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Huron Expositor, 2015-02-18, Page 9The Numbers Game Numbers play prominent role in career Naomi Pelss Special to the Expositor In a licensed childcare set- ting we play "The Numbers Game" on a daily basis. You may think this is a children's game but it is not. This is a "game" I play as the Director. The Early Childhood Educa- tors, our Business Administra- tor and our Cook at the day- care play this game every day as well. Of course the children play their own games with numbers, and numeracy skills are developed through play opportunities daily. However, as adults, the numbers are a very important part of our job in the childcare field. My father-in-law always stressed the importance of math and how it applies to everyday life. Well, I guess he was right. My day as Director involves a lot of scheduling and attend- ance of children and staff. We adhere to strict ratios of edu- cators to children as set by the Ministry of Education and the Day Nurseries Act. There are a lot of rules in a licensed child- care setting for good reason. It was determined how many children we can have in each age group and how many educators we need to super- vise these children. The num- bers are different for each age group. For example, we can have three infants and one educator, but fifteen Grade One (school -aged) children to one educator. We can increase these ratios at certain times during the day. At the end of the day, two hours before closing we can have seven toddlers to one educator. My role is not only to know all these rules inside and out, but also to constantly monitor these numbers. Thankfully I have help from the rest of the team. Every day our cook begins her day by gathering the number of children pre- sent in each room. This deter- mines how much lunch she needs to make. Every day we have a different number of children as we allow for flexi- ble attendance schedules. So each day I plan for staffing and each day it can be differ- ent. The educators sign the children in and out when they arrive and leave and know exactly how many children they have at all times. They make me aware of who is absent and how many they will have at the end of the day. This allows me to schedule staff accordingly. Our num- bers set the limits. We cannot exceed our licensed capacity, which has recently led to a waiting list. I had a mother call the other day asking, "What number am I on the waiting list?" Numbers, numbers... With the most recent announcement from Premier Kathleen Wynne, it seems the government is involved in their own "numbers game." For early childhood educa- tors working at licensed cen- tres there will be a $1 -an - hour increase. The budget set aside $269 million in funding over the next three years. This is great news for us. It is a small step in the right direction to close the wage gap between ECEs working in the field. The average Early Childhood Educator working in a full day Kindergarten classroom earns between $20 and $26 an hour while many employed in the child care centres with the same qualifi- cations and training make between $13 and $15 an hour. We are very interested to see how this particular numbers game ends. We anticipate a complex formula or equation to determine eli- gibility for staff based on hours worked etc. Thankfully, we have a highly competent Business Administrator and support from the County to assist us with this upcoming numbers game. Shakuntala Devi said, "Without mathematics there is nothing you can do. Every- thing around you is mathe- matics. Everything around you is numbers." Lately I real- ize this to be very true. Naomi Pelss, director of Sea - forth Co-operative Children's Centre and mother of three, with one on the way. Wednesday, February 18, 2015 • Huron Expositor 9 Seaforth Manor opens doors during cold weather alert Marco Vigliotti Huron Expositor The Seaforth Manor retirement and long-term care home opened its doors Thursday to those without access to a prop- erly functioning heating unit for the duration of the extreme cold weather alert that was in effect across Huron County. In a statement, Manor management noted that the extreme chill grasping the region puts a significant strain on residential fur- naces, which could cause some of the older ones to break down. It welcomed those without a working machine to the retirement home, which has in place a back-up generator. Refreshments were also available to those seeking a temporary reprieve from the frigid conditions. Manor management said the facility would continue to offer itself as a tempo- rary warming shelter dur- ing any further extreme cold warnings. It has also in the past opened its doors to those without access to proper cooling systems during extreme heat peri- ods in the summer. Scoreboard Seaforth Shuffleboard February 4 Men's high: Erich Matgold, Cor Vanden Hoven, Ken Preszeatoi, four wins Women's High: Agnie Ramsey, four wins. Marian Pullman, Grace Corbett, two wins. On behalf of Easter Seals Ontario, K2 Wind Power and 15"NA9"24111101 vthe North Huron Trail Groomers, we wish to express our thanks to the following sponsors. 6'4 Together, we are helping kids BE KIDS. 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