Marie (00:00:01) - Welcome to childcare conversations with Kate and Carrie.
Carrie (00:00:06) - Hey guys. So it's the beginning of the year, which means we've got some rainy days coming up. We've got some yucky weather. This is not the best time of year for going out and doing things, but it's also a time of year where we've got a lot of kids who might be a little stir crazy because you've had three days in a row inside.
So we thought, what can we do to help the directors with they've got this kind of a situation, and the idea is, let's have some field trips in. That's what I call it. Um, it's when you bring outside people in to do something really fun at your school, help the kids get their wiggles out, have a little bit of shock and awe for the parents. You know, you write it in the newsletter and it's that what? That's not happening at my school. For the parents who made the bad decision of not giving you their money. So no part of what we're doing is marketing to our existing clientele.
Carrie (00:01:03) - Part of what we're doing is giving our teachers a little bit of a break by having someone come in and do something fun, but mostly we're we're making incredible memories for the short people that come to your building on a daily basis. So Kate is amazing at coming up with ways to extend your program by bringing other people into your program, doing cooperative marketing and stuff like that. So, Kate, if you were to just invite one person business whatever into your school for a field trip in at the beginning of the year, January, February, March, what would it be if you were just going to invite one?
Kate (00:01:46) - Wow. If I was just going to invite one. Well, I think every kid loves a program that has movement, and so if I could only bring in one, it would be either a child tumbling program for a day or even a dance party. So party.
Carrie (00:02:08) - Are you going to have a rave?
Kate (00:02:10) - Are you having a rave? Having a rave for those two year olds? So, um, one advantage of looking to outside partners is one.
Kate (00:02:22) - You might find one that a lot of the kids really mesh with, and it meshes with your school philosophy, and they're now something that you want to be a core part of the program. Well, you know, the best way to decide that if you're going to do that is to audition. Well, why not audition with having people come to you? And so the other thing that I really like are music programs. Again, the same thing, um, this is not skill building programs. These are literally programs that come in and they're designed to do that one day visit. And so they're not about to teach a six week lesson. Uh, same with even the tumbling or a wiggle kind of program or a dance party. All three of those can be done as one off. So.
Carrie (00:03:11) - So you're like saying, bringing in a drum petting zoo so that they're bringing in a whole bunch of drums and the kids are petting the drums and and having a drum circle. Yep. My hippie.
Kate (00:03:21) - Absolutely.
Kate (00:03:22) - Yeah. So all of these can also be pulled into. And if you haven't heard mine in Karis episode on how much we love the fun days, the fun months, all of those things. Again, all of these things can be pulled in. Uh, do you know when Pediatric Dental Care Month is? And have you brought in the dentist? Some dentists that are pediatric dentists really have lots of fun things for the kids to do to practice. Um, depending on the age of kids, depending on the kids, some of them probably think it's really fun that they get to choose something and and show all the gunk on their teeth and then go clean it off. Um, others, not so much. It really just, you know, your kids. So, um, but we have programs that can do that related to kids cooking. I really like even the kids cooking. One, if you're a program that has a cook and you have a big kitchen or a big dining room space, give an opportunity to that staff person to engage with the kids in a whole different way.
Kate (00:04:24) - You can also find out what all of your parents do for a living, and you might have some parents who have some real interesting hobbies now. Jobs. Some people jobs. Not everybody has.
Carrie (00:04:36) - Not everybody's a computer scientist.
Kate (00:04:38) - Some people I was thinking I was going to go with, you know, gardening because, you know what? We can't really get outside and play in the dirt the same as we like to be able to. Now, you can if you you can always go outside with the correct best, you know, clothing. Right. Like so like there's never an excuse to not be able to go outside you. Now, if everybody had galoshes and raincoats and we were always having some fun outside, we can definitely do that. But there's no reason why we can't get some dirt and some seeds and some water and just start those little seedlings that we want to plant in the garden. Um, you can start them now.
Carrie (00:05:18) - Oh, I just thought of a great person to have come in the trash, man.
Carrie (00:05:23) - The kids absolutely love it when the whether it's a dumpster or whether it's a regular trash can. They just love those big trucks. And when the guys and gals who run those trucks show up, they are rock stars. So having those guys come in and spend 35 minutes with each classroom, I think that would be a big winner. And that probably didn't cost much.
Kate (00:05:46) - Well, and then you've got, you know, fire trucks, police officers, you know, all of those folks. I mean, you know, any sort of job, not even profession, but all the jobs think about the professions that you have in your dramatic play area. And have those kids ever met somebody who does that? I mean, how much fun would it be to have, you know, the person who does not with their knives, you know, but I'm thinking the little choppy guy at the, um, Benihana kind of restaurant where they're flipping the food. Um, obviously he's not going to bring his real knives, but somebody like that who could have some fun and teach the kids.
Kate (00:06:26) - I don't want to say how to play with their food, um, but have some fun with their food. Oh, Carrie's got puppets, I think. What do you think? Do you think maybe. Maybe? Yeah. We've always got authors. Um, and we have a great episode on how to host an author. So if you've not listened to that podcast, go do it. Uh, but we love to have authors come in. Uh, the local library would probably come in regularly, depending on where you are and what kind of arrangements you have with your community. Um, we've always got that outreach, but if they can't, just somebody have a grandma who might want to have some fun and come in and do storytime. Um, storytime doesn't have to be in one classroom or in their classroom. If you've got, again, a space that could be a just a general space where the kids could literally go on their field trip down to what may be is your cafeteria during, you know, lunchtime? What do you do with it the rest of the day? So maybe that's where you get to host those field trips.
Kate (00:07:34) - Yeah.
Carrie (00:07:34) - And then you can also something that is the quintessential one, right? We've got the firefighters. Everybody knows about having the firefighters, but the other one is having a petting zoo come to your school. My only concern about petting zoos is there is stuff in minimum standards about what your animals, what your what, your animals, what your children can and cannot touch. Um, when we're looking at it, uh, animals from a petting zoo, they cannot pet reptiles and amphibians. That's not okay. They can't pet chickens or ducks. Um, and then, you know, stuff about dangerous animals. So a skink, not a dangerous animal. It's a lizard. You can have it come to your school, but they can't pet the skink. A squirrel, not a dangerous animal. You can pet the squirrel. Pig. Domesticated pig. Not well. A little domesticated pig. Not dangerous. So there's. There's different types of animals that you could have come in. But make sure you read minimum standards about animals before you decide who's going to come visit and what you're going to allow them to do.
Carrie (00:08:51) - I had to deal with a school relatively recently. That licensing got very bent out of shape. Um, and it was because there was a lamb which is, you know, quintessential calm animal. And they were like, that's a dangerous animal. And she was like, it's a lamb. It's not dangerous. Um, but when I talked about that at one of our director credentialing classes, people were like, wait, lizards? I have the lizard, I have the reptile guy come to my school every year, and we've been petting them. And I was like, well, stop doing that. You can keep having him come, but the kids cannot pet the reptiles. So, um, I love having a zoo guy or a zoo or a petting zoo or a reptile person herpetologist. Whatever a bug person is, I'm sure there's an insect ologist, I don't know. Um, any of those people coming is great. Just make sure that you're doing whatever licensing says. If I don't think there's anything in licensing that says you can't have a.
Carrie (00:09:59) - Hissing cockroach. Um, Kate used to have a neighbor who had a hissing cockroach. Zoo family. I don't, I don't know. I was not a fan, but a lot of the kids thought it was super, super cool.
Kate (00:10:13) - I think the kids just know that the parents got it. When they think that that response is great. Um, if you weren't really sure what kind of opportunities exist, talk to, uh, reach out to your Chamber of commerce, find out what businesses are in your neighborhood. And the other one, because, you know, we always are talking about why you need to be part of a professional association. If you're part of the professional association and you're on some Facebook groups, ask people, you know, who do they have, come get the contact information. If you've had people come and do things that are great. Make sure you leave them a review. Go on to Google. Go on to Facebook. Tell people, I mean, this is what people do for a living.
Kate (00:10:58) - And please don't always expect all of them to come for free. Okay. They're not going to. But if you've got anywhere from, you know, I don't know, 20 to 200 kids, have those people come because it's a lot of fun. I mean, there's no reason why you can't come up with one a week. We do it all summer. All summer. We're going someplace. Right, Carrie? We're going to go play in the water. Yep. Right. And we got. And if you can deal with plan and the water regulations, you should be able to figure out how to deal with what you can and cannot pet regulations. Okay. Absolutely. Without a doubt.
Carrie (00:11:33) - And I mean, it's a great way to market your program and to co market with other people who have the same clientele as you. The local pizza joint wants families to go to their pizza joint. So they're going to be more willing to come and do a cooking demonstration with your school agers or your preschoolers on how to make your own pizza.
Carrie (00:11:58) - If they also get to give out, um, buy one, get one half off pizza coupons to all of your parents. Well, that's a win win for you. You got the kids entertained for 30 minutes. You got a thing to give the parents, and you've got amazing memories for those kids when. Don't forget.
Kate (00:12:19) - And don't forget to take the pictures. Don't forget to share the pictures. And don't forget to share on social media. Tag each other. And you know what? If you're both part of the same Chamber of Commerce, make sure that you share with the Chamber of Commerce, because then they'll share. There's something about the whole share thing, right? Okay.
Carrie (00:12:37) - And that restaurant that came to your school, you can then have flyers about your school at that restaurant so that people can see information about your school when they're at that restaurant, because people who have children are more likely to go to a child friendly restaurant. So look at all these ways. We're winning like five different ways by having somebody come and teach the kids how to make pizza.
Carrie (00:13:05) - You gotta do it, guys. You gotta do it. It makes your life so much better and the kids lives so much better.
Kate (00:13:13) - And so if you've listened to this episode, do us a favor. Share your picture, tag us, or send it to us. Kate at Texas Director. Org Carrie at Texas director.org. We want to share your experiences with the local pizza place, your gymnastics instructors, your songs, your drums, grandma reading, storytime, or even the computer scientist who has a gardening hobby, who wants to come and have all of the kids plant their little seeds so that they can grow seedlings, that then they're going to plant in their garden in the spring? Yep.
Carrie (00:13:51) - So I hope this was an inspiring episode for you guys to make your program better in a cheap way that builds word of mouth and makes life better during these rainy, cold, gross weather days of late January early February. Because you know it's coming, guys, you're going to have three days of gross weather in a row and not going to be able to take the kids outside, and you're going to kick yourself.
Carrie (00:14:19) - If you didn't schedule some of these field trips and talk to you next week.
Marie (00:14:23) - Thank you for listening to Child Care Conversations with Kate and Carrei. Want to learn more? Check out our website at Texas Director.org and if you've learned anything today, leave us a comment below and share the show!