Early Care and Education Training & Development

The foundation of quality early care and education is training.  The amount of training a early care educator has, directly impacts the quality of child care they can provide.

The Nurturing Center offers child care provider training and development by offering business and professional education along with child development and guidance classes. This is done one-on-one for those who need it and in group settings for a sharing experience. All classes that we offer meet the Montana Early Childhood Project guidelines as approved training.  Montana requires a minimum of 8 training hours per year in order to  maintain a child care provider registration or license.

Along with child care provider classes, we offer the Bringing Early Success Training (B.E.S.T.) program for ‘new to the business’ child care providers. B.E.S.T. is a mentoring program that offers new child care providers the support  they need to thrive while experiencing the overwhelming demands of their new business.

Training & Technical Assistance is offered for child care providers who are struggling to keep their business viable.

We also have a lending library of books, videos, curriculum and themed activity boxes (see list below) for child care providers to borrow in an effort to help develop their individual programs to benefit the children in their care.

The Nurturing Center’s Child Care Provider Services

is here to help interested people in becoming registered or licensed

early care educators and help them achieve the highest level of

quality care for the children they care for.

We have many themed activity boxes

in our Lending Library to enhance your program.

If you would like to borrow an activity box,

Contact Lori at 756-1414 or 1-800-204-0644
lori@nurturingcenter.org

Nurturing Center Workshop Registration Policies

 

• Pre-registration is required at least one week prior to the class date. Contact Michelle at 756-1414 or 800-204-0644 or email your request to michelle@nurturingcenter.org.
• Pre-payment is also required one week before the start of any class, unless prior arrangements are made.
• Five or more participants must be enrolled for a class to be held in Flathead, Sanders, Lincoln or Lake Counties. All classes are scheduled at convenient local sites.
• Classes may be rescheduled due to poor weather or other uncontrollable circumstances.  Pre-registered participants will be notified if a workshop is cancelled.
• All workshops are approved for required training hours from the Montana Early Childhood Project.
• For more information about the content of any class, contact Mary Lyons at lyons@nurturingcenter.org.

• USDA- Child & Adult Care Food Program Training Schedule click here. Eligible businesses are required to complete 4 hours of training annually in current program requirements and food safety.
• Pre-registration is required.  To register for a class, contact Gayle at 406-756-1414, 800-204-0644 or email your request to gayle@nurturingcenter.org

To learn more about training requirements for Montana early care educators and upcoming approved trainings for all regions, visit the Montana Early Childhood Project (ECP) website at Montana Early Childhood Project .  Montana Early Childhood Project is housed at the University of Montana and partners with Montana’s Early Childhood Services Bureau, Montana Resource & Referral Network and all others who are committed to bringing the highest quality, consistent early care and education to of Montana’s children.

To learn more about early care and education, visit the following websites:

• The National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies at www.naccrra.org
• The National Association for the Education of Young Children at www.naeyc.org                
• The National Association for Family Child Care at National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC).
• The Children’s Defense Fund at childrensdefencefund.org   
• Child Care Aware at childcareaware.org 
• Every Child Matters at everychildmatters.org
• The National Center for the Business of Family Child Care at the Redleaf National Institute at  redleafinstitute.org

• Program for Infants and Toddlers (PITC) at  The Program for Infant/Toddler Care .or contact our Susan Christofferson at info@nurturingcenter.org
• Child Care Plus+ The Montana Center on Inclusion in Early Childhood at the University of Montana www.ccplus.org
• Caregiver resources and fun stuff from PBS at pbsparents.org
• For Montana Early Childhood Services Bureau, visit http://www.dphhs.mt.gov/hrd/childcare/index.shtml
• For Montana Licensing forms and information, visit  Montana Child Care Licensing Forms and Information
• For Montana Early Childhood Services Bureau Program documents, visit http://www.dphhs.mt.gov/hrd/childcare/documents.shtml
• For upcoming opportunities for grants for Montana early care educators, visit http://www.dphhs.mt.gov/hrd/childcare/calendar.shtml
• For an electronic version of Montana’s Child Care Policy Manual, visit http://www.dphhs.mt.gov/hcsd/ecsbmanual/

The Nurturing Center

Child Care Provider Training Schedules

Online Training

Living in Montana presents its own set of challenges, one of which is long distances between communities and educational opportunities.  Following is a list of sites that offer online training for early care educators. 

Child Care Resources offers many online training opportunities available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Learn from home! For a full description of available courses, visit www.childcaretraining.org

CARE Courses
These correspondence courses are approved for Montana practitioners. For a full description of courses available visit www.carecourses.com

Flathead Valley Community College Online Courses click here to go to Flathead Valley Community College Online Non-Credit Child Care and Parenting Courses

Questions and concerns about training approval and training records may be addressed to the Early Childhood Project at ecp@montana.edu

2008 Conferences:

Northwest Regional Early Childhood Conference

Saturday, September 13, 2008

The Nurturing Center’s Annual Northwest Regional Early Childhood Conference will be held Saturday, September 13, 2008, for all early care and education professionals.

This year’s conference will take place at the

Christian Center at 255 Summit Ridge Drive in Kalispell.

For more information visit our events page or contact Mary Lyons

at 406-756-1414, ext. 228,

lyons@nurturingcenter.org or info@nurturingcenter.org.

Child Care plus+, The Center on Inclusion in Early Childhood

Center Director Training 2008

Fall Institute: September 17-19, 2008.

For more information, go to www.ccplus.org, email:ccplus@ruralinstitute.umt.edu, or call 1-800-235-4122 or 406-243-6355

Child Care Providers Needed:

• Would you like to own your own business?
• Do you like working with children?

Then opening an in-home child care may be for you.

Benefits of operating your own child care include:

• Ability to stay home with your own children
• Be your own boss
• Great tax deductions
• Reimbursement for feeding the children in your care
• Qualification for Merit Pay (State incentive for taking training)
• Qualification for State mini-grants
• Support of The Nurturing Center, your local Resource & Referral agency - devoted to the care of young children
• Free referral services to your program

For more information about becoming an in-home child care provider, call 406-756-1414 or email us at info@nurturingcenter.org.  To learn more about the process and benefits of becoming an in-home early care educator, go to http://www.dphhs.mt.gov/hrd/childcare/index.shtml