Last night my daughter asked me which was my favorite holiday? I told her it was Thanksgiving through the New Year! This time of the year offers us a chance to celebrate, a chance to be thankful, a chance to be generous and a chance to renew! What more could you ask for?

Last week, we moved out of FranDelJA’s birthplace. It was a difficult task on every level. We have so many memories there to take with us. Life is like that sometimes, where we  find ourselves in situations where we must choose to face that which is difficult and make the most of it. That’s exactly what our team did! Together, everyone rose to the occasion and successfully moved and set up the classrooms. They were absolutely amazing!

We opened our joined venture on Monday which came with tricky challenges of its own: unhappy families, challenging behaviors, sick co-workers, a phone system we still need to learn, lots of rain, and more. From my perspective, each person navigated with courage and grace. As I walked through the hall on Monday, I saw children and adults engaged and happy (almost all of them). We have divided the infants into the Caterpillar Room for younger infants, and the Cricket Room for older infants. The toddlers have also been separated by age, where the younger toddlers are now in the Ladybug Room and the older toddlers are in the Butterfly Room. Our preschoolers are in the Dragonfly Room. Being able to offer five teachers per classroom will make breaks and sick time easier on the staff, and it awards us the opportunity to offer a little extra help with the children’s individual age-appropriate milestones. While there will still be challenges that we will have to face in the days and weeks ahead, this season does have its benefits, let’s finish the year FranDelJA style, holding hands as we go through it together, and even if it rains, we dance! There’s no other team that I’d rather dance with!

Merry Christmas to our FranDelJA team and all the children/families that make it all worth it!

Tracy List,
Executive Director

The fall back time change is my personal favorite as we get an extra hour of sleep, but then the reality hits.

Time change can be hard on all of us, but it can be especially hard on young children. 

Here are four tips to help make the transition a little easier for the entire family:

1. First, it is suddenly dark so much earlier. Children can become confused and even anxious when it’s dark already and they are still at school. “Last week we played until 5:00, but now the sun is setting.”
   
   
2. It takes a few days for our bodies to adjust to a new sleep pattern. Children may not feel sleepy at the regular bed time.
   
   
3. These changes to our bodies routines are not just hard on young children, but the entire family. Take it easy this week and give grace for the struggle of the adjustment.
   
   
4. Take deep breaths and practice good self care for yourself and your little ones.
   

Tracy List
Executive Director
FranDelJA Enrichment Center

Originally, twenty years ago, when I started working at FranDelJA, I was planning on working here for two months. (That was in July 2002.) I saw something back then that felt tangible – something that I could put my hands to, like rich soil for a gardener. There were inherent strengths in the dream that Sandra and Gladys had. What they wanted to bring to the community was valuable! Gladys kept giving me new jobs to do, to bring my strengths to the organization, and I was humbled as I began to realize there was room for me to contribute to the dream that would serve so many families.

FranDelJA is such a great place for children and their families! The world has changed a lot from when all of us started in this business. Some of our staff is new (so this is what you know), but for some of our teachers, site supervisors and me, the world has changed, and we have done everything that we can to change with it, to keep kids safe, to keep kids protected, to keep kids having a joy of learning. Group care is hard. It’s hard to let someone take care of your children and having a safe place for parents learning to advocate for their families is challenging, and it can feel “yucky” sometimes. I don’t think it’s intuitive, at least it hasn’t been for me. My daughter was with me at FranDelJA for five years until she graduated from preschool (well until Covid and we had to do drive-by graduations). Things were not as I expected after all these years of working with kids and families, but as I sent her off to public school, I wasn’t even allowed on the premises (because of Covid), and it was hard not knowing what was happening during her day. I couldn’t just drop-in and check on her. Our families feel that every day, as they trust us with their children. We need to be worthy of that trust!

We need to be the very best we can be! We need to be open to learn from each other. We need to listen to our site supervisors when they give input, with the knowledge and appreciation for the skills they have obtained in their years of service. That’s what we want for FranDelJA! A place that feels like family, because that’s what FranDelJA was founded on – sisters who wanted to do something great for their community. It’s made from the names of children – of Sandra’s children, of Gladys’ nieces and nephew. It’s family and we want to love like family and be as professional and skilled as we can be in this field.

We want FranDelJA to always be a place where children know what the boundaries are, but have an environment that is safe and warm, inviting, and rich with learning opportunities. A place where children can make mistakes and learn from those mistakes, where they can run and jump, and play, and take risks, and feel comfortable, safe, and confident. We want a place where teachers reach out to them and check on them to see if they’re okay. A place where teachers initiate conversation because then they’ll know how to initiate conversation; where teachers start play because then they’ll learn how to start play. Where teachers model language and appreciation for diversity, so that they will have language and appreciation for diversity. A place where teachers are creative and fun, so that the children can feel free to express their creativity and have fun! A place where teachers read and write and make literacy visible, so that children have an understanding and a comprehension of literacy. A place where there are words, letters, pictures, and things that children recognize on the walls; where there is a schedule that enables the children to predict and know what’s going to happen next, where they feel welcomed every single day. It is no small task, but it is the challenge before us as we continue to strive and support families in the challenging season before us!