Day Nursery Hendricks County center renews NAEYC accreditation

Congratulations to the staff of our Day Nursery Hendricks County Early Care & Education Center in Avon for marching through the NAEYC re-accreditation process with flying colors!

Quality child care matters and NAEYC accredited centers are the Right Choice for Kids! We are proud that all 7 Day Nursery centers have achieved this important status.

Visit the NAEYC For Families page for learning and development tips, resources for parents and music and activities for you to share with your child.

Two Day Nursery Indianapolis centers recognized by Federal Government

Day Nursery Federal Center Director Sarah Parks (left) with Brenda Roldan, Regional Child Care Coordinator, GSA Public Buildings Service
Facilities Mgmt & Services Programs

Last month, two Day Nursery Association of Indianapolis centers were presented with a Keystone Award by the General Services Administration in recognition of our commitment to provide quality child care through the achievement of re-accreditation from the National Academy of Early Childhood Programs.  NAEYC accreditation is an achievement reached by only 10% of child care centers nationwide, so we are very proud that 100% of our seven Day Nurseries in Indianapolis have reached this goal.  The two centers recognized are those we operate in partnership with the Federal government. Congratulations to Sarah Parks and her staff at the Day Nursery Federal Center downtown and to Debra Ballard and her staff at Day Nursery Start Smart 4 Children at Ft. Harrison.

(Left to Right) Jessica Stewart, Assistant Director and Debra Ballard, Director, Day Nursery Start Smart 4 Children at Ft. Harrison; Myrine Callihan, property manager at the Major General Emmett J. Bean Federal Center at Ft. Harrison; and Patty Fisher, Director of Center Adminstration, Day Nursery Association.

Day Nursery Federal Center students celebrate change in the weather

It’s beginning to look like winter inside the Day Nursery Federal Center, 575 N. Pennsylvania Street, Indianapolis,  just in time for the snow predicted outside this afternoon!  Our young twos have been busy making wreaths, and our older twos have been hard at work on gingerbread men—studying the interesting properties of glue & how it sticks to both their yarn & their fingers.  Our Pre-K classroom is studying nursery rhymes this week & have been talking about sheep today—Mary Had a Little Lamb.  Tomorrow the Pre-K classroom is planning on dropping eggs—both raw & hard-boiled and talking about the different properties they have.

Day Nursery Federal Center Director Sarah Parks reports she has a few rare openings for infants, toddlers and twos in her center.  If you know someone who is looking for an educational child care program downtown,  please have them contact Sarah at 317-226-5487  or drop her a line.

Friendly football wager renewed with Day Nursery in East Orange NJ

Just got confirmation last night that we have officially renewed our friendly football wager with the Community Day Nursery in East Orange New Jersey for another year. Even though we share the same name, our centers are not affiliated. I found them through a search of NAEYC centers in New Jersey last year and we had so much with with it, I wanted to renew the connection.  Last year, thanks to a Colts victory,  we were the recipients of some awesome handmade multi-cultural puppets.  This year, the staff and children in New Jersey are offering 7 copies (for our 7 locations) of a beautiful book called Martin’s Big Words. Executive Director Kathy Burke sent me a picture of some of their students with the potential prize.  We are offering a box full of great race cars if we have to pay up.  Let the best team win!

Our friends at Community Day Nursery in New Jersey!

Indiana’s Early Education Advocates get update from NAEYC

Carolyn Dederer

Today’s post is written by Carolyn Dederer, Executive Director of the Day Nursery Association of Indianapolis.

Jerlean E. Daniel, Ph. D.

Last week I attended the Indiana Association for the Education of Young Children’s semi-annual Public Policy Academy along with early education advocates from all over Indiana.  We met courtesy of the wonders of webinar teleconferencing and our guest speaker was Jerlean E. Daniel, Ph.D, newly appointed Executive Director of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).  Dr. Daniel speaking from Alexandria, Va, reported NAEYC’s standards for programs and professional development have been aligned with its policy stances in order to lead to improvements in children’s development and learning.

 

Here in Indiana, the new Paths to Quality initiative is using these standards to measure individual programs.  Did you know that 1,901 or 51.9% of eligible providers are already enrolled?  To date, 148 of these programs have achieved a “4”, the highest, NAEYC accredited level.  The others are diligently working their way up the scale.  Benchmarks include health and safety standards, classroom learning environments, and planned curriculum.

 

Celebrating The Week of the Young Child at Day Nursery Clarian Center

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This week’s football wager pits books against puppets

Last week we made a fun wager with a Day Nursery in Baltimore over the Colts and Ravens game.  Since we are on a winning streak (although we have yet to hear when we will receive our prize of a tub of Legos), I thought it would be fun to find another opponent.

I turned to the NAEYC website in search of an accredited Day Nursery in the area of the New York Jets fan base and I quickly found a match. Our opponent this week is the Community Day Nursery of East Orange, New Jersey.   After reviewing their website, the Community Day Nursery appears to be a worthy opponent.  We are both United Way agencies.  We are both nationally accredited by NAEYC and we both started serving families in our respective communities before the turn of the century: Community Day Nursery in 1897 and Day Nursery Indianapolis in 1899. Kathy Burke, Executive Director of the Community Day Nursery was quick to answer my email challenge over the game.   Her response? We will bet you five handmade African-American hand puppets that the Jets will win! On behalf of Day Nursery Indianapolis I had already put up an ante of five of our favorite preschool books should we have to pay off the wager. Either way, the children win and that is what Day Nursery is all about.  No matter who you root for.

We’ve got your back

Cathy Johnson-Day Nursery Association

Sylvia Jackson is a Toddler teacher at Day Nursery Northwest. She is working on an Associates Degree.

Cathy Johnson , Human Resources Manager at Day Nursery knows first hand how hard it is to balance home life and work responsibilities when going to school. She graduated last year with a degree from the IU Kelley School of Business while keeping up with her two daughters and a new position at Day Nursery.  A big part of Cathy’s job is keeping track of the Day Nursery employees enrolled in school.  Currently, we have 46 staff enrolled in classes ranging from Child Development Associate certificates (CDA) to masters degree work. As nationally accredited early care and education centers, our requirements for staff education and training are carefully outlined by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).  Last week, Cathy and Erin Slack, Human Resources Director created comfort kits for each of the 46 teachers to show them we all appreciate their dedication to the children of Day Nursery.  The gift included a fleece throw for snuggling up with a good (text!) book, a bar of chocolate, some microwave popcorn,  and a package of hot chocolate.  As a special treat, the package also included two movie tickets.

Day Nursery Open House in Avon scheduled for this Thursday

Day Nursery Hendricks County Early Care & Education Center

If you live or work in Hendricks County and have never visited the Day Nursery in Avon, this Thursday, July 16 would be a good time to do it.  The center, which is located on the north side of the Clarian West campus is holding an open house Thursday and will be open for tours from 4:30-7:00 pm.  This center is currently enrolling for all ages from infant through preschool age 6. 

All Day Nursery centers are nationally accredited by NAEYCand provide a loving and nurturing environment designed to prepare your child for elementary school utilizing the Creative Curriculum®. The center accepts CCDF child care vouchers and offers tuition assistance scholarships for working and student families.

All children 6 & under touring the center between 4:30-6:30 will receive a free book and will have chance to take a pony ride.  The center, which opened three years ago this month, is located at 1351 N. Ronald Reagan Parkway. If you would like more information you can call the center directly at (317) 271-2603. The Center Director is Joy McCall; the Assistant Director is Jackie Williams and the Office Manager is Carrie Montgomery.

Developmentally appropriate practice in the age of testing

An article in the May/June issue of the  Harvard Education Letter caught my eye today.  Since Day Nursery centers are NAEYC accredited, I am always interested to read articles that support the NAEYC philosophy of developmentally appropriate practice (or DAP as educators like to say).  As the parent of an elementary school student who attended preschool at Day Nursery, I was especially interested to read the suggestion that preschools and elementary schools should spend time learning from each other. 

As the push to teach literacy and math skills reaches farther into preschool and kindergarten, educators are warning that teachers need to address young students’ social, emotional, and physical needs as well as their cognitive development. Among their concerns:

• Teachers in preK–3rd grade increasingly focus on a narrow range of literacy and math skills, with studies showing some kindergarteners spend up to six times as much time on those topics and on testing and test prep than they do in free play or “choice time.”
• Many schools have eliminated recess or physical education, depriving children of their need to move and develop their bodies.

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is so concerned about the pressure to prepare students for third-grade standardized tests that it adopted a position statement in early 2009 on developmentally appropriate practice for educators in preK through third grade. In their report, “Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs: Serving Children from Birth Through Age 8,” NAEYC researchers outlined 12 principles of child development that can be incorporated into classroom teaching (see NAEYC’s 12 Principles of Child Development).

The report urges educators to incorporate play into daily instruction, devise classroom tasks that are challenging yet attainable, and become attuned to the needs of each student so that materials can be adapted to a child’s individual needs. It also urges educators in preK through third grade to learn from each other: While preschool educators can benefit from understanding the standards children are expected to meet by third grade, NAEYC believes primary-grade teachers can improve the quality of their instruction by learning more about children’s developmental needs from early childhood educators.

Read more here.