Family Child Care Providers

Discover how to make reading an integral part of children’s everyday experiences.  Learn strategies to use with infants, toddlers and preschoolers to support reading skills at each developmental stage for later reading success.

To make language and literacy an intentional part of each day, this training assists providers in using everyday routines, experiences and environments to help infants and toddlers develop a strong foundation for later learning.

This class explores and celebrates our differences.  By defining culture, bias and stereotypes, participants learn to recognize them as possible roadblocks in our practice and to explore strategies for better working relationships with staff, children and families.

Skilled Dialogue is a framework for communicating that goes beyond active listening to help us respond to difficult situations from a place of deep respect and connection, and to open up new possibilities for resolving conflict.  This workshop introduces participants to the Skilled Dialogue dispositions and strategies, and provides an opportunity to explore how they apply in our work.

This interactive workshop helps teachers build children’s awareness of the sounds of language, and develop children’s vocabulary and oral language skills through engaging phonological activities. 

Family home providers who have effective business and professional practices are more likely to view their businesses as careers, have positive interactions with children, and have high quality learning environments. They usually run their businesses using ethical standards and look for professional development opportunities that strengthen their businesses and learning environments. This course uses the Business Administration Scale as a tool to assess your business with sessions on record-keeping, fiscal management, risk management, marketing and community resources. Other topics to enhance the effectiveness of your business include good communication skills, and discussing personal and professional boundaries. Many opportunities are provided to share your ideas and experience with other participants, so attending all sessions ensures the greatest benefit to you and your program.

This training provides a framework for decision making about language acquisition issues in your program.  Together, we explore new research, as well as critical considerations for establishing a program’s language model.  Evidence-based strategies for program leaders, teachers and families are included.

Based on research concerning how teachers use their daily interactions to instruct and relate with each child in their classroom, this training provides examples of how great teachers create play environments that engage, motivate and stretch children into becoming thinkers and learners

This training provides an opportunity for providers to understand Authentic Assessment as a comprehensive system that includes curriculum, assessment and professional development. Participants also develop an appreciation for the importance of assessment and how this information can guide our work with infants, toddlers and their families. 

Children in the 21st Century face very different opportunities and challenges. Plus, the face of our communities has become increasingly diverse. This training explores these dynamics, including foster-parent involvement, techniques to communicate effectively with all families and how to connect rich classroom experiences to the everyday activities children engage in at home.

Research tells us that Phonological Awareness, Oral Language, Print Awareness and Alphabet Knowledge are the four predictors of young children’s later success in learning to read and write. Quality early literacy experiences are key to future academic achievement, higher graduation rates and increased productivity in adult life. This training explores each predictor in depth. Participants have many hands-on opportunities to investigate a variety of strategies and resources to support the development of early literacy skills. Suggestions, examples and demonstrations provide information on how to use age-appropriate activities throughout the day and in all areas of the classroom.

Children are born using science and math skills. They delight in exploration, experimentation and discovery. Early childhood teachers who are skilled in cultivating these natural abilities enable young children to build solid content knowledge, develop higher order thinking, solve problems creatively, and communicate and collaborate effectively – all skills needed as children enter the complex life and work environments of the 21st century. This course focuses on supporting the teacher’s understanding of the scientific process; that is, not having all of the answers but being able to ask good questions and facilitate discovery. Participants also have access to a wide range of materials and activities that can be used in their environments. They practice teaching strategies to help children link concepts across activities and apply them to their everyday lives.

This “learning lab” stresses the importance of teamwork in the Continuous Quality Improvement process, the components of the Qualistar rating, classroom arrangement, the why behind the ERS tools, practical experience and review of personal care routines associated with the ratings. We suggest taking this workshop in conjunction with “Getting Ready For the Ratings” before the Qualistar rating.

Learn how authentic assessment can ensure that children are on track with their development by assessing strengths, growth and needs.  Understand how to use authentic assessment to make instructional decisions and to support communication with parents.

This training explores all five components of the Qualistar Rating in detail. Participants receive a comprehensive “Getting Ready for Ratings” notebook prepared by Qualistar. The notebook and workshop offer helpful tools to prepare participants for their future Qualistar Rating.

Designed for family home providers, this “learning lab” reviews the sub-scales of the Family Child Care Environment Rating Scale (FCCERS-R) through interactive activities and discussion. Participants learn about the most commonly missed indicators, and the facilitators give suggestions from “the field” on how to meet the criteria. Participants also learn how scoring works so they can then go back to their family child care homes and conduct self-evaluations.

During this in-depth training, we discuss the Infant Toddler Environment Rating Scale tool, the interpretation of specific indicators, the research and rationale for the requirements, and provide suggestions on how to meet the tool’s criteria. Participants engage in hands-on activities  – like observing and scoring video snapshots of family child care homes – and learn how individual indicators are scored and an overall score is derived.

Interactions between children and teachers are critical in achieving positive outcomes for children across all developmental domains. The Classroom Assessment Scoring System™ (CLASS™) is an observation tool that can help teachers focus on interacting effectively with the children in their classroom to enhance each child’s learning. The CLASS™ is organized into three domains: Emotional Support, Classroom Organization and Instructional Support. There are three options for learning more about this tool and specific classroom practices that support children’s social/emotional development, analytical and thinking skills, and language and literacy skills by increasing learning opportunities throughout the day.

Join us for interactive group discussions by certified playground safety instructors about why gross motor play is so critical for a young child’s development.  Together we will explore the S.A.F.E. model for playground safety, and then expand on the importance of proper playground supervision, age-appropriate equipment, fall-surfacing requirements and equipment maintenance. We also identify general playground safety standards and become familiar with ASTM and CPSC standards for playgrounds.

Discover how to maximize your outdoor play space, and expand children’s play and learning while supporting their physical, emotional, cognitive and social development outdoors. We discuss how to implement nature-based learning areas into existing playgrounds using the Dimensions Educational Research Foundation’s 10 guiding principles for natural outdoor classrooms.  Ideas for nature-based activities and opportunities to design outdoor play spaces are also included. 

This training explores why room design is important in a quality classroom and how it impacts children’s behavior. We discuss how to create an ample, organized classroom that allows for movement, independence and productive play. Participants also discover Lakeshore’s classroom designer on-line tool and you can design a classroom with assistance from the Environment Rating Scale team.

How do we as educators encourage children’s language and reasoning development?  During this training we will discuss simple language strategies, such as modeling, self- talk, parallel talk, imitating, facilitating play, and observe, wait and listen. These strategies can be immediately implemented into the classroom to encourage and expand children’s communication and concept development.  Participants will also role-play asking open-ended reasoning questions while using educational materials.

This interactive training reviews how to score a classroom or child care home using the Environment Rating Scale expanded score sheet.  We review report-writing guidelines and give tips on how to produce a report that gives detailed, specific recommendations for quality improvement, as well as pointing out the provider’s unique strengths. Strategies and suggestions on how to have a positive successful consultation with teachers, directors and administrators are also discussed. A report-writing disk is also distributed.

Review the criteria of Personal Care Subscale of the Environment Rating Scale Tools and resolve commonly encountered issues for programs.  Together we also discuss why this subscale is important and discover current research regarding the health of students and staff in child care.

Examine how biases can affect your everyday life as well as how we look at early childhood classrooms. Discussion topics include describing yourself culturally, understanding why we are biased, identifying stereotypes, recognizing our own biases, looking at how these biases affect us both in life and with the use of the Environment Rating scales, and other biases relating to the different types of child care programs. Participants leave with a better understanding of who they are and how they relate to their world, both as a person and as an evaluator.