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Free Webinars

Child Care Aware Parent Network webinars are presented by child care experts to give you information about high-quality child care and other topics that are of interest to you. They are designed specifically for busy parents, grandparents, advocates, and professionals who to learn more but have very little time. Our educational Webinars are FREE exclusive content for our members.

Upcoming Webinars:

Child Care Centers At The Center of Your Community
Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 8:00 pm EDT

Presenter: Mario Small, Author, "Unanticipated Gains: Origins of Network Inequality in Everyday Life"
Click here to learn more and register now! It's Free!

Will You Know High-Quality Child Care When You See It?
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 8:00 pm EDT

Presenters: Richard Cohen
Click here to learn more and register now! It's Free!

To see a list of previously recorded webinars, go to our Webinar Wrap Up page (you have to be a member to access this archive. You will be prompted to join or log in.) Click here


Webinar Details:

Brain Development: You can easily make a positive difference!
Wednesday, August 5th at 8:30 - 9:30 pm (EDT)

The brain is an amazing organ that allows each of us to think, feel, learn and act. It is exciting to know how experiences can have a positive impact on the developing brain— and it is not complicated to understand! Join early brain development specialist and award winning author, Deborah McNelis, for an informative session to learn how you can make a positive difference in the connections made among your child’s 100 billion brain cells. This session will be interactive, and you can ask questions.

deb Deborah McNelis


"My Body Belongs to Me!" Keeping Your Child Safe From Sexual Abuse— An Expert's Advice
Tuesday August 25th at 8:30 - 9:30 pm (EDT)

body1jill

Jill Starishevsky and "My Body Belongs to Me"


Child Care, Family, and Work/Life Balance: Share it All. Have it All.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009 8:30 pm EDT

Through extensive research, Sharon Meers and Joanna Strober, authors of Getting to 50/50: How You Can Have it All by Sharing it All, discovered that kids, husbands, and wives reap huge benefits when couples commit to share equally as breadwinners and caregivers. Mothers work without guilt, fathers bond with their kids, and children blossom with the attention of two involved parents. Sharon will provide real-world solutions for parents who want to succeed in their careers and still be fully engaged with their children; strategies for working mothers facing gender bias in the workplace; advice to fathers new to the home front; and tips for finding 50/50 solutions to deal with issues of child care, money, time, and much more.

Sharon Meers was a Managing Director at Goldman, Sachs & Co. until April 2005, when she decided that it was time to write this book. In her 16-year career at Goldman, in addition to mentoring many women, Sharon co-chaired the Women's Network in the Investment Management Division, served on the diversity committees of two of the firm's divisions and developed a mentorship program that linked high-potential women to senior advisors.

Sharon lives in the Bay Area with her husband Steve, a real-estate developer, and their son, age 7, and daughter, age 4. Sharon and Steve founded the Partnership for Parity at the Stanford Graduate School of Business School which supports Stanford's ongoing work on workplace parity and a similar effort at Harvard University called the Dual-Career Initiative. Sharon also serves on the board of the National Women's Law Center and on the advisory council of Stanford's Clayman Institute for Research on Gender and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. A graduate of Harvard College, she holds an M.A. in Economics from New York University.


For the Love of Literacy: Six Critical Pre-Reading Skills for Preschool Children
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 8:00 pm EDT

Highlights High Five Editor Kathleen Hayes will help you learn how to maximize your "reading together time" and set your preschool child on a joyous path to reading success. You'll learn what you can do to nurture your child’s natural interest in sounds, letters, and words so he or she will love reading. Kathleen will explain simple steps you can take, beginning when your child is an infant, to stimulate six critical early research-proven reading skills. The session will explore:

  • why rhymes and rhyming stories are so important;
  • why talking together is key to reading success;
  • what children can learn about print and books when you read aloud, and;
  • how to make learning about letters interactive, fun, and meaningful.

Kathleen Hayes is editor for Highlights High Five magazine, the newest Highlights for Children, Inc. publication. She began her career as a children's librarian and later joined the faculty at the Bank Street College of Education, where she taught preschool children at the Bank Street School for Children. She has been a mentor and coach to public school teachers and has taught graduate-level courses in children's literature, curriculum, art and classroom management.

Ms. Hayes has worked with a number of publishing partners to produce early-childhood curriculum materials and has provided educational consultation to Head Start programs and public school districts throughout the United States. She conducts teacher-training workshops with the International Step by Step Foundation, and implements parent-education programs in Latvia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and other countries of the former Soviet Union.

Hayes co-authored Classroom Routines That Really Work for Pre-K and K Teachers (Scholastic, 2002) and Putting the Children First: The Changing Face of Newark's Public Schools (Teachers College Press, 2003). In addition, she has written several children's books for Macmillan/McGraw-Hill and Time for Kids.

Hayes holds a master's degree in Library Science from the University of Washington and a master's degree in Early Childhood Education from the Bank Street College of Education.


What Every Parent Needs to Know About Child Care in America (but Might be Afraid to Ask)
November 9, 2009 8:00 pm EDT

Every year, the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA) conducts research on the state of child care in America, as well as surveys about the perceptions of parents who purchase that care. Looking at the same system through these two lenses reveals a fractured picture of disparity between what parents believe is being done to protect their children while they are in child care and the reality of child care regulations and oversight in our country. Join NACCRRA’s Executive Director, Linda Smith to connect the dots between child care funding, legislation, licensing, regulation, and the ultimate impact on your child’s child care setting. Learn more about how you can begin new dialog about child care quality.

Linda K. Smith is the Executive Director of NACCRRA and is considered one of the country’s leading experts on child care in America. Frequently called upon by the nation’s leading media outlets for interviews and guidance, Ms. Smith spearheads all of the research and public policy efforts at NACCRRA. Prior to joining NACCRRA, as a staffer on Capitol Hill, she worked on children and family issues, including the Child Care and Development Block Grant, the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Act (TANF) and the drafting of the Early Care and Education Act. Ms. Smith also served as the Director of the Office of Family Policy for the Secretary of Defense. Smith was the lead policy expert responsible for implementing the landmark Military Child Care Act of 1989, and worked for the United States Army, the United States Air Force, the University of Wyoming and spent five years directing early care and education programs in Montana.


Will You Know High-Quality Child Care When You See It? Wednesday, January 20th 8 pm EDT

Choosing good child care is one of the most important decisions you will ever make for your child. How will you know which child care center setting best meets your family’s needs? How will you assess their quality? Join Child Care Aware Parent Network and two of our outstanding Child Care Aware Specialists, Molly O’Keefe and Jessica Dahan, for an informative session about what you should look for when you choose a child care center or family child care home.

Our presenters work in Child Care Aware, an initiative of the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies and partially funded by the Office of Child Care, a division of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Both talk with hundreds of parents each week in order to provide advice about how to assess and find high-quality child care.

Click here to learn more and register now! It's Free!

Check back for updates about more free Webinars!