Vine Street Child Care

Today marks the beginning of year 15! 🎉

The traditional gift is crystal, and the modern gift, a wrist watch. Crystal is said to represent strength and clarity, while the wrist watch draws attention to the time spent together.

Both should be easy enough to draw from - the time aspect far easier given the time we all spend together, the time we spend with the kids, the time we spend learning and growing as professionals who use those strategies and tools to better support the work we do in our classrooms, all of it for the children in our care.

Fun fact, there have only been three years out of the last 15 that our company’s anniversary has fallen on a day that we aren’t all together to celebrate, this year being the fourth.

In an unexpected yet fitting turn of events it would seem that - even on a Saturday - Mandy and I would spend our time together at Vine Street.

Do you know what happens when a sprinkler head fails?

We do. 😳

Safe to say we’re very grateful for the quick work of the West Des Moines Fire Department – all in all, only one head ran for 11 minutes, dropping approximately 275 gallons of water - this screen shot captured just as it started. While it was hard to (literally) wade through the gym and cafeteria, we know that it could have happened in a far less ideal area, or at a less ideal time, so while the ride down and back was equal parts silence and disbelief, I can’t say I didn’t laugh out loud when Mandy said, “this is so on brand for us,” because I did.

Fear not, everything is drying out as you read this! We'll be ready to go on Monday!

Cheers to fifteen years, may we always lead with both gratitude and grace and in doing so, continue to grow. 🌱

Thank you for being in our cheering section, thank you for loving our team like we do, thank you for letting us be a part of your child's story. 🧡💜

We mean what we say - that participation is neither expected nor required, but for those who love suggestions or inspiration, this list is for you. 🍎✏️💞

Due to predicted winter weather conditions Vine Street Child Care will be closed tomorrow, February 12th.

As a reminder, we follow WDMCS for inclement weather-related full day closures.

Stay warm & stay safe. ❄️

As we're wrapping up on our first week offering part-time and emergent care to the West Des Moines area at our original 2520 Vine location, we do it with a heart of gratitude. 🤍

Our goal with moving into our building across the street in the fall of 2019 was to be able to provide quality care for more families. It was always SO hard to tell a desperate family we were full and couldn't help them and the decision to moved alleviated that.

This part-time idea came as a shock, to even us! But we just couldn't continue to ignore that child care isn't always a one-size-fits-all need, and, well, here we are. 💚

Our annual Halloween Hallway Trick-or-Treat was spectacular! Big thanks to all our families who helped make our event a success! 🎃 🍬 👻

Today marks the start of our fourteenth year! Without further delay, I give you the traditional gift of Ivory.

Using Ivory as a gift is said to originate from Hindu mythology, referring to elephants, as they symbolize patience, luck, intelligence, and stability. Elephants have thick skin. Elephants are known to develop strong bonds with one another.

Patience. From the children to the clients to the caregivers, we're all always working on our patience. Learning to listen, learning to pause, learning to take a big belly breath in and letting it all go as we breathe it out.

Luck. In truth, I don't love the thought of chalking one single iota of our journey thus far up to luck. This career choice has been an absolute grind mixed in with passion, prayers, and sleepless nights with a heaping handful grit sprinkled on top.

What I love and can get on board with is considering the laws of attraction and how our intentions have had a profoundly positive impact on our company and culture. We know that people grow and change every day (sometimes daily in our industry!).

Have you ever read a Facebook post that you thought you *needed* to share with the world 10 years ago and, re-reading it today, feels absolutely cringe-worthy?! That’s us. We look back with wide eyes filled with disbelief and a slow shake of the head. In 2010 we hired at minimum wage. In part, because our origin story could only be described as abysmal from a financial standpoint, and back then there was no way we could have done more – but, with time and intention came change and growth. We know where we started, where we are, and where we want to go! That vision, we feel, helps us attract and retain the best in the business. 🧡

Intelligence. Certainly there are many forms of intelligence and, because I’m the author, I choose to share that my own personal favorite is emotional intelligence. Intelligent people don't just wait for their chance to speak, they listen. They seek to understand. People with emotional intelligence are able to show empathy, solve problems, communicate effectively, and adapt.

Stability. Stability and staff go hand in hand and we’ve always thought of our industry as critical infrastructure. We're here daily and they're here daily, so that without fail - the children can be here daily.

Certainly we provide a service to the community in the obvious sense, by providing a quality early childhood education experience to children from birth until they head off to Kindergarten; but we also provide jobs (read: income) for nearly 50 employees so that they are able to provide stability for their own families.

Thick Skin? Yep. Strong Bonds? Absolutely. Never has an analogy revealed itself so clearly to me. Elephants remind us to lead with love, to stand tall in our convictions, and to forge a firm foundation so that we can build a life of purpose and meaning.

We’re grateful to have done that for these past 14 years and are looking forward to continuing in our community for years to come.

As we look to open our second location next month, a program dedicated to providing part-time care to families who need non-traditional scheduling, in a building that was actually our original location for the first nine years of our operations - we can’t help but gush at the thought of what the future might hold for our program and our crew. 💜

Thank you for your support! Thank you for referring your friends, family, and neighbors to us. Thank you for trusting us. Thank you for sharing in our journey and allowing us to share in yours.

Cheers to the beginning of our fourteenth year! 🎉

Our teachers need YOUR votes! Each class has decorated their door for a chance to win extra hours of PTO! Vote for your favorite by liking or commenting on the photos! Votes will be counted on Friday at our Iowa Wild holiday party!

It's time for the Book Fair! Book Fair Runs Dec 1st - December 8th!

All proceeds go to books for the classrooms!

Plus, anyone can order from our Online Book Fair Homepage!
https://www.scholastic.com/bf/vinestreetchildcare

Yay for Reading!

On Wednesday, November 29th, Vine Street Child Care is hosting the Iowa Association for the Education of Young Children. They will be playing the movie, No Small Matter, and you’re invited to join us from 6:30p-8:30p. The movie will take place in our gymnasium.

No Small Matter is a 90 minute documentary that shares powerful stories and stunning truths about the human capacity for early intelligence and the importance of quality early care and education to benefit America’s social and economic future!

BIG excitement at Vine Street today due to our HUGE visitors from the City of West Des Moines! 🚜🪨🚜🪨🚜

Thank you to all our amazing families for helping make our Hallway Trick-or-Treat a success! We can't wait for next year!
🎃🍂🧡

Thirteen years!

Those who have followed along on this journey know that my favorite analogy when it comes to our business’ birthiversaries is to snag the traditional wedding gift and craft it’s would-be symbolism for a marriage to fit where we are in our partnership.

Without further ado, I give you lace. Lace is intricate. Delicate. Pure. Significant.

We know how important a quality early childhood experience is and what it means for a child’s future success. We’ve never taken it for granted. Dedication is dedication, a caregiver is a caregiver, and an educator is an educator. But - when you find a dedicated educator who nurtures and cares the way a caregiver does? *muah* perfection!! That’s the trifecta. A dedicated educator who is also a caregiver is significant. The impact s/he will have on the lives of the children in their care is significant.

Something I never could have known about self-employment was that when you’re an owner-operator every year is a building year. Every year we work to improve in some way. Every year is a grind.
Obviously in 2010, Mandy and I were 13 years younger. We were eager, fresh, and optimistic…we were also entirely delusional. 😉

There is a steep learning curve in every self-employment industry, and this was no exception. We felt ok (I think), because we knew we were there for the right reasons. We just wanted a better option to exist. It was, and remains, pure.

Staffing, I’m convinced, has no single recipe for success. Applicants can say all the right things in an interview and despite our best efforts, they step in with one foot out the door.

*Sometimes you get lucky - sometimes they worked with one of the owners in a past life and you were their first call when they wanted to return to work.

*Sometimes they walk through the front door after just having been let go from their last job at the exact time you were hoping for a miracle.

*Sometimes they just needed something to supplement their income and their best friend told them we were hiring.

*Sometimes they needed a change from the program they were at and the fact that they found us was just dumb luck.

*Sometimes they’re hired as a teenager who can’t start when you want them to because they’re on a family trip in California.

*Sometimes they introduce themselves and tell you the absolute truth about their past, about how they were homeless and living out of their car but they’re pregnant and really hope to learn something about kids while having a safe place for their child to be while they work.

*Sometimes their sister worked for us in our early years, and they remembered their time with enough fondness that they encouraged them to stop by and fill out an application.

They’ve grown with us, they’ve encouraged us in ways they didn’t know we might need. They’ve embraced change and we’ve learned together - the process, as a whole, has been delicate.

To me, all of those points combined make up the intricacies that we all know lace to be. The time and the people, the relationships and the memories, the hardships and the happiness; all of the things that two 13-years-younger doe-eyed business owners could have never dreamed.

There is so much we’ve learned along the way, and for anyone who has a part of our learning curve - for better or worse - we hope you know that we appreciate you having been a part of our journey. We promise to always strive for continued improvements and growth and forever remain a work-in-progress. ❤️

Love,
Mandy & Hollie