Southern Panhandle Early Childhood Conference 

Our keynote speaker is Cari Ebert "The Power of Play" 

Morning Break Out Sessions Include:

Find the Spark in Preschoolers - The spark in a child is a passion that they possess, and if nurtured, it can be the thing that makes them successful in school and beyond.  Learn how to identify every child's spark and how to feed it.  Sara Nicholson is the director of the Nebraska Federation of Families for Children's Mental health.  

New Child Care Regulations and Step Up to Quality - Kathy Hickox will review the new regulations that went into effect on May 20, 2013 and Eleanor Shirley will tell about how you can get involved in the Quality Rating and Improvement system that Nebraska is establishing for caregivers and families with young children.  

Rashes, Fevers, Bumps...Oh My! - When do you send a child home? When should a child come back to child care?  That's a rash, but that's something else! Dr. Rebecca Allard will join us to talk about early childhood illness and some good rules to follow when dealing with sick kiddos. 

Come "Play" with Your Food - Cynthia Gill for UNL Extension educator, will offer up a fun session on including children in planning meals and fun events like tea parties and picnics to teach nutrition, place setting and table manners.  Come join the fun! 

Afternoon Break Out Sessions Include:

Spring Into Nature - Come play with us!  Enjoy hands-on activities to help the children in your care ready for exploring the great outdoors. WE will experiment with our "tools" from nature! Wear your jeans and get messy with Linda Mattern Ritts from WNCC and Nancy Chacon an ECE student.  These ideas are ready to take back to your child care environment to observe your kidds playing, learning, and expressing their creativity! 

Safe With You: Power to Protect - This training meets the child care licensing requirements for home (1-006.04B/2-006.04B) and center based providers (3-006.08/09) in Nebraska.  Participants will be educated in statistics surrounding child abuse and identification, reporting, and prevention of child abuse. Jennifer Baumann certified trainer of Safe With You will be presenting. 

Understanding Your Nature - Learning to work productively with others is one of the most important things in the work workplace.  The more you understand people and the way they think, the more effective you will be in communicating with them.  This means you can do a better job of modeling and motivating them.  This highly interactive session will introduce you to four different personality types and how these personalites co-exist in the workplace. This session is bassed on the principles of Dr. Gary Smalley and Dr. John Trent! Sarah Ochoa is the director of Child Development Programs for CAPWN - Head Start. 

The Nature of Babies and Toddlers - Cheryl Roche, High Plains Early Learning Connections Coordinator, is offering this interactive and hands-on workshop, created with infants and toddlers in mind. During this session participants will explore and discuss ways to support healthy development in infants and toddlers. Topics to be covered will include the developing brain and the importance of relationships. 

Registration cost is $35 until April 7th. 

April 8th-12th Registration cost increases to $40. 

We look forward to seeing you at the Southern Panhandle Early Childhood Conference! 

Register Now!