Goals to Set for Your Child Care Business in 2024
This time of year, many of us choose to reflect on the previous year and set resolutions, or goals, for the upcoming year! Regardless of your feelings about New Year’s resolutions, it’s a great idea to set professional goals for yourself and your child care business in 2024!
If you want to write a goal that helps keep you motivated and on track, consider writing a SMART goal! SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. By writing your goals with these characteristics, you can increase your feeling of accomplishment! How To Write SMART Goals in 5 Steps (With Examples) | Indeed.com
This is where we come in! Child Care Health Consultants (CCHC) can help you take your dreams and put them into actionable steps. We can work with you to brainstorm, identify, and craft SMART goals for your child care business that you want to achieve! Can’t think of any goals? Maybe you would like a second set of eyes to observe a challenging part of your day to provide suggestions for how it could go more smoothly. Whatever your goals are, CCHC is here to help you grow your business into a high quality child care program in 2024!
Need some inspiration? Here are some example ideas to get you started:
Increase knowledge of developmental milestones. Knowing the expected childhood developmental milestones allows you to plan effective activities and lessons, educate parents on their child’s development, and aide in early identification and intervention for children who might need extra support to reach their full potential.
What could that look like as a SMART goal?
- Read the developmental milestones for the ages of children in my care and share this information with parents by March.
- Screen every child at each developmental age and share information with and resources as needed to parents by August.
Increase comfort caring for children with special healthcare needs (physical, mental, developmental, etc.). It can be intimidating to care for a child with a special healthcare need that you’re unfamiliar with (food allergies, asthma, epilepsy, etc.) Education, proper documentation, and knowing which questions to ask parents can help us feel prepared to care for any child that knocks on our door.
As a SMART goal…
- Have 6 children’s books on the bookshelf by the end of the year that display children of different abilities
- Have medical emergency action plans on file for the children in my care with special healthcare needs by the end of next month.
- During the next professional development day, invite a guest speaker to train yourself and/or staff in identifying and responding to medical emergencies
Strengthen food program and prepare for food allergies. Do you struggle to put together meal plans regularly, or do you have a child with food allergies that you are unsure how to handle? This is the perfect time to strengthen your food program and make sure you are providing balanced, nutritious, and safe meals.
As a SMART goal…
- Work with your Child Care Health Consultant to complete the self-assessment tool at Go NAPSACC for your nutrition program to establish goals and access training resources by the end of the year.
- Review food allergy documentation and emergency action plans with a Child Care Nurse Consultant by the end of next month.
- Create an allergen-safe monthly meal plan that is nutritious and reflects best practice standards by the end of next month
- Train yourself and/or staff on how to food allergy emergencies in the next three months (example course here: Prevention of and Response to Emergencies Due to Food and Allergic Reactions – KCCTO)
Strengthen the parent handbook. Does your handbook reflect the quality of care you provide to children in your program? Policies show parents why your business is a great place for their child to be and set expectations for your relationship together.
As a SMART goal…
- Update my (illness, nutrition, allergy) policy to reflect best practices in early childhood education by the end of next month.
- Review my handbook with a Child Care Health Consultant to see what other policies my program may benefit from including by the end of the year.
What other goals can you think of? Get help here!
Interested in expanding the quality of your childcare program, but feel overwhelmed by the amount of information? We get it! Your Child Care Health Consultant is here to guide you through best practice resources and help you get started so that this time next year you can say: “I accomplished my goal of …”
