Chapter 10 is focused on determining most effective approaches to staff supervision and training by a director of a typical child care learning center (Click and Karkos 241). It is noticed that there are three major types of teachers in early childhood programs: the ones who are academically prepared to work with children, the ones who have experience of teaching and raising only their own children, and the ones who accidentally start working in such programs (Click and Karkos 242). It is also claimed that among most important parts of staff supervision is ensuring compliance with procedures and policies. Every employee should be acknowledged with schedules, safety rules, health procedures, and other rules. This is the director’s task to communicate clearly the expectations regarding the rules and to check regularly whether these expectations are met by the workers. As well, the director is supposed to provide the personnel with ideas, encouragement, feedback, and constructive criticism (Click and Karkos 242).
Furthermore, basic steps of the process of evaluation of staff performance, or the determining whether the early childhood center’s goals are being met by the employees, is described within the chapter. It is stressed that the procedure of evaluation should start from the agreement between the staff members and the director regarding the goals which are supposed to be accomplished by the workers and the standards for achievements’ judging (Click and Karkos 243-244). Most widespread methods of evaluation determined within the text are tests, observations, and sampling of behavior (Click and Karkos 245).
Chapter 11 is devoted to examining budget’s role in child care program’s operating. Budget is defined as “a statement of goals for one year stated in financial terms” (Click and Karkos 268). It is emphasized that for a child care center could demonstrate high level performance, the director and employees of the center need to be acquainted not only with the knowledge of children but also with efficient fiscal management.
Within the chapter major categories of expenses are determined. It is stated that the biggest proportion of budget consists of staff salaries and fringe benefits. Also the distinction between variable and fixed expenses for the child cares center is provided. Variable expenses usually include equipment, supplies and other materials, transportation, food, and marketing. Fixed expenses consist of space costs, utilities, insurance, taxes, and audit (Click and Karkos 273-275). As well, the items from the budget’s income line are determined. They, particularly, consist of tuitions and federal, state, and local funding (Click and Karkos 275-276).
In addition the concept of break-even point for the child care center is explained; it is defined as the amount of children which have to participate in the program in order to generate the income able to cover the center’s costs. In other words, break-even point is the point at which expenses equal income (Click and Karkos 276). The authors also provide the method which can be used for the calculation of the break-even point.
What is more, a set of smart suggestions and pieces of advice for the director responsible for a budget’s planning is proposed. Besides, it is claimed that the director should ensure about every item of expenses and income being included into the budget. It is emphasized that to prevent money’s terminating before the fiscal year’s end, the director has to perform sufficient budget planning and continuing budget analysis (Click and Karkos 277-278).
In terms of the chapter 12 the importance of the nutrition, health and safety within the child care program is described. It is affirmed that there is a strong correlation between nutrition, health and safety of children as. Good nutrition might contribute to high quality health, and healthy children are more likely remain safer due to being more alert (Click and Karkos 289).
First, it is emphasized that the director and teachers need to have serious knowledge regarding sufficient nutrition. A list of most widespread licensing requirements regarding nutrition’s parameters of the center is provided (Click and Karkos 290). It is assumed that nutrition education might become an important part of the classroom curriculum for the children; in particular, children can have regular cooking experiences in the center (Click and Karkos 295-296). Special attention is also paid to food purchasing. The director’s task is providing children with high-quality meals while meeting the budget’s restraints.
Second, a healthy environment for the children must be created within the center. Every child care obliged to have a set of policies related to health issues. These policies, particularly, include immunization, health assessments, sanitation, infection control, staff health, and other policies (Click and Karkos 300). In the chapter the description of the list of conditions signifying about the necessity of sending a child home is provided. The examples of the items from the list are the oral temperature of 101.8°F or higher, coughing, crying, irritability, vomiting, diarrhea, mumps, measles, and other medical conditions (Click and Karkos 307).
Third, safety is concerned an issue of specific concern for the directors and teachers of child care center. Maintaining a safe environment for the children includes using safe practices, preventing injuries, and constant monitoring for hazards to health and safety. Center’s policies for safety should consist of environmental hazards, transportation, child abuse prevention, providing first aid, dealing with emergencies, and other policies (Click and Karkos 309-310).
After acknowledging with the chapters 10, 11, and 12 of the book, the response to the material offered within these chapters can be provided. A general comment which I would like to provide regarding the whole material is that within all three chapters the information of particular importance and high quality is represented in logic, coherent, easy-to-understand, and fascinating way. The acquired knowledge can be used not only by child care practitioners but also by each individual in everyday practice.
In my opinion, the information represented in chapter 10 might be particularly useful for people who are going to become either directors or managers in child care centers, schools, or any other educational institutions. Within the chapter variety of useful and practical pieces of advice are offered. I believe that in case of constructive following all these pieces of advice and suggestions by the program’s director, this program might most probably become the one demonstrating successful performance of the employees and, as a result, might have considerably positive impact on every single child visiting the center.
While assessing chapter 11, I should notice that the material presented here, despite being primarily valuable for the directors of child care centers, can be easily used by every person whose work is related to budget’s planning. Due to understandable explanations of the types of expenses and income which can be stated in the budget, each person, even the one who is not strong in financial issues, can understand the fundamentals of the work with budget.
Finally, in my point of view, the information provided within the chapter 12 is of incredibly high significance not only for the workers of child care centers but for every person as well, especially for parents of little children. After becoming familiar with the recommendations and rules determined within this chapter, every teacher and every parent might increase the children’s chances of staying healthier and safer.
Works Cited
Click, Phyllis M., and Kim Karkos. Administration of Programs for Young Children. Stanford: Cengage Learning, 2013. Print.
