Little Folks University

05/27/2016

Once again we have pink ladybugs.

05/17/2016

So we now have our praying mantis cage set up and are waiting for them to emerge. Then the trick will be only keeping a couple since each egg hatches 50-300-YIKES but fun for the children!

05/16/2016

Our ladybug larva came today too!

05/16/2016

Now they are in their chrysalis & it's the hurry up & wait stage

05/12/2016

Our caterpillars have grown over the last week in a half! Next week our ladybug larvae show up 😀

03/23/2016

A couple March activities the children enjoyed

01/30/2016

So here is a copy & pasted look at the letter we sent with our state rep to Helena. Everyone that has children or grandchildren needs to call their state rep & the governor & tell them to make these changes to these new proposed changes.




January 28, 2016
Dear Early Childhood Services Bureau and Representative Ken Holmlund:
As a child care program I have issues with the proposed new group sizes since this is not a mandated part of the federal regulations it is suggested, but left up to the states to determine ratios and group limits. There are only 14 licensed childcare facilities and then our ROCKS afterschool program which should qualify our area as a high need area per the federal guidelines of underserved areas. Since the federal guidelines it states that each state can decide their numbers why is this state making it a hardship on parents and providers with the new proposed numbers when it is not a requirement of the grant? In this area you will create a hardship on our community as well as for our facility. There are many other states that allow higher ratios than our state and since there is not a federal regulation on numbers just a guideline there is no reason our numbers could not be increased instead of decreased. There are facilities closing all over this state and one of the complaints is the low staff to child ratio, up our numbers and we will not lose as many facilities. This will benefit the provider, parents and children which is the state and federal goal with this grant!
Another area of concern is the amount of hours that are proposed for trainings for staff. In the federal regulations the new required amount is 24-30 hours per year of training. With our local training office closing and our online options through childcaretraining.org that are limited (13 regular classes, 9 Montana classes of which only 7 are free) which can only be taken every so often this will not allow for staff to obtain the required trainings. If the minimum is 24 there should be no reason the state does not adopt that instead of 30 hours, but they have to be able to offer readily available with low cost classes that are convenient and/or let us take classes from other online companies such as Care Courses which are accepted by 41 out of 50 states. These new regulations without major accommodations will cause great hardship on staff and our community.
Lastly as a business I should have the right just as every other business does to terminate services. A person cannot walk into a store and steal or abuse another person and not suffer consequences so why should the state government take my right to protect myself and other children in my care from the same thing. It is not right.
Sincerely,

Tina HartmanKendrah MackeyRuthann Stewart

childcaretraining.org

01/18/2016

Hot chocolate, snowmen & mittens theme so we read where cocoa comes from & made homemade hot chocolate mix. Only 2 likes cocoa powder the others thought it was a mean, mean trick.

01/15/2016

11/10/2015

Children's book week today we did If You Give a Moose a Muffin. We made chocolate chip muffins, and blueberry muffins. And also did Puff Paint muffins with brown pompoms.

11/08/2015

Here is a glimpse of our facility.