Daycares Burn, Too!

Yes, I'm STILL thinking and talking about fires! It's just been a little over a week since the structure fire in our town, and we are just seeing the beginning of the finger pointing that will take place!
The bottom line needs to be that as daycare providers, and as parents, we practice enough so that we are able to quickly and safely evacuate every person, every time! For more info, read yesterday's three articles. One from the Times Union, and the other two from the Leader Herald.

I also wrote a related article for the New York Examiner tonight, and shared two YouTube Videos of Daycare Fires.

Four Die in Hamilton County Fire

After hearing of the tragic death of four Sunmount Consumers in a group home about 1/2 mi from our home, we have been thinking and talking a lot about fires. This seems like a great time to remind ourselves and each other to practice fire drills, change smoke detector batteries, and if possible, make sure that you install a hardwired fire alarm system so that when the first alarm goes off, they all go off at once, giving you more time to get out of your house alive. Photo: Leader Herald/Kayleigh Karutis
I wrote an article about it for the Examiner, and I think that it is something that you just can't repeat enough!

NYS Daycare Centers Rank 7th in the USA

I stumbled across some interesting regarding daycares in NYS, and had a light bulb moment, and quickly did an article about it for the Examiner. I would have written something about it for eHow, but it's kind of difficult to imagine how I would turn a report on daycares into a how-to article. I guess there need to be SOME limitations on what I write for eHow!
Remember, as you are browsing the Internet, make certain that you bookmark the pages as you go, so that when you are all done, you can still get back to where you started from!

Photo: morgueFile/presto44

The New York Times

I have been known to read The New York Times. Although I hail from upstate, there are often relevant articles, and I happened upon one from December that was relevant to daycare providers.
Keeping in mind that in spite of the current minimum wage, I still am paid $2.25 per hour (by the county/state) for providing childcare. By law, I am only allowed to provide care to two children, which means that I can earn a grand total of $4.50 per hour. The problem, according to The New York Times, is that this rate of pay, which was passed into law by the state in September of 2007, STILL isn't being followed by NYC!
I've heard for years and years that children are our most precious commodity, and stand amazed that people can justify paying so little to care for them!
I wrote an article about it for the Examiner, because I would like to stir up at least a little interest...

Signs of Life on the Examiner

I wrote an article about potty training for the Examiner, and actually got some response! I know that I am getting hits there, because my pay rate is increasing more quickly at the Examiner than it is on eHow, not that I am complaining about eHow, because my rate of pay tripled there last month. IF I could keep that up, I'll make $1000/month before June!
Back to the examiner....a lady asked me why people used to be able to potty train their kids sooner in the old days than they can now. I don't have a clue...I did research, got statistics, reported them, and added personal experience and opinion. There is no way of even knowing if what she reported was true, but it was exciting to get a spark of opinion, and it was even added to by a doctor...how exciting!
I've heard that if you want some action, you need to write something controversial, it just never occurred to me that potty training was controversial. Go figure!

Daycare Training in NYS

I recently wrote two articles regarding resources that I found and made use of at the NYS Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS).
The first article details the EIP grants, which pays for college courses, conferences, and even distance training courses, depending on the applicant's income.
The second article is base on a news release by OCFS on February 24, in which they offered a free online Mandated Reporter Training; Identifying and Reporting Child Abuse and Maltreatment. I participated in this course myself. It was a two-hour interactive video training course, which had a quiz at the end. I took the course over three days, and didn't score as highly as I would have liked; I believe I got two questions wrong. However, the video was interesting, and held my attention easily, and at the end, presented several real scenarios that encouraged thinking through real-life daycare situations that commonly present themselves.
It is definitely worth checking into!