By: Lisa Mulliken Think about yourself as a child. Most likely, much of your time was spent exploring natural materials in your environment: digging for worms, lifting rocks in ...

Beth Simon “All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” ― Charles M. Schulz White, milk, dark, frozen or hot, in bars, drops, chips or chunks, cho...

By Lisa Mulliken Barney the purple dinosaur, Wilson the volleyball, Snuffleupagus (my favorite!) and the Wild Things. What do all of these have in common? They are all imaginary ...

Submitted by Tracy Walter When first hearing about the LearnERS platform, there may be part of you despairing over the addition of another training and professional development t...

Kitty Syster “Your kids’ success or lack of success in sports does not indicate what kind of parent you are… But having an athlete that is coachable, respectful, a great teammate...

Stefanie Camoni There are a variety of program observation instruments available to Pennsylvania programs and three that are specific to school-age classrooms. Most are familiar ...

By Amy Hoffman In September I took a solo vacation to New England. Because I wanted to see as many sites as possible, I kept to a whirlwind pace. I asked friends for their recomm...

By Regina Wright Sometimes parents wonder if they should be giving children chores. Isn’t it the parent’s responsibility to maintain the household? Shouldn’t children be allowed ...

By Stefanie Camoni Will my program have external assessments conducted by a program quality assessor this year? Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, external assessments are temporar...

Aimee Currier How many of us have pondered the thought of “just where did half of my socks go?” I read a funny quote that said lost socks come back as Tupperware lids! May 9 th ...

Kelli Harris This year, Teacher Appreciation Week falls from May 3-7. Within that week, Tuesday, May 4 th is National Teacher Day. It’s worth taking some time to think about tea...

Michelle Mallonee Long WYSIWYG (pronounced “wiz-ee-wig”), standing for “What you see is what you get,” is a term reportedly coined by Flip Wilson in the late 1960’s on the Laugh-...

Por Lisa Mulliken Contenedores de juego individuales pueden ser creados utilizando diferentes tipos de recipientes llenos de varios materiales. Estos contenedores se pueden utili...

by Michelle Long Los proveedores de cuidado infantil en familia y grupal a menudo cuidan a niños en entornos de grupos de edades mixtas que pueden incluir bebés, niños pequeños, ...

Kitty Syster The Inclusive Classroom Profile, commonly referred to as the ICP, is a program observation instrument used to assess the quality of daily classroom practices that su...

By Beth Simon There’s no doubt that art plays a huge part in our lives and especially in the lives of children. Before children learn to write, they learn to draw. Painting, draw...

By Stefanie Camoni How long have you been a Quality Coach/STARS specialist? Meet Aubryn Wojtkielewicz. She started with Community Services for Children in October of 2015. When...

Submitted by Tracy Walter Early in 2019, the PA Key Program Quality Assessment team began orientations in partnership with the Branagh Group to introduce the LearnERS platform. L...

Amy Hoffman A few weeks ago, a friend commented that her 5-year-old had been “feeling all the feelings” earlier in the day. He was reacting to those feelings by crying when she l...

By Michelle Mallonee Long In a previous article “WYSIWYG” I shared the story of “The Trouble Tree” – Author unknown; and suggested using Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree” as a...