Join your friends at Sesame Street for a FREE online course for early childhood educators entitled Make Believe with Math.

This self-paced course is designed for all early childhood educators – whether you are working in a classroom, center-based program, or family child-care setting. The course will enable educators to explore the fun of math in children’s make believe play and how math moments can be incorporated into everyday learning.

It’s that time of year again – when temperatures start to rise all over the country and life altering accidents have the potential to occur when we’re least expecting it.

Heatstroke is the leading cause of non-crash, vehicle-related deaths of children now according to SafeKids.org. On average, one child dies every 8 days from heatstroke in a vehicle – and it’s an event that can happen to any family at any time. Responsible parents can have a bad morning or a change in routine that allows them to forget their child in the backseat of their car for hours, or even an entire day.

Earlier this week, the sponsors of the "Summer Meals Act of 2015" (HR 1728/ S. 613) held a briefing on Capitol Hill.

This legislation is a bipartisan and bicameral measure focused on the improvement and expansion of Summer Nutrition Programs. The Senate version is sponsored by Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and the House version (H.R. 1728) is sponsored by Representatives Don Young (R-AK) and Rick Larsen (D-WA).

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is currently reviewing proposed rule updates to the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP): Meal Pattern Revisions Related to the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. The CACFP is a federal program serving more than 3 million children in child care, Head Start and after school programs across the country. USDA hopes to update the CACFP program to be consistent with the national school lunch program, WIC and other food assistance programs administered by the agency.

When an email from the White House came into my inbox, I paid attention!  That’s the situation I found myself in, in mid-January. I was delighted to find that Child Care Aware® of Kansas was being offered two tickets to attend the President’s Remarks at the University of Kansas. It really didn't take me more than two minutes to look at my calendar and send a quick response back to the White House, stating Absolutely! Much to my surprise, on Wednesday (the day before the President’s visit) we were offered another seven tickets!  Of course I said we’d take them. Within a matter of one hour, I called the CCR&Rs in Kansas, two child care center directors and one high school teacher to extend the offer.  All seven people immediately said “YES”!

On February 2, 2015, President Barack Obama released his budget blueprint for the upcoming Fiscal Year 2016.  Following on commitments announced during the recent State of the Union, President Obama’s budget proposal includes new initiatives and funding proposals designed to improve “access to high-quality child care and early education.”