Lori Chambliss, Director |
Last July we were at the Wetumpka Preschool, in Wetumpka, Alabama. Terri and Lori Chambliss pride themselves on preparing their children for school and they do it well. Every day Terri shares a new scientific experiment with the kids. That's a lot of work. She told us that the secret of coming up with a new experiment every day is Steve Spangler and she shared his web site address with us. Steve is a fantastic resource - Check him out: Here are a few photos of the marvelous students we met at Wetumpka Preschool |
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Sharing Ideas That Work_
February 07, 2008
A Fund Raising Company That Delivers
Dress up day at ABC Learning Center |
Last November we were at the ABC Learning Center in Oxford, Mississippi. The children were wonderful as children always are and the director, Annie Burkhead, was most gracious. Like many of the centers that we visit, fundraisers are used to fund specific needs, like playground equipment, special equipment, books, etc. Annie had just conducted a successful fundraiser and we watched her arrange the orders that the children had sold for pick up and delivery by the parents. We immediately noticed that each order had individually packaged and was clearly tagged which made things very easy for Annie and her staff. We asked her about the fundraising company and she said | |
that she had used them for years and found them totally reliable. When we asked if she would recommend them to other centers, she said, “Unconditionally.” She gave me the name of the company, Southeastern Fundraisers, located in Soso, Mississippi (near Laurel). Today I talked with Ralph Cahill, the owner of Southeastern. I got his permission to mention his company in this posting and I asked him what I should say. He noted this: · Southeastern’s promotions offer great profit potential. · They give free prizes to the children who participate. · Each order is prepackaged for ease of distribution. · They have over 2,500 day care centers on their customer list. Southeastern Fundraisers has a toll free number – 800-748-9871 – Ralph Cahill is the owner – their address is 63 Craven Drive – Soso, MS 39480 |
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Unfortunately we don’t have a photo of Annie – This is her grandson. | ||
February 05, 2008
Information When You Need - Where You Need It
Last April (2007), we visited The Learning Center in Scottsville, Kentucky. The director, Tiffany Escue, has implemented a number of original innovative ideas, one of which we'd like to share with you here. Before we do that, please note, these are Tiffany's children, Kylie and Kayden.  THE IDEA - In every classroom at The Learning Center, just inside the door, mounted on a hook out of the reach of children, is a set of laminated cards with the parent/guardian contact information, pertinent medical information, and a list of adults authorized to pick up each child. Each child has a card and the cards are punched with a single hole in the corner and attached to a large metal ring (like a shower curtain ring). The beauty of the idea isn't that the information is new - every center has all of that info on each child and even more - the uniqueness of the idea is that laminating individual cards and mounting them on a ring located in the same position in every room insures that the information is readily available when it is needed. To make the implementation of Tiffany's idea easy, we went to www.staples.com and and two other sources to put together this list of required material: Staples Office Supplies Using those figures we determined that it would cost approximately $6.25 per room to create the information cards for a room with 20 children. That's a small investment in time and money to create an information source that could well prove to be priceless some day. Our thanks go out to Tiffany Escue for sharing this great idea - Do you have an idea that makes life at your center easier - let us know - we'd love to share it in the blog. |
