Strengthening the economy and building a competitive workforce starts with high quality child care and early childhood education – and not all corporations understand that. Now, you have a chance to bring recognition to business partners who not only understand, but who take action.

I’m writing this as I ride the train from New York City headed back to Washington, D.C. on the last day of summer. Tomorrow the kids will return back to school in Virginia, and I am certain that there will be anticipation and perhaps a bit of (unadmitted) anxiety for what’s to come in the school year ahead. But before I too begin to think about the launch of the year ahead, I must share about our last weeks of summer!

Child Care Aware® of America (CCAoA) is happy to join in the effort to prevent the “summer slide” by signing on to the Read Where You Are campaign put together by the Department of Education!

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.

Child Care Aware® of America’s (CCAoA) 2015 annual meeting and conference in Washington, D.C. brought together child care providers, CCR&Rs, and leaders from government agencies and the White House to address many issues including Early Head Start and Child Care Partnerships, implementation of CCDBG, CCAoA’s strategic planning, and cultural competency in family engagement.

“Struggling to get out of poverty: The Two Generation Approach” tells on NPR, the story of two mothers who participate in Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Career Advance program. It’s one of at least three stories I’ve seen over the past week highlighting early education, the benefits and the costs.