Zero to Three's Year of Play for babies and toddlers looks at pumpkins this month -- including their size, shape, texture and color. Other activities include sensory play and making pumpkin muffins to introduce toddlers to baking.
Changing leaves, cool breezes and animals preparing for winter -- lots to read and talk about with young children this time of year. Best books about fall for preschoolers.
The Iron Triangle: Calculating the Cost of Providing Quality Care and Education
The cost of providing high-quality child care environments that close the achievement gap is higher than providing lower-quality services. As the number of Nebraska early care and education providers participating in Step Up to Quality grows, it's important to understand the costs associated with increased quality and their effect on the stability of child care businesses.
To fully understand the costs that care providers incur to increase their level of quality, First Five Nebraska is utilizing the work of Louise Stoney (Alliance for Early Childhood Finance and Opportunities Exchange) and Libby Poppick (Opportunities Exchange).
Stoney and Poppick have identified three interrelated metrics, which they call the Iron Triangle, that keep early care and education businesses financially viable. Understanding the metrics will allow care providers to think strategically and make sound fiscal decisions, and help policymakers weigh public investments in early childhood education.
Mobile technology and the ability to receive work email, texts, news alerts and other communication around the clock has blurred the lines between work and home for many parents.
Researchers say that young children first learn that a squiggle on a page represents something, and then that the squiggles called letters have more specific meanings. A recent study shows that this developmental step on the path to reading happens earlier than previously thought.
