Center Name: Happy Vine Villa | Location: Tennessee, US
THE CHALLENGE
Finding the time to research, develop and organize quality lesson plans each week
How do directors and teachers ensure they are implementing well-researched and high-quality lesson plans, while also juggling the daily tasks of running a successful childcare center?? This was the challenge that Briana Salyers, a Childcare Owner and Director in Tennessee, came up against recently. The hours each week it was taking Briana to thoughtfully develop, purchase materials and organize lesson plan structures was hovering close to 10 hours each week. Briana knew she had to find a way to change how she was approaching lesson planning in order to improve the quality of lessons for her children, and simultaneously improve her work-life balance.
In her role as the Owner and Director, Briana noticed a habit forming. When weeks got too busy, Briana would find herself rushing the lesson plans, she also found herself bringing home lesson-planning work which started to consume her evenings and weekends.
“Far too often the impact of curriculum is underestimated. To create a high-quality curriculum you need to be able to take the time to differentiate the activities for each child and go into detail about the developmental skills and milestones you are focusing on. It is very time-consuming, though absolutely critical when it comes to running a high-quality childcare program”, Briana shares.
After several months working in this fashion, Briana began to search for high-quality classroom lesson plans, as well as a robust communication tool to more professionally and meaningfully interact with parents and families in the center. Paper communication was only causing a delay in detailed observations of each child, and therefore a delay in the communication that was going to parents. Frustrated with the time she was spending on lesson planning, and the inability to properly share the learning with families, Briana sought out a new solution for her lesson planning and parent communication and found the combined capabilities of HiMama and FunShine Express curriculum to be the perfect fit.
“I looked at a few different curriculum providers, but HiMama’s curriculum was the only one that gave me flexible options. There are multiple activities for each area of development, allowing you to choose which one best suits the interests and skill levels of your children. The other ones were too cut and dry, they had one lesson per day and I needed more flexibility than that” – Briana Salyers
THE SOLUTION
Implement HiMama’s high-quality curriculum and daily lesson plans, powered by FunShine Express
Using HiMama and FunShine Express curriculum has had a life-changing impact on the way Briana operates her childcare program. Briana uses FunShine’s pre-created lesson plans with all the developmental skills attached as the learning content for her classroom. With FunShine providing 8-10 lessons per week, with various options within each developmental domain, Briana now has the flexibility to choose which activities are most aligned with the children’s interests on any given day. Putting all the lesson plans in one easy to access place has made learning more effective and more efficient for both Briana and the children in her care. With the added bonus of helping Briana save upwards of 10 hours each week on lesson planning.
Briana also uses the connected HiMama parent communication platform to share the learning and development that is happening with the families on a daily basis. “Since implementing FunShine Express curriculum, parents have been exponentially more impressed with the quality of lessons I am offering. They absolutely love getting the photos through HiMama each day, and they come to me in the morning to share what exciting new thing their child is doing. It feels great”
Briana’s goal with using HiMama’s curriculum was to save time and offer high-quality learning on a consistent basis. “HiMama has helped me achieve my goals 150%” Briana shares. With HiMama’s curriculum, Briana has ready-to-use daily lesson plans that are already loaded into the HiMama app, saving her tons of time each day and making it easier to track what the children are learning and how well they are absorbing the classroom activities. At the end of the day, Briana can quickly review the activities they have accomplished and track their developmental progress in HiMama.
Using HiMama and FunShine Express curriculum has made class time more valuable for Briana and each of the children in her program. In her first year with HiMama, Briana got her evenings and weekends back, saved 6 hours of lesson planning time a week and improved the quality of her center offering.
“I have so much time back now I don’t even know what to do with it”
THE RESULT
Drastically saved time and improved center quality and parent satisfaction
Investing in a program that uses FunShine Express’ expert-designed, research-based curriculum that aligns with early learning standards and frameworks across North America, helping centers improve their educational and quality ratings has been well worth it for Briana and her community at the Happy Vine Villa.
“Having HiMama and FunShine Express curriculum as a partner in my program has given me up to 10 hours of my time back, high-quality lesson plans for my children and allowed me to reprioritize my time where it matters most. Working with young children is like watering a plant, they need your time and dedication and without a doubt, HiMama has helped me do that”
Time saved and center quality are not the only metrics that have improved for Briana since partnering with HiMama and FunShine Express. Briana also shared that her parents’ satisfaction has improved as the output of their children’s learning has gone up, and the way she can meaningfully share updates with families has improved.
The Happy Vine Villa
The Happy Vine Villa is one of many HiMama customers who have elevated their center quality and improved parent communication with HiMama curriculum, powered by the experts at FunShine Express! Fill out the form below to learn more about how HiMama and FunShine Express can help you save time and improve your center quality!
