High Quality Care and Education 0-5

If you want to improve the quality of your program or your home, try asking the right questions and listening carefully to the answers you get.

The questions could take between 5 and 10 minutes to answer but I'm fairly sure they will improve the quality of any program or home that uses them. The questions are:

1. What do we do well here as a teaching team?

2. How could we do more of that?

   
   

   Or for parents:

1. What does this family do well?

2. How could we do more of that?

If you need some inspiration, we've included some ideas. You can substitute the word homes for programs in most of these examples.

According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), high-quality child care programs:

• Provide a safe and healthy environment

  Programs should have well-maintained indoor and outdoor spaces, and be free of hazards that could injure children or staff. 

• Have well-trained teachers

  Teachers should have the educational qualifications, knowledge, and professional commitment to support children's learning and development. 

• Use developmentally appropriate teaching practices

  Teachers should build on what children already know and can do, and help them meet goals that are right for them. 

• Promote positive relationships

  Programs should promote positive relationships between children and adults, and establish collaborative relationships with families. 

• Provide nutritious meals

  Programs should provide nutritious meals and/or snacks. 

• Communicate with parents

  Programs should regularly communicate with parents, and welcome visitors at all times. 

• Have effective administration

  Programs should effectively implement policies, procedures, and systems that support stable staff and strong management. 

important note: As parents and early childhood educators, we need more high-quality child care options. At the present time, only 10% of child care in the US is considered high-quality, yet parents spend about 30% of their income on child care when they work full-time.

At the same time, most child-care teachers don't make enough money to live on their own. We need to work together to make changes. Here's one small thing you can do right now to help us spread the word and become more informed.

Join the PLAN collective. We are a group of parents and providers who refuse to work in or use low quality care. When you join you get some awesome gifts like our 5.5-hour training on the PLAN and eBooks on How To Get Kids To Listen Without Yelling or Time-Outs and What To Do When A Young Child Hits.

Click on the PLAN illustration to join.

You'll make a one-time donation to our non-profit organization and get access to all of our best materials immediately.

Nanci J Bradley is a child and family educator, parent, author, family aerobics instructor, and all-around fun-loving person. She believes in the power of sleep, lifelong learning, healthy eating, fun, and more than anything else, PLAY! She studied early childhood education at Triton College and received her BS in education from Northern Illinois University in 1986. She received her MA in human development from Pacific Oaks College in 2011. She has presented at state and national conferences. She lives and teaches in Madison, WI