Tis the season for merry making, holiday wishing and preparing for the New Year. We wanted to take this opportunity to tell  you how much we appreciate all you do for children and families in Delaware.  We know your work can be difficult, but the rewards can be life changing!

Whether you celebrate a holiday in December or not, we want you to know we celebrate you!  We created this edition of REACH for you, as our gift.  Hopefully you will be connected to a new resource or idea that you didn't have before.  It's our way of saying thank you!

First Book will bring 40,000 brand-new books for Delaware's disadvantaged children. Only educators who are registered on the First Book Network will receive an invitation to attend!  Early childhood educators who are eligible (see below) and registered can select up to 50 free children's books and children can select 10 free books each!

Who is eligible for First Book?

• Head Start
• Title I or Title I eligible School
• USDA Food and Nutrition Program
• Federally Qualified Health Center
• Title VII recipient
• Military family support program
• Library with an E-rate of 90
• A program primarily serving children with disabilities
• A program where at least 70% of children come from low-income families

Learn more and register!  

Social media like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest have quickly become mainstays of communication.  Whether you like connecting with friends, following businesses and organizations or getting news and current trends, it seems everyone and everything has a social media account.

 

Social media offers early childhood educators opportunities for increasing:

• family engagement-create a Facebook page for your program, post pictures of activities and children throughout the day and invite families to like your page so they can see the activities and their children from work
• marketing-use social media to market the services your early childhood program offers families and to boost enrollment!  Click here for an online presentation to help you get started.
• networking-link to other early childhood educators' social media accounts by searching their business names and to early childhood education organizations like DIEEC PD and Delaware Stars to create your own professional network

Children and Families First will have opportunities in 2017 to offer grant funding to licensed child care programs in Delaware.  The idea is to increase the quality and supply of child care available to children and families throughout the state in the following areas:

• Children who need care during non-traditional   hours (defined as care needed a minimum of one hour prior to 7:00 a.m., until a minimum of one hour after 6:00 p.m., and/or care needed on weekends); 
• Children whose first language is not English
  Spanish, Korean, Urdu, etc.);
• Children with special needs (defined as children
  with disabilities who are receiving early
  intervention or special education services); and
• Infants and toddlers (defined as birth up to 36
  months).

Grant awards will include, but are not limited to: purchasing educational materials, funding to support quality assured professional development, classroom furnishings, or services that will improve efficiency in operations. Funding is not intended to be used to pay for construction or renovations.