Marketing 101: Boosting Enrollment in Your Child Care Program

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Karen Middendorf

“All the marketing in the world is not going to help if you do not offer a quality program.”

I often get asked, “What are the best ways to build enrollment in my early childhood program?”  There’s no easy answer. As a matter of fact, a good marketing program coupled with a mediocre early childhood program will actually lead to declining enrollment. Why? Because a good marketing program means that people will learn sooner rather than later of the program’s poor quality. Parents are smart consumers. You can bring them in with smooth talking and glitzy marketing, but if the program is not high quality, parents will not stay. Parents will also not refer their friends, family, co-workers or neighbors unless you offer a top quality program that meets their needs and their children’s needs.

Want to boost enrollment in your child care program? We can help!

There are many good evaluation tools and checklists you can use to assess your program’s quality. My favorites include the booklets published by NAEYC’s National Academy of Early Childhood Programs and the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scales. I encourage all directors to take a look at your program and make any necessary changes before beginning a full scale marketing program.

You already know that it is important to know how many young children and families live in your area. However, you also need to know something about the families you want to attract to your program. What benefits and features of an early childhood program appeal to them? What is the average size of these families? How old are the children? Where do the parents live and work? Why would they want to come to your center? When you know some of these answers, you will know what types of written materials to develop for them, how to reach them when you promote your program and what to talk about when they call and visit.

Once you know your parents a little better, plan how you’ll appeal to them. Do you have a brochure? How about a logo? Are you advertising in places that reach your potential parents? I was once taught the 5 P’s that may help: PRICE, PROGRAM, PLACE, PROMOTION and PARENTS. All 5 should be working together. For example, the price should be one the parents you are trying to attract can afford, and your program should be consistent with the needs in your neighborhood. And remember: what you’re marketing should be reflected in the quality of care the children in your center are receiving.

Know what makes your program special. What makes your program different from, and better than, all the other early childhood programs in your area? Why do parents come to your center rather than the one down the street?  However you answer this – your staff/child ratios, extracurricular programs, price or teacher qualifications – becomes your competitive advantage.  It should become the foundation of your marketing efforts.

Know your competition. Visit them, not just once, but periodically during the year. Find out tuition prices, their services, the kinds of families they attract and what makes them special. When you know your competition, you know what you are doing better. This becomes the focus for everything you do to build enrollment. Be careful how you define your competition. Don’t limit yourself to other programs just like yours. For example, if you are an all day child care center, are family child care homes competing with you for children? How about public school programs? It is important to look at all programs that offer services to children in your area.

The last step is to develop a strategy for action. Make no mistake about it: a center without an action plan will not succeed in building enrollment. There are too many distractions in your job as director to keep you from building enrollment. So when you’re ready to get started, be realistic, be patient, remain committed, do some delegating and have fun. Action plans and knowing your target audience will get you enrollment and happy customers.

Filed under: Best Practice, Directors & Administrators, Early Childhood, Family Child Care, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

Science with infants and toddlers? You’re doing it already!

Posted on March 20, 2013 by 4cforchildren

We often encourage children to be scientists. We ask open-ended questions to encourage the children to hypothesize. We ask children to predict outcomes and graph responses. But some teachers struggle with science, thinking of their own experiences dissecting worms or experimenting with magnets. But science is everywhere! And it’s appropriate for every age group, even infants and toddlers.

Science with infants and toddlers is easier than you think! And chances are, you're doing it already.

I get super excited when thinking about science in early childhood. Physics and chemistry aren’t just topics for high school. With infants and toddlers, physics is all about the basics: how can I make the ball move? Can I roll it with my hands?  If I put this block at an angle, will the car roll down? I want to get on the slide. How do I move the other child to make room for me?

And we’re doing chemistry with infants and toddlers every day. If physics is how to make something move, chemistry is about how to make something change. When working with play dough, how can I make it flat? When feeding myself food, what happens when I mix the mashed potatoes with the applesauce?

Science is more than dissection and magnets. It can be as simple as rolling a ball or as complex as a cooking experiment. It can also be about exploring what is unfamiliar. Once when I was observing in a classroom, a child came over to me and started touching my arms, face and hair. Soon, more children came over. The teachers looked a little nervous but I assured them it was okay for the children to explore. Because I looked different than the teachers the children saw every day, they were curious. This is science. Even though the children were not verbalizing their thoughts, I can imagine they were hypothesizing what my hair felt like. They may have been comparing the feeling to past experiences. They may have been thinking this does not feel like my teacher’s hair.

By allowing children to explore we are encouraging children to think beyond their current knowledge. Simply by rolling a ball, exploring new foods (or new people!), we are inspiring scientific thinking that will help them their whole life.

- Christine

Filed under: Early Childhood, Infants and Toddlers | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Listen With Your Eyes

Posted on February 13, 2013 by 4cforchildren

Everyone knows that listening is a big part of communicating with children. But have you ever thought about listening with your eyes as well as your ears? Observing a child’s non-verbal communication is one way to find out what’s really on their mind.

Even as adults we sometimes have a hard time putting our true feelings into words. Children find it even harder. By reading a child’s expressions and subtle ways of moving you can get a fuller picture. And once you see what’s on your child’s mind, tuning in and responding becomes much easier.

Reading a child's body language is just as important as listening to what they are saying.

Photo courtesy of Lee LeFever.

Listening with your eyes isn’t difficult. In fact, most teachers learn it from the experts: babies. A baby who silently turns down the corners of his mouth has effectively delivered their message.  A baby who turns his head away while playing an exciting game of peek-a-boo may be saying, “Whew, this sure is fun, but I need a minute to calm down.”  In the same way, a wide-eyed look of wonder or a wrinkled brow tells a teacher whether to keep on playing or call a momentary halt. By listening with your eyes, you can figure out when a baby has had enough, when she wants more, what she’s afraid of, and what she’s fascinated by.  All without her saying a word.

It works with older children, too. A child in your class tells you he has had a great day at school, but bites his lip and looks out the window as he says it. His expression makes you decide to sit down and talk for awhile. You notice that one of the girls in your class will raise her eyebrows when you tell her it is time to clean up the dramatic play area. Seeing her expression makes you think that maybe she really was not ready to clean up and you have interrupted her work.  You give her the benefit of the doubt. You witness two children playing a new board game in your classroom. You notice one child lift his hand to their mouth in hesitation when it’s his turn. You help out with a subtle hint instead of telling him that everyone’s waiting on him and we need to move the game along.

Listening with your eyes as well as with your ears can help you figure out and respond to what your children are feeling as well as to what they’re saying.  It may mean glancing away from a clean-up routine, picking up the block area, cleaning out the paint jars, supervising the bathroom line or any one of a thousand things a busy teacher has to get done.  But what you “hear” with that glance may well be worth a thousand words.

- Karen

Filed under: Best Practice, Early Childhood, Infants and Toddlers, Parents, Preschool | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Shouldn’t every month be National Reading Month?

Posted on February 4, 2013 by 4cforchildren

There is so much energy and time invested in promoting reading as the single most important activity one can do (and it is!), and yet so little time is actually spent reading! Many states and organizations promote a single month or day for reading, but these months and days are random and do not correlate to anything specific.

Reading shouldn’t happen in planned out Hallmark-holiday style. Reading is something that happens all day every day. Reading month, like many other randomized celebrations (Black History Month, Valentine’s day, Father’s Day or Movember, for example) is not something that you should be made aware of for just one day or one month. Reading, like heritage and disease, is something that should be done, discussed and acted upon every day of every month!

Shouldn't every month be National Reading Month?

There is a ton of research into how and why. Not only is reading good fun, the language and literacy skills needed to do it well are important skills to acquire for future success in school and life. Reading also helps soothe the mind, takes you to faraway places or back in time to witness great moments, and ordinary ones, too.

I wonder why we think that giving reading such short thrift will provide us with the results we desire. If we want to see a higher percentage of early language comprehension and a higher percentage of reading at level in third grade, we should read every day (these and more outcomes are in the Strive Report Card). Reading also contributes to higher scores on the SAT, ACT and the NAEP, and with children in the United States trailing our global neighbors, it’s never been more important.

With the onslaught of technology and how rapidly our youth have taken to it we might be at a crossroads. But somewhere between winning texting awards and writing fluent essays we must hold on to what we know leads one to a life of success. So read to your children and provide them opportunities to talk about their world.

- Josh

Filed under: Best Practice, Early Childhood | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Holidays Can Be Teachable Moments

Posted on January 21, 2013 by 4cforchildren

One thing I love about our society right now is that the typical family unit is anything but! Our family fits nicely into that category. We have four children total; one is his, two are mine and the baby is ours. But my favorite part of our blended family is that I come from a VERY Christian home (my father being a United Methodist Minister may have something to do with that) and my husband is Jewish. This calls for an extremely busy, not to mention expensive, holiday season.

Photo courtesy of techne.

Photo courtesy of techne.

If you were a little mouse peeking into our home during the holidays you would see a Christmas tree and stockings, the nativity and an advent wreath. You would also see a Menorah, about 25 Dreidels and loads of chocolate coins. Things can get complicated. When my middle son was explaining to his class that he is Christian who celebrates Hanukkah, they dubbed him “Hannuikan.” Both of our families had a good laugh over that one and his outstanding teacher took the opportunity for a “teachable moment” and had a lesson over the two holidays. Randy was able to bring in our Menorah and of course we provided Dreidels and chocolate coins for the

class.

I know I never played with a Dreidel until I met my husband. Now I sing the song at the top of my lungs with my children as we spin it and wait to see who is going to have the biggest pile of chocolate coins. I had never experienced Latkes or Sufganiyot and now my life (and my thighs) wouldn’t be the same without them!

My children are truly lucky to not just read about different faiths at school, but experience them. I am partnering now with his teacher so that throughout the year we can share the different Jewish holidays with his class and they can experience the traditions and stories that the Jewish faith has to offer. We have such a responsibility as educators to enlighten our students to the world around them. Bringing the experiences to them and letting them “live it” is what learning is all about.

- Joy

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The Best Job in the World

Posted on December 17, 2012 by 4cforchildren

Joy StoverOn October 8 at 7:35 p.m., I was blessed with my third little angel, Kenneth Abraham. During my pregnancy so many people asked if I was planning on going back to work. My reply? “Of course! Why wouldn’t I? This is my third baby!”I thought I would just jump right back into the swing of things because I was such a pro, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. I think this one has been the hardest transition for me because I know he is my last!

As my older two were growing up I used to say, “I can’t wait until he can roll over,” or “I can’t wait until she can talk,” but with Kenny I want to cherish every smile, every tear, every cry and every giggle! He slept for 8 and a half hours last night and while a part of me is jumping for joy that we have a sleeper, I am feeling sad that the midnight “dates” he and I shared in the rocking chair by his bedroom window snuggling close together every few hours are going to dwindle away. I’m even becoming a little jealous of his caregiver because she often gets to see more of him than I do.

Those of us who care for these precious little ones have such a huge responsibility. Have you ever stopped and thought about who you are caring for each day? Mother and Father’s sweet baby, Grandma and Papa’s dear little ones, Auntie’s little stinker… what an undertaking! In the office we often use the phrase “success by six” to describe just how important early childhood is. Children’s brains are developing at such a high rate and it is our responsibility to make sure we aid in this process, which means knowing the rules and regulations and learning about what is developmentally appropriate in our professional development each year. We aren’t baby sitters, we’re child care professionals! Being a mom, being an early childhood educator… they’re both the best job in the world.

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Gun Play in the Classroom

Posted on November 14, 2012 by 4cforchildren

As I drove past a local Veteran’s Memorial on Veteran’s Day, my son asked why there were so many people at the park. I reminded him that it was Veteran’s Day. He proceeded to tell my daughter all about soldiers and how they keep us safe. Living only a few miles from an air force base, we see soldiers on a daily basis. While we don’t see them carrying the weapons, he understands that this uniform means they have the right to carry a gun. The fact that the soldiers carry guns was an important bit of information my son felt the need to pass on to my daughter.

This mention of guns, of course, added a new element to the discussion. My daughter’s perception of guns is they are bad and dangerous, while my son’s perception is that they are for policemen and soldiers to help keep us safe. Over the years we have had many conversations with our children regarding guns. We have many friends that are police officers and his knowledge of guns comes from these conversations, not television or movies.

As educators, we must be aware that guns, like anything you ask a child not to do, will become a forbidden fruit of sorts and all the more enticing. As a teacher I found two things to hold true when children started pulling their finger guns and hand swords. First, every time I observed children involved in this type of play I reminded the children of our classroom rules about guns: we don’t point them at someone else and if this behavior scares another child we needed to stop. Second, the less I said after our conversation the less time they spent engaged in the behavior.

The notion of children playing with weapons, mimicking gun sounds and making them with their hands is always sensitive and cultural. While some research suggests that gun play does not lead to real violence, remember that many parents will have different ideas about what is appropriate, and that some children, like my son, may have a very positive outlook on guns. However you choose to handle this type of play, be sure that you are open and honest with families and state your classroom rules clearly.

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Looking for fun? You’ll find it at the library!

Posted on November 2, 2012 by 4cforchildren

Advertisers spend billions of dollars telling children exactly where to find happiness and satisfaction: fast food restaurants, toy stores, amusement parks. But there’s another place in town offering our children happiness, satisfaction and a lot more: your local library! Most libraries can’t afford a splashy ad campaign to entice our children, however, so it’s up to us to get them interested!

Begin by promoting weekly library time for your family in your center or child care home. Schedule the library to come into your center for monthly visits and make this as special as a TV show or holiday.

Educate the parents in your programs about the importance of the library and all the library has to offer. Share with them that the library offers comfortable places for them to sit with their children and enjoy books together. Reading stories to your child can be a time of closeness and sharing.  Be sure to build in time for it at every library visit, and explore the other resources your library has to offer! The children’s section in many libraries includes magazines for the very young, puzzles, tapes to listen to and toys to play with. Libraries are now equipped with computers and computer games, but nothing beats a good old fashioned story time.

Get to know your librarian. You want children to see that librarians are approachable grown-ups who can introduce them to good books. Question the librarian about where to find books that are age-approproate. Ask about special events at the library: movie nights, craft activities, puppet shows, cooking lessons and much more. Librarians know lots of ways to keep children interested in stories and books. Watching one in action is a good way to pick up some tips on reading to your own children.

Try to end each visit by following a predictable routine. You might look at something interesting such as an aquarium or a favorite picture first, then check out books and wave goodbye to the librarian. Doing things the same way each time makes it easier to get your children to leave the library, but if you’re lucky, they won’t want to!

Filed under: Directors & Administrators, Early Childhood, Family Child Care, Preschool, School Age | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Unplug Your Summer!

Posted on August 3, 2012 by 4cforchildren

This is the first summer that my children have not attended some kind of camp during their summer break from school. The lesson I’ve learned? TV is evil!

I am taking measures in my home to decrease screen time for my children, but playing outside is apparently the worst suggestion I can make for how they ought to be spending their time! All I hear is how hot it is and that there is nothing to do, but for years both of my children participated in summer camps where they were outside 100 percent of the time sweating their brains out, playing in creeks, building forts and playing games, all the while getting extremely dirty. I could go on and on about the stories they would come home with when I asked them, “So, what did you do today?”

But when I ask that same question these days the answer seems to revolve around a TV character or what new game they found online or which level they finally made it to on their DS. And I have to ask myself, what about the kids out there that spend their summer plugged in because that is the only child care their parents can afford? Or if the child care program they attend while their parents are at work only takes children outside for 15 or 20 minutes per day (if that) to play on the same swing set they have been playing on for years?

Despite the fact that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends absolutely no screen time for children under two due to language delays, this just isn’t the reality in many homes and child care programs. According to the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, 40 percent of infants are regular viewers of screen media, and preschoolers spend on average 32 hours a week with screen media. The American Academy of Pediatrics also states that school age children shouldn’t be exposed to more than two hours of total screen time per day, but that’s obviously not the case for many children, including mine recently! So, what can we do differently?

While parents can set guidelines for screen time in the home (I am making my children “earn” their TV time by completing chores and spending some much-needed time outside), I would encourage child care programs to avoid TV completely.  Children are almost certainly getting some of their screen time at home after they leave our programs, and we have the opportunity during the day to give them new experiences and enrich their lives. I am hard pressed to find something that is more worthwhile on the TV than in real life! The rewards that come from sitting down with a child and reading a book together, playing a game or just talking with them are endless. They feel nurtured, special and are being exposed to new vocabulary. You just can’t replicate that with a screen!

Filed under: Early Childhood, Family Child Care, Infants and Toddlers, Parents, Preschool, School Age | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Building a Foundation of Trust

Posted on July 24, 2012 by 4cforchildren

“Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.”

- Stephen R. Covey

A friend of mine recently enrolled her two children in child care for the first time. She’s a very private person, but chose to share with the child care provider that she was going through a divorce. What she didn’t choose to share was that her husband and the children’s father is an abusive man. Does it surprise you that she would withhold this information? I wasn’t surprised. My friend needs to learn to trust her child care provider, and that process takes time.

Building a foundation of trust is critical for all families, and for all child care providers who hope to have a positive relationship with the parents of the children in their care. What can we do to lay the foundation? We need to be patient and consistent, and most of all we need to keep a focus on good communication with families.

First we need to be sure to meet with families in a safe and comfortable environment. Give yourself enough time to exchange ideas and information, and listen with an open mind in all your communications with families. Be sure to clarify expectations and share honestly. If parents ask you a question that you don’t know the answer to, be honest. Let the family know you’ll get back to them with the information, and then do it!

It’s so important to respect the parents’ levels of knowledge, understanding or interest. When we make assumptions about a parent, however innocently, we run the risk of destroying our chances to develop a strong relationship with that parent. For example, don’t always assume a busy parent is a disinterested parent. They could be distracted that day by one of life’s many other challenges… I know some days I am!

Remember that parents are their child’s first teachers, and when they feel that we respect and trust them, they are more likely to respect and trust us.

Filed under: Early Childhood, Family Child Care, Parents | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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