ANNOUNCEMENT

Exciting news here at HUMmingbird Day Care Ministry.  The announcement was made this week that Jerry Blesch is in the process of donating the Dutch Haus Restaurant to Holland United Methodist Church for our use. We have expanded multiple times during the last five years.  As the communities need continues to grow for high quality childcare, we have been able to continue to expand and meet the need.  We were at a juncture where we were simply out of room to meet this growing need.  We are so blessed for the support of Jerry, Betty and their family to find it in their heart to make such a generous donation.  We are blessed beyond words. 

With the new building in the process of being donated, we are planning for big projects.  Perhaps my favorite is the addition of the "Club H" after school program.  We find that the majority of our school agers have attended our program since infancy and we want to celebrate the fact that their tastes and interests are changing.  For this reason, we will be creating a specific room just for our older school agers (2nd grade and up).  In this classroom we will have a variety of items such as games, foosball table, couches and chairs among other things that are of interest to their growing needs.  We understand that although we are in the business of early childhood education, our school agers have unique needs and we want to meet their expectation for a fun and exciting place to spend with their friends.

Update on Paths to Quality

Here's an update on where we stand on Paths to Quality.  We have received our visit from the state for the Voluntary Certification Program.  For us to acquire the VCP's we must pass in the areas of infant and toddler care, health, nutrition, and safety.  We passed all 4 areas in our first visit.  This is quite an accomplishment.  We were able to schedule our first Paths to Quality visit last week when we successful passed Level 1.  I immediately scheduled level 2 visit for September 6th.  At that time we will pass level 2 for Paths to Quality.  Level 2 focuses on the environment in respects to classroom arrangements as well as the staff interactions.   They will also be looking at the staff training and education, which we surpass the requirements in both of these areas. 

The staff at HUMmingbird Day Care Ministry have been working hard to offer the families and the community a high quality child care program.  I am extremely excited that with the passing of the VCP's and Level 1 we can begin having the validation of all of their hard work.  If not for their energy and passion for what they do, our program would not be what it is today.

Once Level 2 is complete we will be required to wait 6 months before applying for level 3.  This is only for financial reasons on the Paths to Quality program's end.  With the financial contribution of $1,000 for level 2 and level 3 they require the wait.  Please understand that although the Paths to Quality sign may not say Level 3 at this time, we are in fact meeting all of these requirements at this time.

Paths to Quality

Although our program participated in Paths to Quality when it was initially introduced in 2005, when the program went state wide, we were no longer eligible because of the change in requirements of Ministries needing all 4 of the Voluntary Certification in regards to children's Health, Safety, Nutrition, and Infant and Toddler Care.  Although we met many of the indicators on the Voluntary Certification, we had to hold off on our quest of participating in this voluntary rating system due to major remodeling projects that would be required.  We did however focus on the aspect of our program that we could, such as classroom environments, staff training and education, curriculum, work sampling and intentional teaching (all of these items that are focused on level 2 and 3 of Paths to Quality).

Our program has expanded and grown since 2005. We recently remodeled the entire program with new flooring and paint.  We have even knocked out a wall to expand our toddler classroom.  We installed a fire alarm system that is monitored 24/7 and replaced all of the lights throughout the program to meet specific foot candle requirements. Now that we have completed over $40,000 in renovations, we are ready to move forward once more with the Paths To Quality program.  We will begin at a level one, but pay close attention, because we will move quickly through the levels.  Our passion and drive to offer the highest quality childcare will ensure that we will be a level 3 soon. 

To find out more about Paths To Quality, visit http://www.in.gov/fssa/2554.htm