Let’s face it; daycare is not a big money business. Year after year, Supervisor’s and Daycare Boards scratch their heads for creative new ways to fundraise for program supplies, furnishings, trips and playground equipment.

Here are some ideas of events and programs that have served my centers well over the years:

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A few weeks ago, I posted Interview questions for ECE Teachers. Since then, I've also been interviewing for a cook for our daycare. This is a part-time position, and we really need to find someone who is reliable, and enjoys spending time with kids. Not only that, as someone preparing food for children, it's important that they are able to create nutritious, tasty foods, that also meet any medical needs - like the ever present nut allergies.

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Here is a fun theme to fill in the winter blah's between Christmas and Valentine's Day, after you've finished up the Winter themes. Have the children bring in pictures of themselves, their parents and siblings. There's a number of activities you can do with them.

Remember! Not all families are just Mommy, Daddy & child - adjust this according to what's appropriate for your children.

Thanks to my daughter's daycare provider for this idea.

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I have recently gone through the process of hiring an ECE for my centre. Hiring new staff is never an easy process. In a small centre, hiring a new ECE is especially difficult. Not only do you need to find someone qualified, that is capable of dealing with the children, they have to fit in with a small group of other staff.

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Today we have 6 different crafts that you can do for Valentine's day. These are pretty easy for all ages, although the Rose Hearts should be saved for the older children.

Collage hearts

Reuse old wrapping paper to create these crafty hearts to use in a multitude of activities.

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A winter/snowperson theme is perfect for dreary January with no major holidays to celebrate and lots of snow days to look forward to. We have had lots of success at my centre with some of these creative (and snow based) tactile activities with our preschoolers and toddlers.

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As promised in Halloween Crafts Part 1, we now present the Gross Haunted House crafts. This is 5 simple crafts that really work well together, and are great fun for the kids. The theme here is "body parts", as you will see. You can use these to create an awesome haunted house afternoon, and is a nice candy-free Halloween day.

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It's October, and that means Halloween is coming. This is a great time of year in daycare, since the programming pretty much takes care of itself. That means you need some craft ideas for the season. I have several that I use, and I'm going to start here with one of the most popular. This is a nice, short craft, and works for toddlers as well as the older kids.

Don't forget to check out our other Halloween crafts when they're posted in the next few days.

Styrofoam Ghosts

Required Materials

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How many of you work with a man in the child care field or have a male child care provider at your child's centre? How do you feel about men in the child care field?

I took my Early Childhood Education Diploma both through Seneca College and Loyalist College. Out of all the courses I took to get my diploma, I had only one male in any of my classes. This student was fantastic. He had a real love for children, a willingness to learn, his projects were fantastic and creative. He would have been great addition to any daycare centre.

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I'm really excited about this week's programming for the daycare. We have decided to do a theme based on food and link it with a different country each day of the week. We are lucky enough to have a full-time cook at the child care, so we have altered this week's menu to highlight foods from Ireland, Mexico, Italy, China and Sweden.

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