News from the Rhode Island Child Care and Early Learning Facilities Fund
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Starting and Operating a Child Care Business
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In our
May eNews we outlined
the
Department of Children Youth and Families (DCYF)
Child Care Licensing unit's step-by-step list for groups interested in opening a new center. Even before you get to the point where you would engage DCYF, it's a good idea to spend some time in advance really planning out how the business of your child care will operate.
Child care can be an exciting and rewarding field. It provides a wonderful opportunity to impact the lives of children and their families. Regardless of one’s individual motivation for entering the early care and education field, starting and operating a child care business is both a personal and a business decision. As is true for all small business owners, prospective child care providers must take the right steps to ensure that their businesses are profitable and sustainable. Providers must follow federal, state, and local regulations and standards, and they must ensure they have healthy and safe environments for children. In addition to meeting children’s basic needs, providers encourage children’s development by providing activities that stimulate physical, emotional, intellectual, and social growth.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families has created a resource guide that presents some basic steps to consider as you plan to start and operate a child care business. The information is an overview and is not intended to be all inclusive. Additional resources are provided to help you explore child care as a business opportunity. Other steps may be suitable for your specific type of business, depending on your local requirements and regulations.
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And if you are looking for even more resources, First Children's Finance has developed an online
Business Resource Center for Child Care Centers to help you better understand the "business side" of child care. If you take a close look at the facilities section you'll see resource guides developed by yours truly!
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Supportive Learning Environments
for Infants and Toddlers
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Using the environment to support development for infants and toddlers helps caregivers concentrate on specific experiences.
A
learning area
is an area within an infant-toddler room that allows caregivers to offer children nurturing and learning experiences; each learning area is typically planned to support particular developmental domains (e.g., a climbing or grasping area to assist with gross or fine motor development) or exploration of certain ideas (e.g., a block area to explore cause-and-effect and balance). Although learning areas may be designed to support particular aspects of development or interests, they should not be used exclusively for one purpose. Rather, learning areas should include many engaging possibilities, with each area serving multiple functions.
Sensory exploration by infants and toddlers, for example, will happen in all care and learning areas, and need not be contained to a learning area with that label. In addition, a cozy book area, not only provides young children with early literacy experiences, but also provides a quiet, calm space to relax alone or with a caregiver.
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Possible learning areas to consider when creating infant or toddler rooms:
- Cozy spaces to safely take a break from the group.
- Reaching, grasping and kicking area (various hanging materials).
- Climbing area (stairs, platforms, risers, low cubes).
- Mirror area.
- Blocks and building, construction area.
- Soft toy area.
- Books and language areas.
- Dramatic play area (play kitchen, dress-up materials).
- Messy area (art and expressive materials, sand and water table).
- Sound area (chimes, instruments, music, CDs and player).
- Sensory area (scented items, natural materials).
- Animal area (fish, bird).
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Coming Soon - New Online Module on
Child Care Center Equipment and Furnishings
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The careful selection and arrangement of furnishings is an essential step in transforming an empty space into an early childhood environment.
Our forthcoming
Equipment and Furnishings Module
will help with selecting furnishings and equipment that make the space usable and comfortable, child-safe and child-friendly, and attractive and functional for the adults who share the environment. The workshop focuses on programs serving children from infancy through preschool, so it will emphasize equipment and layout of space to support the development of young children.
This session will be released in the late summer - stay tuned! Until then we currently have three online modules available, each worth 3 early childhood professional development hours.
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Have you missed any of our previous eNEWS or want to reference something you saw in an article from the past?
Our entire eNEWS catalog is available on our website.
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About RICCELFF
The Rhode Island Child Care and Early Learning Facilities Fund (RICCELFF) is an innovative public-private partnership dedicated to expanding access to quality child care and early education opportunities throughout Rhode Island. The RICCELFF provides the capital and technical expertise that child care and early learning centers need to improve the quality and capacity of their physical space. The RICCELFF provides a combination of training, technical assistance, grant funding and flexible, affordable financing for a wide range of indoor and outdoor projects including minor renovations or construction of new, state-of-the art facilities and playground spaces.
Click here
to learn more about what the RICCELFF can offer your program.
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LISC Rhode Island Child Care & Early Learning Facilities Fund | 146 Clifford Street
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