Her foster caretakers had a screaming match every day. The 5 year old normally became so upset and grumpy until she sang a song to herself. One day she used her imagination to see if the new song she learned in my class would actually work to calm her foster parents. In the middle of a morning scream-fest, the girl stood near them in their chaos and sweetly started singing, “CALMING, CALMING, I'M CALMING MYSELF. BREATHING SLOWLY, I'M CALMING MYSELF.” To her absolute delight,

Even the best quality programs can find themselves with unexpected openings – families move, your best referral source graduates, schedules change… The irony is that tons of families would love to send their child to your site if they only knew about you! So how do you get your amazing program in front of them?!?! I’m not a child care provider but I’ve helped thousands of parents all over the Portland area connect to centers and in-homes that they love, and here’s what I’ve n

Nature as Inspiration for Oral Storytelling with Preschoolers by Nicole Fravel When other preschool teachers and parents hear that I run a nature school, their first reaction is “how wonderful!” The second reaction is usually a set of questions about how we spend all of that time in the forest, what we are learning and what we need to bring into the forest to aid that learning. My philosophy is that the forest and the children themselves provide most of what we need, so we do