Rexdale's Cradle Rockers

The Stepping-Up Ceremony

June is approaching and many schools are preparing for graduations.  There are many daycare centers that have elaborate graduation ceremonies for their children.  The little ones don caps and gowns and take official graduation pictures while the teachers prepare an official yearbook filled with the graduates’ pictures as well as pictures of the year’s activities.

I prefer instead to offer a “Stepping Up” ceremony at the close of the year.  After all, we don’t really expect, nor do we really want, this preschool event to be their only graduation.  It should however be marked for both children and parents.

For the children, a special stepping up ceremony can signal the official close of the preschool year.  If they are going to a new school it is a way to say “So Long” to the school staff, their friends, and even to the building.  It is a very nice idea to give the children a gift to remind them of their work at the school.   A good choice might be a book about going to kindergarten which they can share with their parents.

Parents need to experience a transitional event as well.  For many, having their baby leave the protective environment of the preschool years and enter the more open environment of kindergarten can evoke a lot of fear. There will be bigger kids there.  Where they were once the senior citizens of daycare they will now be the babies of elementary school.  What a change in the wind.   

It also means the parent is leaving a portion of their lives behind…that portion of having a small infant.   They are moving into the first phases of seeing that little toddler turn into a little boy.  Not only that, the school environment and classroom expectations will be dramatically different.

However the stepping up ceremony is celebrated it will be a time for relection, tears, and happiness as we see the children we've loved take their rightful place in kindergarten.  Teachers and administrators have to learn how to let go too.

The Three-Day Weekend Syndrome

The Memorial Day Weekend celebration is about to start with a lovely three-day weekend.  For the child care center director this may mean an unscheduled reduction of staff.

Most daycare centers run long, long hours and have a year-round schedule.  The staff has limited paid time off and so when a three-day weekend looms on the horizon, the temptation to call in sick and have an even longer time off is just too great.

This may be so widespread that the entire staff may know in advance just who will be calling in “sick” and the director may be the last to find out.  Of course eventually even the director will pick up on a recurring pattern and decide what changes need to be made.

When this happens, what can be done to keep the program running safely and smoothly?  What can be done will depend on the specific circumstances as governed by the daycare center’s formal, written policy and their workers’ union.  This policy or contract will outline how much paid time off is permitted and the way in which it may be taken.   It will also state the limits of its use.

It is important a written policy for paid time off is in place and it is important that the staff has had some formalized informational training session about the specific policies.  The importance of this formalized training session and its content will be signaled to the staff member by requesting his or her signature attesting to its receipt.   This will be placed in his or her human resources folder for future reference.

It’s a good idea to consult with the staff directly about this important issue.  It doesn’t hurt to periodically review the written policies as a group and to answer questions.  Getting the staff involved in coming up with ideas about solving the absenteeism problem will keep the conversation going.   Sometimes a frank discussion, without naming names or pointing fingers, can inform the staff of your professional expectations from them and for the program.

Eventually, a staff member whose attendance pattern indicates a regular sick call on the day before and/or the day after a holiday will need to have a discussion with the director.