There has been plenty of hand-wringing in recent years about the “overscheduled child.” With after-school hours increasingly dominated by piano lessons, soccer practice, and countless other planned activities, many of us have a nagging sense that kids are missing out on something important if they have no time for unstructured play.
City of Ottawa has no plan to spend $3.6M childcare reserve
Ottawa Citizen, 05.04.2014
The city has no plan to spend the $3.6 million it has collected through development charges to build new childcare spaces, even though many Ottawa families wait for months to secure a spot in a licensed centre.
The money has been accumulating since 2009 and can only be spent on childcare centres owned or operated by the city. But because such a venture is not on the horizon, the city has decided to sit on the cash and is also proposing in its updated development charges bylaw to pause any further collection.
That’s a big mistake, says the former head of the department that oversees childcare.
Classroom Design and How it Influences Behavior
Early childhood classrooms serve as the physical environment for adults and young children for most of their waking hours. Although it is important for classrooms to be attractive to the eye, it is equally, if not more important, that they function effectively.
Your childcare environment influences how you feel about yourself and your job, and how you as an early childhood professional relate to the children in your care. The children in your care experience the environment indirectly though interactions with you, and directly through their own experience with the physical setting.
Infant care spaces are disappearing across Muskoka
By Jennifer Bowman, Bracebridge Examiner
Daycares are changing how they operate and who they serve now that full-day kindergarten has taken their most profitable clientele, those aged 3.8 years and older. The last round of schools to implement full-day kindergarten will open their new classrooms this fall, landing the final blow to some daycares.
Read moreThe case against for-profit ‘big box’ child care
Child care should be a public good to benefit all, not a business whose goals may have little to do with serving children, families and community.
Laurel Rothman/Martha Friendly, Toronto Star - Aug. 7, 2014
A national childcare program can address key themes in the 2014 pre-budget consultation
Brief submitted to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance pre-budget consultation by the Childcare Resource and Research Unit argues that "a real national childcare program would be both the smart thing and the right thing to do for Canada".
Read moreWhy fixing First Nations education remains so far out of reach
Aboriginal youth face a fate that should horrify Canadians and there’s an obvious fix
Ending the cycle of poverty and violence among Aboriginal youth can seem like an impossibly daunting endeavour. After decades of negotiations, commissions and protests, including last year’s Idle No More movement and Ottawa’s recent unsuccessful attempt to reform First Nations education funding, Aboriginal children continue to face a fate that should horrify most Canadians.
Macleans Magazine, Tamsin McMahon - July 14, 2014
Read moreGrandparents raising their grandchildren
A growing number of Canadian grandparents are caregivers of their grandchildren. And most of these caregivers are single females with limited incomes. Toronto Star, Aug. 3, 2014
Risky play and skinned knees are key to healthy child development
In the last generation, adults have been consumed with protecting kids against all odds.
But now, some child injury prevention experts are warning too much bubble wrap may be thwarting healthy development. Toronto Star - July 29, 2014
Read moreSummer eceLINK Now ONLINE!
In this issue:
- AECEO Position Paper on Professional Learning for RECEs
- Teaching on the Other Side of the World
- AECEO Certification
- Outdoor Natural Spaces for Learning Inspiration for RECEs
- Endeavours to Enhance the Lives of Children with Autism through Nature Based Learning
- Early Childhood Leadership Program
- Addressing ECE Student Needs
Click here to read this issue*
*You must be logged in as a member to access this content
Canadian families desperately need a national child-care program
Canadian families are doing their share for a prosperous future – they’re having more babies – but governments are letting them down.
Public spending on licensed child care remains grossly inadequate, and so is the supply of space. Meanwhile hard-pressed parents face crushing costs as a “baby boomlet” puts new strain on Canada’s over-stretched child care resources.
That’s the finding of a new report by the Toronto-based Childcare Resource and Research Unit and analysts at the universities of Guelph and Manitoba.
Toronto Star June 22, 2014
Schools in affluent areas more likely to offer after-hours child care, study finds
A survey by People for Education has found major gaps in the delivery of before- and after-school programs for young students — despite this being a key part of the province’s full-day kindergarten plan. Toronto Star June 23, 2014
The Value of Unstructured Play Time for Kids
German psychologists find people who were allowed to play freely as children have greater social success as adults.
Child Care Modernization Act, Bill 143
The government of Ontario announced the release of new legislation that addresses the modernization of child care.
An Act to enact the Child Care and Early Years Act, 2013, to repeal the Day Nurseries Act, to amend the Early Childhood Educators Act, 2007 and the Education Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts
More than just a child care waitlist registry
valued family support, assessment service should stay with Andrew Fleck
OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - May 27, 2014) - Despite a $4 million provincial funding infusion for Ottawa child care services, parents and child care staff throughout the city are flummoxed as to why the City of Ottawa is ending community provision of a valued assessment and referral service that fielded over 11,500 calls from parents in 2013.
Read moreEarly childhood education and child care in the 2014 Ontario election
The Ontario election is scheduled for June 12th, 2014. CRRU has selected materials from the political parties, NGOs and news media to explain how ECEC is positioned in this election campaign. We will continue to update this page as new developments occur. Materials are listed from the most recent to the least recent.
Ontario needs a good child-care strategy: Editorial
In a provincial election that is understandably focused on jobs and the economy, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath deserves credit for shining a spotlight on a vital service that helps society thrive: a safe and sustainable child care system. Such a system doesn't exist in Ontario now.
Read more
Party leaders asked to commit to a 6-point plan for early learning and child care
May 14, 2014
The Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario, Canadian Union of Public Employees (Ontario), Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care, Childcare Resource and Research Unit and Advocates for Progressive Child Care Policy are calling on the leaders of Ontario's three main political parties to respond to concerns about the state of early childhood education and child care by committing, if elected, to six key elements toward a strategy that will begin to fix early childhood education and child care in Ontario.
Open Letter to the leaders of Ontario's three main political parties
Who'll make the grade on child care?
Parents, activists to issue "report card" for party leaders before June 12 vote
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - May 20, 2014) - Years of starts, shifts and cuts, add up to inadequate public funding and ineffectual provincial policy by successive governments. It's time for this situation to end, say a group of parents, early childhood educators and activists who, this election are challenging party leaders to "make the grade on child care".
Read more