📋 Family Registration - Save 10 Hrs/Week

Today’s Issue: Mother’s Day Budget, Reader Poll Results, Streamline Family Registration, ECE News, ECE Hacks = 1 cup of coffee.

We all love Mom!: We hope you had a chance to celebrate your mom this past weekend! After all, without our moms, well, first off, we wouldn’t be here. But more importantly, it’s their ongoing love that ensures we are taken care of. There is no doubt they take on the brunt of raising families. And our wallets are recognizing that! Consumer spending for Mother’s Day is projected to top $34B 💰 this year, according to a National Retail Federation survey, with 84% of US adults reporting plans to celebrate at an average spend of $259. At a minimum, we hope all our moms had a chance to sleep in this weekend…

Reader Poll Results!

Drumroll please….With summer right around the corner, our readers have spoken. 53% of our readers responded that water days are the big hits with families. Looks like it may be too hot for the sports and movements camps. 💦

Streamlining Operations - Family Registrations

Our time is precious and the more we can save, the more time we can dedicate to our staff and families. This week we wanted to focus on one area that several of our readers still do some or all manually. Do any of these steps sound familiar? If so, we can help save 10 hours of admin work per week.

📋 Typical Manual Steps for Child Registration:

1. Distribute Paper Enrollment Packets

2. Parent Completes Forms by Hand

3. Collect Physical Forms

4. Manually Enter Data into Management System or Spreadsheets

5. Review for Completeness

6. File Physical Paperwork

7. Set Up Billing Accounts Separately

8. Notify Teachers and Update Rosters - Manually email or print child profiles for classrooms.

🕰️ Time Spent:

For one child, this process can easily take 30–60 minutes of admin time. Multiply that by dozens of enrollments. That adds up to 5–10+ hours a week!

Tired of chasing paperwork and manually entering family details? A CCMS tool takes the hassle out of enrollment with online registration forms that families can complete anytime, from any device. Customizable fields and automated data imports mean no more duplicate entry or filing cabinets. And not to mention no more duplicate errors that can cost even more time and family frustrations.

Want to see how an integrated CCMS works? Check out this demo:

Watch the Demo

💧 ECE Life Hack: “Color-Coded Water Day Stations” 🌈

Seeing that water days are the fave with our readers, we thought we’d share a fun idea to help organize (thanks to a reader). Water days get wild fast. Instead of total free-for-all chaos, turn your outdoor space into color-coded water stations — each activity gets a color (blue = sprinkler zone, green = bubble station, yellow = water table challenge, etc.).

🔴 Give each child a matching colored wristband or sticker when they arrive.

📣 Rotate kids between stations by color every 10–15 minutes. No lines, no crowding, no lost flip-flops.

Bonus: Pre-fill labeled, color-coded totes with towels, sunscreen, and spare clothes for each group to grab when they need ‘em.

⏰ Time saved: 20 minutes of herding tiny wet humans into place + zero lost swimsuits.

ECE in the News:

🔢 Extending Tax Breaks to ECE Teachers: New legislation is being put forward to extend the same tax breaks K-12 teachers receive to ECE teachers. Teachers often use their own money for needed supplies. To date, K-12 teachers were able to write those costs off. This may now be expanded to ECE teachers who also invest their own funds for supplies. We will be watching and rooting for this as it’s only fair!

🎓 Filling The Teacher Shortage in Michigan: There are currently an estimated shortage of 9,000 teachers across Michigan, which of course, impacts access to quality care. Michigan State University is helping tackle this problem with an expanded ECE education in their Department of Human Development and Family Studies to ensure more teachers are qualified to tackle the challenges of the future. Way to go!

The Internet is a Playground:

🗓️ On this Day in History: In 1981, Pope John Paul II was shot while in the Vatican with an assassination attempt. He later went on to meet his shooter in person to personally forgive him.

👟 #1 Site for Shoe Laces?: That’s what they claim! Maybe it can show us some new ways to lace up our kicks!

🛂 The Time for REAL IDs: After 20 years of delayed legislation, the time for updating your ID is here if you want to travel anywhere domestically in the US. DMVs are expected to be a mess so make sure you get all your items lined up before you go!

🐮 Awww: Cow’s like live music too.

YOUR VOICE COUNTS

Is there a topic you want more info on or want to share a funny story? Then let us know! Shoot us a quick email at [email protected]. This newsletter is for you, and well, you should have a say, don't’ you think?