”
Five years later, the team broke ground for Boone Beginnings, their early care center.
So, how did this happen? Read on.
