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The Maryland EXCELS Team is connecting with families and providers to promote Maryland EXCELS participating programs.
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Tots @ 10 at The Avenue at White Marsh
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Maryland EXCELS hosted a table and play area with stackable building blocks from Lakeshore Learning Materials at the Tots @ 10 event on Thursday, October 3, 2019. A petting zoo with live animals attracted many children, families, and child care providers to this event. Over 300 children visited our play area.
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A Purple Evening at M&T Bank Stadium
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The Maryland EXCELS team participated in the Baltimore Ravens’ 13th annual A Purple Evening at M&T Bank Stadium on Monday, October 14, 2019. Over 4,000 women attended the event. Quality Assurance Specialists interacted with more than 1,500 mothers, grandparents, other family members, and child care providers--including several participating in Maryland EXCELS. Attendees also had the chance to win a basket filled with Maryland EXCELS items and educational activities from Lakeshore Learning Materials.
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The Maryland EXCELS team talking with attendees about high-quality child care and early education.
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Director of the Office of Child Care Jennifer Nizer and Maryland EXCELS provider Quanda Green of Precious Ones Early Learning Center in Baltimore.
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A Purple Evening raffle winner Kelli and her son.
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Little Sprouts & Company Expo
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This project of the Allegany County ECAC highlights local resources and services for children birth to three and their families. Maryland EXCELS Quality Assurance Specialist Darlene Schmidt shared Child Care Scholarship information with more than 100 families. The expo, which was held on November 9, 2019, was sponsored by the Allegany County Early Childhood Advisory Council to highlight resources and services for children birth to age three and their families.
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Thrive by Five Conference
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Maryland EXCELS interacted with families at Thrive by Five: A Family Institute Essential Parent Conference. This conference was held by the Howard County Family Institute, Office of Children and Families on Saturday, November 16, 2019. The conference focused on helping families build a solid foundation for their child’s learning habits, skills, and expectations, with the ultimate goal of preparing them for kindergarten and a lifetime of learning.
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Have You Met Kacey,
the Maryland EXCELS Koality Bear?
Kacey debuted at this year’s A Purple Evening with the Baltimore Ravens. You’ll see Kacey in materials focused on helping families find high-quality child care and early education programs. Be on the lookout for this friendly face.
This promotion appeared in the fall 2019 Poe’s Playbook, an activity book distributed by the Baltimore Ravens to young football fans.
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Happy Holidays from the Maryland EXCELS Team
The Maryland EXCELS Team would like to extend our thanks for all you do to care for the children and families in your programs. We appreciate your hard work and dedication to high-quality child care and early education, and we hope you enjoy this holiday season!
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Here is a fun gift for children to make for their families. It is a specially decorated jar filled with nice thoughts or compliments. The jar can also be used for New Year’s resolutions.
Items needed:
Shatterproof glass jar with a lid, glue, paint brush, glitter, paper, markers, ribbon
Directions:
- Children can begin by painting the inside of the jar with glue. While the glue is still wet, have the children sprinkle glitter in the jar. Put the lid on the jar and shake the glitter around. Once the glitter is spread around the inside of the jar, remove the lid, shake any excess glitter out, and let the glue dry.
- Have the children dictate or write things they like about their family members on small pieces of paper.
- Once the glue in the jar is dry, put the pieces of paper in the jar, tie the ribbon around the top, and make a bow. Send the jar home for the children to share with their families.
- The jar can be re-used to celebrate New Year’s. Family members can write New Year’s resolutions in the jar and put it away until the end of the year.
Another great idea is to fill the jar with dinner conversation starters and use it throughout the year!
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“Most of my kids have been with me since they were infants, and I just can’t look at them as just a business, even though I know it’s a business,” said Pamela Funderburk, who runs Ms. P's Sprouts Family Childcare. “My heart takes over.”
Funderburk, a Quality Rated Level 5 Maryland EXCELS provider, is accredited by the National Family Child Care Association and holds a Maryland Child Care Credential. She credits Maryland EXCELS’ staff and resources with helping her achieve her goals to grow as a provider and business owner.
“It helps me to check myself. As a family provider, we’re on our own. We do our own business,” she said. “I found that I had to sit there and make myself make sure that I was implementing everything I needed to do in family child care. I’m my own director and assistant director but [Maryland] EXCELS helps me to know what I need to be doing.”
Read the full article here. |
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How Can You Help Military Families
and Grow Your Business?
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The Department of Defense (DoD) is increasing access to quality child care options for eligible military families through its fee assistance program Military Child Care in Your Neighborhood (MCCYN). On October 1, 2019, the DoD launched a pilot program known as MCCYN-PLUS. This pilot includes programs that participate in Maryland EXCELS, at a Quality Rating 3 or higher, and meet the eligibility requirements for MCCYN.
Interested in offering your child care services to military families? Email Child Care Aware directly at QRISMCCYNPLUS@usa.childcareaware.org to receive expert assistance with the verification process to become a participant. For more information about the pilot, visit here.
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A provider gets hands-on experience conducting a science experiment.
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On November 14, 2019, Maryland EXCELS worked with Lakeshore Learning Materials in Towson to host “How to Do Fun & Easy Science Projects” at the Lakeshore Learning Store. The training introduced providers to new activities for their programs and offered discounts on a wide selection of educational materials.
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The Baltimore County Directors and Providers Coffee Hour events have proved quite popular. Held the first Thursday of each month at Abilities Network in Towson, these events give important opportunities to voice opinions, ask questions, and network with fellow providers. The next coffee hour will be January 9, 2020. Beginning in February, there will also be an evening Coffee Hour. Register here to attend the next event. |
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Managing Behaviors That Challenge Us
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Maryland EXCELS, in conjunction with Abilities Network and Harford Community College, presented a valuable conference on November 9, 2019, titled "Managing Behaviors That Challenge Us." The conference boasted a phenomenal keynote speaker, Cayla Weller. As a special educator with Cecil County Public Schools and someone diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, Weller offered a unique perspective into the world of ADHD. Weller provided tips, tools, and suggestions for helping even our youngest students to be successful while in our care.
The conference included three training sessions to guide participants in preparing classrooms, students, and themselves to optimize positive behaviors and deal effectively with less desirable behaviors. Participants were very pleased with the information and delivery system and asked for additional trainings in the near future! We’ll keep you posted.
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Give the gift of knowledge this holiday season! Write an article for Maryland Families Engage about your efforts to engage parents and families in your early childhood program.
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Taking Steps to Prevent the Spread of the Flu
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With the start of flu season already here, it’s time to make sure your program’s policies are in place to help prevent the spread of the virus and other illnesses.
Keeping policies updated helps ensure that families and staff members are doing their part to keep everyone healthy. These can be added to your program’s Health and Safety policies in your handbook and as a notification on your bulletin board or website.
You can learn more about how to lessen the impact of the flu in your early education or child care programs from the handout Influenza Prevention and Control: Strategies for Early Education and Child Care Programs.
For children, illness from the influenza virus can be more serious than the common cold. Explore healthychildren.org, created by the American Academy for Pediatrics, for more information about preparing for the 2019-2020 flu season. |
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This time of year is full of wonder, excitement, and celebrations! Families are busy planning and preparing for various holidays. Children enjoy celebrating with their friends as well. They love to take a break from their day-to-day routines, while teachers and families get the chance to celebrate customs and holidays as a group. Planning these celebrations for the children provides an opportunity to get families involved in programming. Having families engaged in programming benefits everyone--the staff, the families and, most of all, the children.
Explore the Family Engagement in the Administrative Policies and Practices (ADM) Content Area sections in Maryland EXCELS Toolkit. There you will find information, resources, and ideas on ways to get families engaged in programming.
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Have you visited the new Maryland Accreditation web page on Maryland EXCELS? Take a look and learn more about the benefits of becoming accredited here.
The first step in the accreditation process is attending a Maryland Accreditation Orientation. Participants receive two Core of Knowledge Clock Hours in Professionalism.
The next orientation:
Thursday, February 6, 2020
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Optional Technical Assistance: 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
View the full orientation schedule here.
Location of orientations:
IDEALS Institute
Johns Hopkins University
School of Education
6740 Alexander Bell Drive Columbia, MD 21046
2nd Floor – Room 218/219
To register:
Email accreditation@marylandexcels.org with Maryland Accreditation Orientation in the subject line and include the following:
• Program name
• License #
• Your name
• Your email address
• Your phone number
• Date of orientation
If you have any questions about Maryland Accreditation Orientation, please contact accreditation@marylandexcels.org.
Visit here to view the programs currently accredited with Maryland Accreditation.
Learn more about the Maryland Accreditation Support Fund here.
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Work Group and Training Calendar
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Free Training to Increase Your Quality
View the training and work group calendar here and sign up today!
Are you taking advantage of all the benefits of Maryland EXCELS?
Find out here. |
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Maryland EXCELS programs have the opportunity to earn more money.
Your program can receive EXCELS payments for serving children whose families are eligible for Child Care Scholarships and for having a Quality Rating of 3, 4, or 5.
Visit here to learn more about EXCELS payments, which are also known as tiered reimbursement.
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The Year of Bonuses wrapped up on September 30, 2019, with 1,113
bonuses paid. Congratulations to all the programs that published
and increased their quality ratings!
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