For Directors 

Directors Alerts

• Click here to attend EEC Commissioner Sam’s Facebook statewide virtual Town Hall on July 15th at 6PM. 
• EEC and Boston Children’s Hospital’s 1 ½ hr. recorded a webinar offers COVID-19 medical insight and features 2 providers who have reopened smoothly. (Required password is 2V=9y215). This link is to The American Academy of Pediatrics Guidance Related to Childcare During COVID-19 Dr. Faye Holder-Niles recommended during the webinar.
• To view the Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation 2nd recorded webinar, Role of Technology in Reinventing Child Care: Working Smarter with Shared Services, click here.
• Last week’s email featured a poster showing that by age 2 ½ most children use race to choose playmates. B3 suggested educators have a vital role to play in helping children develop positive attitudes about race and diversity. The recorded webinar, Justice from the Streets to the Early Childhood Classroom, provides strategies that will help educators facilitate children’s awareness of human similarities, differences, and worth based on their observations of what is happening around them.
• Exchange’s short video #9, entitled Thinking Outside the Box in Challenging Times suggests this time of crisis offers opportunities to innovate and adapt to COVID-19 constraints without losing what programs value.
• Your advocacy matters! Amy O’Leary, Strategies for Children, is asking educators to provide written testimony (stories and data) to help your MA legislators understand your experience. A 45-minute recorded webinar, Preparing Written Testimony, provides a great primer on state government and offers practical how-to tips. No need to take notes as a follow-up email documents steps to writing testimony. You can also read Amy’s July 1 written testimony here.
• EEC created a 4-page handout, What Families Need to Know About Reopening Child Care, to help parents understand what to expect when their child returns to programs.
• Don’t forget Shared Services MA has lots of resources to help your program reopen. They include a wide range of templates, from 6 cleaning checklist templates to a Meal Preparation and Service Policy template for parents. Don’t forget, membership is currently free.
• The next Cambridge Directors Support Zoom meeting, led by Bess Emanuel and Polly Smith, will be held on Friday, July 17th from 10-11AM (note new time). Check your email inbox every Friday morning for the Zoom link.

Funding

• EEC says it will eventually provide grants to support the initial months of reopening for programs that have current subsidy agreements and enrolled children. Grants will be offered on a per-classroom basis for Group and School Age programs. Information will be posted on this page (under Reopening Grants) as grants become available.

For Teachers

Curriculum Support & Professional Development

• Reopening: Lessons for the Field, a follow-up to the 3-part Back to the Future will allow educators to talk with and learn from each other about their reopening experience. Click here to register for either sessions 3 or 4 on July 23rd from 12:30-2PM and again from 3:30-5PM.
• Tips for Supporting Infant and Young Children as We Reopen provides educators with more than a dozen useful tips on how to support children adjust and cope as they return to centers.   

For Families

Activities for Families

• Learn about Florida Aquarium’s African Penguins, an endangered species, as they waddle (visit) different exhibits. Afterwards, parents and children can try waddling and vocalizing just like the penguins!
  
• Walks to the park are a great time for families and children to walk, read, and talk together thanks to StoryWalk (when a children’s book is hung page by page around a park). Eight different books will be featured in 8 parks across the city!

Resources for Families

• Parents and caregivers who are experiencing any kinds of problems related to their children can call the Parental Stress Line for support: 1-800-623-8188. The Parental Stress Line is staffed by volunteer counselors who are sympathetic and nonjudgmental and is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.