Grants for child care teachers

The Terri Lynne Lokoff Child Care Foundation offers a grant to child care teachers — The National Child Care Teacher Awards. The award is given to 50 teachers nationwide each year. Application deadline is December 5, 2008. Awards are presented on April 1, 2009 in King of Prussia, PA. Award recipients receive $1,000 plus transportation to the awards ceremony, hotel and meals. Applications may downloaded at http://www.tllccf.org.

The Terri Lynne Lokoff/Children’s TYLENOL® National Child Care Teacher Awards™. Awards sponsor McNeil Consumer Healthcare Division of McNeil PPC, Inc., the maker of Children’s TYLENOL®, has proudly sponsored the program for eight consecutive years.

Applicants design an educational, age appropriate project for their classroom. Fifty child care teachers are selected from applications received based on their projects and for their commitment and dedication to the children they teach. Each of the 50 winners receives a $1,000 grant: $500 for their program and $500 as a personal stipend. From the 50 selected winners, one is chosen to receive the Foundation’s Helene Marks Award as the National Child Care Teacher of the Year. This year, winners will be honored on April 1, 2009 in King of Prussia, PA.

Many people believe that formal education begins when a child begins kindergarten. However, those who have been privileged to experience high-quality early care and education know that learning begins at birth. In a high-quality child care setting, teachers and providers know the developmental stages of the children in their care and develop appropriate lesson plans. Research now shows that a person’s vocabulary is determined by the words filtered through the brain by age three. Foundations for math and logic are set by age four. These findings really prove that high-quality early care and education matter. Child care is not babysitting, it is a profession where interaction with infants, toddlers and preschoolers is the priority, and developing age-appropriate, developmental lessons is a necessity.

For an application or more information about TLLCCF, visit http://www.childcareabc.org, or fax a request to
610-992-1070. Completed applications must be postmarked no later than December 5, 2008, and mailed to the
Terri Lynne Lokoff Child Care Foundation – TR, 100 Ross Road, Suite 160, King of Prussia, PA 19406.
The Terri Lynne Lokoff Child Care Foundation has dedicated its resources to improving the quality of child care for all children; supporting and elevating the status of child care teachers and providers; raising awareness of the need for affordable, quality child care; and, partnering with business and government in making child care a priority. TLLCCF is a nonprofit, nonsectarian 501(c)(3) organization established in 1987 in memory of Terri Lynne Lokoff, a devoted child care teacher.

For additional information about the Foundation or the Terri Lynne Lokoff/Children’s TYLENOL® National Child Care Teacher Awards™, please visit http://www.childcareabc.org or call 610-992-1140.