mcmama

Administrator

Joined: 02 Oct 2005 01:31 AM

Last activity: 16 Nov 2009 01:26 AM

Bio

I am a mother of two sons, and a former NYC substitute teacher. I have a master's degree in elementary education from Queens College, CUNY, and a bachelor of music degree from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.

Motherhood prompted me to become an early childhood professional. I was a family child care provider for 9 years, and was the first provider in NJ to be accredited by the National Association for Family Child Care. During the 1990s I was a validator for their accreditation program in New York/New Jersey. I also taught workshops with various professional associations and for the local Office for Children. Much of what I taught had to do with family child care policies and procedures, age appropriate activities, and teaching science to toddlers and preschoolers.

Once my children had aged out of family child care, it was no longer practical to offer child care in my home. I was director of a church sponsored preschool for two years, and administrator of a private music school for three years. At the preschool I designed curriculum, worked with the board, streamlined the registration process, and developed new opportunities for teacher training and certification. At the music school I worked extensively with parents, taught early childhood music classes, and managed schedules and resources for three different sites. The school was mostly strings, with students ranging in age from toddlers through college.

My boys are recent adults. They continually open me up to the wide world of sports, creativity, and alternative points of view. Both were honor students. The oldest is 23 and married in NYC, the youngest is a cadet at the Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut

Both boys have volunteered through our church with programs that assist the homeless directly, and they got me involved in that ministry until I was sidelined with surgery several years ago. As survivors of a house fire, we know what it is to be homeless, to survive, and to recover and renew.

We used to in a small house in the New York City metropolitan area, with a fierce attack cat (Catzilla). Now that they are grown, I have retired from the motherhood racing and chasing, and pausing in that until one of them makes me a grandma. I now live in northwest Florida where I enjoy running, singing, writing, snorkeling, and of course, the beach. Catzilla's new favorite Florida game is "jungle kitty"