In-kind is sort of the life-blood of Head Start. Since we are a Federal Government funded program that has a four to one parent volunteer dollar matching requirement, for every four dollars we get from the Federal Government we have to match with one dollar of parent volunteer time.

How are we doing “Making the Match” so far this year …

Our total annual in-kind requirement is $972,526.00. Our parent volunteer In-kind total is $399,505.79 through December. That puts us approximately $10,000 dollars ahead of our goal through December.

Top three in-kind leaders by program type (option of center or Home Base)

Center Base option:
#1 Caterpillar Cottages   -                $1,360.87 per family
#2 Tehama Center -                            $557.89 per family
#3 Red Bluff Center -                         $438.60 per family

Home Base option:

#1 Home Base 3 (Luz) -                   $4,538.03 per family
#2 Home Base 6 (Maria Estrada) -   $4,170.33 per family
#3 Home Base 2 (Ofelia) -                $3,647.33 per family

In-kind is monetarily valuable--its true. We couldn't get grant funds without it. But its also valuable to your child's success in the classroom. All of the time you spend, assisting them and their friends with breakfast, cutting out snowflakes for a holiday party, turning out for special events like healthy food nights and parades, and coming to parent meetings show your kids how important their school experience is. It makes school a family affair.

Starting Feb. 2nd you will have a new way to earn in-kind from the comfort of your own home. The read-a-thon will give you a chance to snuggle up on the couch with your little one with a good book. You get to bond, talk about the story, identify what will happen next and all of those great skills, all while earning in-kind time to keep Head Start going!

Your teacher should provide you with a reading homework sheet. Please, fill it out regularly and return it to school. If you need books at home to read with your child, let us know...and enjoy your opportunity to read about the adventures of Pete the Cat, or the Berenstein Bears, or Arthur (or Clifford...or Madeline...or...or...or)!

Note: Thanks much to Mike Lindsey for filling in the blanks about in-kind for me!

First of all, I want to thank everyone who has participated so far in the Show the Love Social Media Campaign--I can't believe how many people are connecting with us on Social Media! Facebook likes have more than doubled since the campaign started last week!

We have some fantastic events that are coming up in the next month or so that I want to highlight. First of all, is our CPR/1st Aid course for NCCDI parents this Saturday from 9 to 4. This is offered at no cost to our parents and certifies them for 2 years. This is great, not only to provide a skill that may help to save a life, but as an skill to put on resumes and job applications--being CPR certified is a requirement of many jobs. The class is currently full, so if you signed up, be sure to show up! If you wanted to take the class but missed out this time, let us know so we can schedule another class.

Give Kids A Smile day is Feb. 7th. This is an opportunity for children 0-18 and pregnant women to get a dental check if they do not have MediCal or dental insurance--and we have been told that they will see you even if you have emergency MediCal. Registration will be from 7:30am-9am and it will fill up, so get there early. It is an Northern Valley Indian Health out North Main by CHP and Home Depot.

On Feb. 12th, NCCDI is hosting the Corning in the Evening Event at Corning Center. This is a movement sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce to allow local businesses and agencies to highlight what they do to an audience of members of the business community. We are so honored to be hosting and to have an opportunity to share our NCCDI philosophy and the wonderful work that our staff, students and families do.

Its an exciting time, and we are gearing up for a really busy Spring. Keep in touch to learn more of what we have planned!

Last Saturday, I had the opportunity to participate in Pancakes with Pop at Happy Trails Center. These events, which happen twice a year (once in Corning and once in Red Bluff), are a time for families to have a great pancake breakfast with all the trimmings and talk books. We had books available for families to take home and we discussed some tips for sharing books with your child. We talked about two acronyms, CAR and CROWD.




CAR: 
Comment...and WAIT
Ask Questions...and WAIT
Respond by adding a little more...and WAIT

CROWD:
Completion
Recall
Open-Ended Questions
Wh-Questions (Who, What, When, Where, Why)
Distancing

Since our Read-A-Thon is coming up beginning Feb. 2nd, we wanted to make sure that books are in hands and skills are in place to get reading! Reading to your child is such an important part of their development. Begin reading to them as infants--even if they don't understand the words, they will be working on their language development. Older babies and toddlers can begin recognizing pictures and colors. They can start asking questions and predicting what will happen next. When they are sharing a book with you, kids are learning how to relate to others, they're learning respect for books and for literacy, and they are developing skills.

Our SHOW THE LOVE social media contest starts today! Leave a comment here with your child (or children's) center, then jump over and like our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest and leave comments with your center of choice. Each one is an entry into the Show the Love Social Media Contest. The winning center will receive a field trip or special event for all of the children!!

facebook.com/nccdi
@nccdi on Twitter and Instagram
pinterest.com/nccdi

Follow us and leave a comment!

I have been asked why we are on so many different social media outlets. Its a lot. Our main one is Facebook, but we also have active Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest profiles. That's not all, though. We also have a presence on Google+, we have a YouTube channel, and can be found on Yelp. So, why so many? Each has a different purpose, and a different audience. 

Facebook was our first. It is also our most active. Facebook is just so darn convenient--many of our families have Facebook pages so it is very easy for them to interact with us, check out photos, share photos and events, even direct message us with questions or comments. We post upcoming events and even storm warnings, center closures and other news on Facebook. It is kind of the catch-all, and holds a little of each of the other social media content as well. We also use it to interact with our partner agencies.

Twitter is short and sweet little snippets of news; 140 characters to be precise. Our Facebook is linked to our twitter so in addition to Tweeting unique content directly, anything posted on Facebook is cross-posted there as well. However, that is not what we use Twitter for most. We actually utilize it to track breaking news, make connections with political figures, share content from other resources, etc. We follow more than we are followed on Twitter, if that makes sense.

Instagram is where we are little sillier and more whimsical. Our NCCDI bugs, Ziggy, Jules and Cookie, lead the way as we visit via pictures our communities and our centers. Instagram is fully visual storytelling, and we are trying to be creative with the point of view from the vantage point of our little critter buddies.

Pinterest is an opportunity to extend our students' learning at home. What we pin is projects and crafts that parents can easily replicate at home to continue as their child's first teacher. We have boards that are specific to various holidays, ones that highlight recipes and healthy eating, and ones to engage preschoolers in hands-on learning.

Google+, YouTube, and Yelp are all areas we are just recently developing. Google+ and Yelp are useful to help drive more traffic to our website and make us easier to find when searching online. YouTube is where any video content that we create will live, so that we can share it. The plan is for that to only include content created by NCCDI.

There you have it; a very long answer to a very short question. Please let us know if we can improve our presence online in any way, or if you have content you would like us to share.

Its exciting to be facing the possibilities brought by a new year. Its a time of renewal, a time to make resolutions to improve ourselves and our outlook on life.

I am looking at ways to be more effective at reaching out to our families and to our community, to make NCCDI a household name and to help our communities understand what Head Start and Early Head Start are all about. People think we are merely daycare and aren't aware that our high quality programming in Head Start is accredited through NAEYC. People also often believe that Head Start/Early Head Start are just programs for children. They don't understand that our family engagement programs are an integral part of what we do, for if we can help families become lifelong educators and learners, support family well-being, and become leaders and advocates, the children achieve higher overall success.

We have a number of things in the works to increase our visibility in the community; the first is this website and our social media presence. It may seem small, but having a strong online presence helps us to expand our ability to communicate and engage with our families. We are now on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. We are also gearing up to host a Corning Chamber of Commerce event, Corning in the Evening, at the Corning Head Start Center in February. We want to show the business community just how valuable our programming is to their workers and customers.

I would love to get to know more of our NCCDI families, and learn more of their stories. We have shared two, Araceli's and Cheri's, on our Success Stories page, but I would love to get more of an idea of who our families are, and what keeps them coming to Head Start. 

Happy New Year!