Send it home from school, but I put labels with the family name on each one to make sure they don't get left behind.

We do rashes on a case by case basis. If we have no idea what is causing it, we ask the parents to contact their doctor. We don't require notes, we take the parents at their word. A lot of times they are able to just submit photos to the doctor and get a response. I tend to wait for more than one case of anything before informing parents. I try not to alarm everyone until we know it's going around.

We re-enroll every year and that is when tuition increases are distributed, with the re-enrollent forms. This is also the time of year that we inform of the increases that will go into effect with the new school year. Our re-enrollmemnt materials are sent home on paper, but we might be changing that to be electronically next year.

A while back I had a parenting library in our lobby with library pockets and the cards inside that you'd write your name on to check it out. When books weren't returned, I could then ask. Sometimes I'd get them back after a reminder. Sometimes I wouldn't. If I were to do it again, I'd do the free giveaway version and just try to keep it stocked when I was able to, and hope that parents added to it. It's probably less hassle to not worry about people not returning them.

We, like everyone I think, went to kids bringing their own snacks during covid. The teachers love the ease of it and of course the budget is better and you don't need staff for buying and serving. However, with other schools going back to providing snacks, I think it is necessary for us to return to this practice to stay competitive. Most parents prefer we serve it (saves them time and money) and so our plan is to return to snacks provided in the fall. The cost of snacks is built into tuition. In the past I've had our break person prepare and deliver the snack. I've had a different teacher do the shopping on the clock. We've never done anything difficult or requiring a kitchen. I try to have 2 weeks worth of snacks that are kid friendly and easy to serve that I then just rotate through to create the menu with different combinations of these items. There are a couple of items that I serve weekly, such as trail mix. Our trail mix is also a large container that we dump in all the ends of the other snacks (crackers, cheerios, etc) and we add raisins to give the trail mix two food groups. In a past preschool I worked at, we were able to have Costco delivered and we got a lot more creative with the snacks since every classroom had a fridge and microwave in their rooms. What I would love to have is someone who could take care of snack and lunch, do the shopping, prepping and delivering, and being able to offer a hot lunch daily. But, we don't have the resources or facilities for this, so it's just a pipe dream for now. I'd love to hear about other's creative snacks!

We are using One in Christ for our preschool and the Infant Toddler version of One in Christ for our Infants, Toddlers and Twos. I like that there is one curriculum to cover all ages, and since it's Lutheran, there's no worries about any doctrinal issues. What I don't like is that each level are on different stories a lot of times. It's harder to make a cute calendar when there are three different stories going on.

I started using the Childcare Careers this year for the first time. We had a lead teacher quit and no subs on my list who could step in, so for about a month I had someone from them on most days. If requested far enough in advance, you are able to get someone. Be careful though about not requesting an aide. For their language, an aide has NO units! I'm not sure what the point of that would be. In any case, I was surprised by the people they sent. I wasn't expecting more than a body, but some have been quite nice and helpful! It's expensive, but better than having to go in a classroom and then try to still do your job on top of it.