Boulder Day Nursery - Oldest Centers In North America

Boulder Day Nursery Association was recently named the 74th oldest child care organization in North America by the education journal Exchange. Since 1917, Boulder Day Nursery has provided working families with high quality early childhood programs, and been a leader in advocating for issues of concern to children and families. Whether you're a parent looking for child care, or interested in finding out how you can help support our mission, they invite you to browse through their website, and perhaps start with the 'Why Boulder Day Nursery' section on the navigation menu above.

The Boulder Day Nursery also utilizes a style of curriculum based on the book The Storybook Journey. This curriculum focuses on children's literature, poems, songs, rhymes and the creative endeavors of the children and staff. It provides the core of our weekly planning including events of special interest. 

The Storybook Journey provides a foundation for emergent literacy and a positive experience for group and individual participation, and tremendously enhances the experience of the children enrolled in this program. It also provides an opportunity to effectively address emotional difficulties that can begin to emerge in at-risk populations in this age group.

Child care in the Boulder area is among the most expensive in the country. Most of the child care centers uses child care software for managing their activities. Unfortunately cost is in no way a guarantee of quality. According to the national Cost, Quality, and Child Outcomes in Child Care Centers Study (a large portion of which was done right here in Boulder), child care at most centers in Colorado is poor to mediocre, with almost half of the infant and toddler rooms having poor quality. 

Additionally, the study found that in Colorado: only 1 in 7 centers provide a level of quality that promotes healthy development; child care at 1 in 8 centers threatens health and safety; 40% of infant and toddler rooms were observed to threaten health and safety; only 1 in 12 infant and toddler centers are providing developmentally appropriate care; and, 7 in 10 centers are providing mediocre quality care which will compromise children’s ability to enter school ready to learn.

Sleep for Kids - Is It Important?

Children who get less sleep at night (those in the lower 25th percentile) also tend to have more difficulty falling asleep.  They are more likely to change where they are sleeping during the night, take fewer naps during the day, and have more sleep problems overall.  They also seem sleepy or overtired during the day, according to their parent or caregiver. The National Sleep Foundation commissioned WB&A Market Research to conduct a national survey of adults living in the United States who have a child present in their household age 10 and younger.  The primary objective of this poll was to describe children’s sleep habits and sleep problems.  In addition, an overwhelming majority of parents/caregivers say they would change something about their child’s sleep if they could.  While most would change their child’s bedtime, one out of five parents/caregivers of infants say they would change the length of time their child sleeps. 

In light of the findings from the 2004 Sleep in America poll, the National Sleep Foundation makes the following recommendations for parents and caregivers:

Make sufficient sleep a family priority. Understanding the importance of getting enough sleep and how sleep affects the overall health of parents and children is the first step towards making sleep a family priority.  Parents/caregivers need to determine the amount of sleep each family member needs and take steps to ensure their individual needs are met. Every family member must make a good night’s sleep a regular part of his/her daily schedule.

Embrace good sleep habits.  Regular bedtime routines, creating a quiet and comfortable bedroom, and adhering to appropriate bedtime and wake times can go a long way to better sleep. Televisions and computers need to be out of the bedroom and caffeine should not be part of a child's diet.

Learn to recognize sleep problems. The most common sleep problems in children include difficulty falling asleep, nighttime awakenings, snoring, stalling and resisting going to bed, having trouble breathing, and loud or heavy breathing while sleeping.  These sleep problems can be evident in daytime behavior such as being overtired, sleepy or cranky. 

Talk to your child's doctor about sleep. Parents/caregivers should discuss their child's sleep habits and problems with their child's doctor, as most sleep problems are easily treated.  Healthcare professionals must regularly ask about a child's sleep.

Kindergartners need about 10 to 12 1/2 hours of sleep per night (with naps declining and eventually disappearing around age 5), and older elementary age kids need 9 1/2 to 11 1/2 hours a night. Sleep needs are somewhat individual, with some kids requiring slightly less or more than their peers.Kids who don't get enough sleep show other changes in the levels of hormones circulating in their body, too. Hormones that regulate hunger and appetite can be affected, causing a child to overeat and have a preference for high-calorie carbs. What's more, a shortage of sleep can affect the way the body metabolizes these foods, triggering insulin resistance, which is linked to type 2 diabetes.

National Child Care Provider Appreciation Day

Provider Appreciation Day was started in 1996 by a group of volunteers in New Jersey who saw the need to recognize the tireless efforts of providers who care for children of working parents. Momentum and support for this event has grown each year, and recognition presently includes individuals and government organizations throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.

In recent years, local governments across the United States have joined many Governors in proclaiming this day of recognition. Around the globe, Department of Defense installations celebrate Provider Appreciation Day by recognizing those who care for the children of military parents living both at home and abroad. 

Events such as luncheons, parades, dedications, and other recognition celebrations are planned throughout the United States to honor and thank child care providers for their hard work and commitment to children.

The second Sunday in May has long been recognized as the day to honor mothers and their commitment to children. The Friday before Mother’s Day, May 10, 2013, is Provider Appreciation Day, a special day to recognize child care providers, teachers, school-age program staff, child care center directors and staff, and all those who work with children and are responsible for their education and care. It is estimated that nearly 11 million children under age 5 are cared for by 2.8 million child care providers in the United States.

9 Reasons Why America is a Difficult Place to Raise Kids

Most of the parents who are having a permanent job , they are not able to afford the sky rocketing child care cost so there are parents who take up 2-3 jobs at time to educate their child in a better school. In fact, 72% of respondents say there are more concerns when it comes to rearing children today. More than half feel it is too expensive to raise children in this day and age—and 60% believe you need dual incomes. It is easy to love but very hard to raise kids at present.

1. The High Cost of Childcare

American families are facing a variety of rising costs in 2015, from food to housing. But one of the biggest expenses of all is turning out to be childcare. A 2014 report by Child Care Aware of America found that daycare could be as high as $14,508 per year for an infant and $12,280 per year for a four-year-old. And that is, in a sense, more troubling for new parents than the high cost of college tuition: while that expense is 17 or 18 years in the future, daycare is an expense working parents face right away.

Some child care centers in order to increase customer service always uses child care software for administration of the centers. The staff and admin personnel uses the software for managing the documents and billing.

2. Stagnant Wages Combined With Ever-Increasing Cost of Living

A 2014 report by the Center for American Progress offered little reason to be optimistic about family life in the U.S. The Center found that “investing in the basic pillars of middle-class security—child care, housing and healthcare, as well as setting aside modest savings for retirement and college—cost an alarming $10,600 more in 2012 than it did in 2000.” To make matters worse, the Center reported, incomes for most Americans remained stagnant during that 12-year period.

3. Public Education Is Struggling, and Private Schools Are Unaffordable

When families are struggling financially and have less money to spend, that harms a variety of businesses. And lower income also means less tax revenue, which harms public education because public education is funded with income taxes as well as sales and property taxes. In 2014, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reported that at least 35 states had less funding per student than they did before the Great Recession—and 14 of those states had cut per-student funding by over 10%. Some parents will send their kids to private schools, but only if they can afford to: in 2014, the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) found that annual tuition for private high schools in the U.S. ranged from an average of $13,500 in the southern states to $29,000 in the western states to over $30,000 in the northeastern states.

4. Astronomical College Tuition

During the Fathers Knows Best/Leave It to Beaver era Republicans romanticize, a college degree practically guaranteed a middle-class income for families. College was much more affordable in those days, but now, a college education is more expensive than ever—tuition costs have more than doubled since the 1980s, and there is no guarantee that a four-year degree or even a masters will lead to the type of job one needs to support a family. A college degree costs more now but delivers less. In the 1950s and 1960s, college graduates working in low-paying, dead-end service jobs was unheard of; now, it’s common. And someone making $8 or $9 an hour is going to have a very hard time paying off a six-figure student loan debt and starting a family and rising cost is not only the issue so let us look at all the factors that contribute

5. The High Cost of Healthcare

The Affordable Care Act of 2010 has brought about some desperately needed improvements: for example, health insurance companies can no longer deny health insurance to a child who has a preexisting condition, such as Type 1 diabetes. But the ACA, which was greatly influenced by health insurance lobbyists, needs to be expanded considerably before it offers families the types of protections that are the norm in France or Sweden—and Republicans in Congress continue to fight Obamacare every step of the way. Raising a healthy child is still much easier in Europe than in the U.S.

6. The Decline of Organized Labor

In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker has been calling for a 20-week abortion ban in his state and reminding anti-abortion groups that he has a history of defunding Planned Parenthood. But if Walker is really concerned about families, he should reconsider his opposition to organized labor. It is no coincidence that when roughly 35% of American private-sector workers belonged to unions in the mid-1950s, it was much easier to start a family: collective bargaining promoted economic stability for the middle class. But in 2014, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that the unionization rate in the U.S. was a mere 6.6% for private-sector workers and 11.1% when private-sector and public-sector workers were combined. The BLS also reported that non-union workers were only earning 79% of what unionized workers were earning. At a time when union membership in the U.S. is the lowest it has been in almost 100 years, Walker just made Wisconsin a right-to-work state, which will bring union membership down even more.

7. U.S. Still Lags Behind in Paid Maternity Leave

The U.S. is the only country in the developed world that still lacks mandatory paid maternity leave. That is quite a contrast to Europe, where government-mandated paid maternity leave ranges from 81 weeks in Austria to 47 weeks in Italy to 42 weeks in France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the Republic of Ireland. Meanwhile, in the Pacific region, paid maternity leave ranges from 18 weeks in Australia to 58 weeks in Japan. Paid maternity leave is strictly optional in the U.S., where according to the organization Moms Rising, 51% of new mothers have no paid maternity leave at all.

8. Stagnant Minimum Wage

If the U.S.’ national minimum wage had kept up with inflation, it would be much higher than its current rate of $7.25 an hour. President Barack Obama has proposed raising it to $10.10 per hour, while economist Robert Reich favors raising it to $15 an hour nationally. Raising the minimum wage would hardly be a panacea for American families, but it would be a step in the right direction. However, even Obama’s proposed $10.10 per hour is unlikely to come about as long as far-right Republicans are dominating both houses of Congress.

9. Outsourcing and the Loss of American Manufacturing Jobs

Thanks to globalization, neo liberal economics and disastrous trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), the U.S. has been steadily losing manufacturing jobs for decades. A study by the Economic Policy Institute found that in 2011, globalization had depressed wages for non-college-educated Americans by 5.5%. And now, both Republicans and the Obama administration are pushing for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), a free-trade deal that opponents have been calling “NAFTA on steroids.” Resulting in more manufacturing jobs being outsourced, TPP will make life even worse for blue-collar families in the U.S.

For more information, read here.

The Evolution of the Child Life Profession in North America

Since 1920 the child care profession was started and also made improvements in the health care experience of the children by giving them the opportunity to learn, play and prepare for the future endeavors. These child life services were necessary for improving the emotional stability and healthy development of hospitalized children while mitigating the fear and pain associated with treatment. 

Lot of research was conducted regarding the alarming incidence of infant deaths in hospitals and foundling homes to the inability of babies to tolerate the sensory deprivation imposed by their surroundings and the absence of sufficient human contact. These infant studies were cautionary models for the exploration of capacities in toddlers and older children to interpret and withstand painful and frightening hospital experiences when the familiar comforts of family and home were absent. 

Many children faced long hospitalizations for chronic illness.This provided an opportunity for change. Play/recreation therapists and teachers were hired to organize activities, provide schooling and psycho-social support for listless and bored children. Their work often involved teaching hospital staff about the non-medical and emotional needs of children as well as orienting and supervising volunteers. At this time, most play programs were not taken seriously.

In 1965, a group of pioneering women in the field met in Boston to share their work, triumphs and challenges. Their goal was to create child and family friendly hospital environments. These women established The Association for the Well Being of Hospitalized Children and Their Families. It officially became known as the Association for the Care of Children in Hospitals (ACCH, 1967) and

 In 1979, was renamed the Association for the Care of Children’s Health. ACCH membership included doctors, nurses, child life specialists, parents and other health professionals working with children and families. The Child Life Study Section was created to help the child life profession achieve a separate identity within ACCH to continue developing its own professional practices and policies.

During the 1970s, child life professionals collaborated to define the theoretical basis of their work with children, the essential elements of professional practice that are necessary, and the requirements of an educational program to prepare students for the profession. The number of child life programs increased substantially, and colleges developed academic programs incorporating hospital internships to prepare students to work with the hospitalized child.

In 1982, the Child Life Council (CLC) was established with its own officers and its own professional development conference. A method of professional certification was adopted which assured a standard of child life specialist practice,

By 1998 a standardized Child Life Professional Certification Examination was in place.

By the end of the 1980s, substantial professional resources and official documents had been produced: program review tools, requirements of professional competency, how to start a child life program, standards of clinical practice and standards of educational preparation.

In 1983, ACCH obtained a research grant to study the efficacy of a hospital program based in child life theory and the practice of reducing stress and anxiety. Based on the results of the Phoenix Research Project, Psychosocial Care of Children in Hospitals: A Clinical Practice Manual was written.

During the 1990s, a health care crisis developed. Some of the results of hospital restructuring and cost containment initiatives were reduction in child life specialist positions, shortened lengths of stay, increased outpatient visits as well as increased home care and hospice programs for children. In response, the CLC developed the Vision-to-Action strategic planning process. A representative group of child life professionals was elected by the general membership to study how the profession was to move forward into the 21st century. Their recommendations were brought to the membership at the 1996 conference in Albuquerque for discussion and action.

In the new millennium, child life continues in the traditional hospital setting (e.g., inpatient, outpatient, day program, ER) as well as in many nontraditional settings. In addition to hospitals, child life specialists are employed in hospice programs, camps, early intervention programs, courtrooms, dental practices, support/bereavement groups, community programs, and private practice, among others.

Cultural Differences and Baby Sleep

In the U.S. and some other Western countries, many parents work hard to get their babies on predictable, regular schedules. And there’s a lot to be said for establishing a routine — it often helps regulate a baby’s nap-time sleep (and even nighttime sleep!).

However, we've found that parents from other countries tend to have a more relaxed, on-the-go mentality when it comes to schedules. In these countries, it’s normal for baby’s sleep schedule to look different from one day to the next. And it’s fine for naps to happen on the go, while mom and dad are out running errands or spending time with friends.

The idea that some parents take steps to train, or to teach, their babies to sleep is understood and accepted (even if not every Western parent would agree with some of the practices associated with sleep training, like cry it out methods.)

In the Western world, co-sleeping isn't exactly the norm. Here in the West, we tend to sleep our babies in cribs, in a separate nursery. Room-sharing is still popular in the first 6 months or so, but other forms of co-sleeping (like co-sleeping long-term, or bed-sharing) are still more on the rare side among Western moms.

In countries around the world, however, this isn't the case. For example, in many countries, parents and children share the same bed for several years. This is the case in many Asian countries — babies sleep with their parents until they’re toddlers, and at that point, they move to their own small bed near their parents’ bed. It’s also standard practice in some countries to sleep your baby in the same bed as an extended family member (like a grandmother, or an aunt.). This is particularly true for countries in which living with extended family under the same roof is the norm.

This is far from the case around the world. In many cultures, the extended family takes an active role in helping to raise children. Sometimes, family members all live together under one roof, meaning that grandma takes the night shift with the baby as often as mom does.

Childcare With a Difference - Woman Inspires Learning, Reading at Historic Child Care

Many of those children looked upon the walls of Happy Time Child Care Center and saw the same faces as their parents and grandparents. Shepard lined the walls of the daycare with portraits of noted black Americans, from Harriet Tubman and Booker T. Washington to Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou and Jesse Owens.

There was a time in the early 1970s when it was extremely difficult to find books about leaders of the Civil Rights Movement in Mansfield and in cities across the United States.The library did not have African-American books.Shepard, 80, opened Happy Time Child Care Center out of her living room in 1967. 

Some child care centers uses child care management software for their management operations so as to give better service to its customers. Staff in the center finds it easier to do enrollment and billing using a child care management software. Parents also uses the software for keeping in touch with the center and paying the bills. 

Her goal at the time was to teach children on Mansfield’s mostly black north end how to read — a task she fulfilled for 48 years until the daycare closed just months ago.She says children often ask her about the people in the pictures, which leads to conversations about their history.

There were the basics, of course, for young children. There were flashcards, pictures and entry-level books — an entire reading system for children up to 5 years old.But learning how to read was only the beginning for those students.Shepard ordered a number of books on famous black Americans from Chicago-based retail outlets in the 1970s. Under Shepard, teachers at the daycare would often read those books to children when they became old enough to understand.

Most of those children, who still came to the daycare for after-school care around the ages of 8 or 9, would begin reading the books by themselves.By 1992, Shepard had her students take home books from her private library and write book reports on famous black Americans to be delivered orally every Friday.

Learning to read became just as important as reading to learn.She says children often ask her about the people in the pictures, which leads to conversations about their history. all the kids know Martin Luther King, and that’s good, but there are other Civil Rights leaders who also (contributed),” Shepard helped establish the Culliver Reading Center, 276 Harker St., which aims to provide children ages 5 through 12 with a safe place to go where they can continue reading and learning about black American history.