February 2023

With this month’s editorial focus on self-care, our Voice’s from the Field series spotlights a family child care educator who invested in herself by setting a goal and achieving it in her professional development.

Patrice Battaglia shares her approach to completing 120 hours of training through the Quorum online learning platform in three months. This education is the first step in earning the Family Child Care Child Development Association (CDA) credential – Patrice’s ultimate goal. To stay motivated, she kept this goal top of her mind. “Know your reason,” says Patrice.

Here is her strategy. First, have a plan for working on this training. Patrice looked at her schedule for the upcoming months and recognized a three-month window before an infant joined her program. With that timing in mind, she committed to using the two hours while her children were napping to work on classes.

“Budgeting enough time to complete that training is essential,” adds Patrice.

But as an early childhood educator knows, the best-laid plans can often be interrupted because of the unpredictability of schedules. Step two in her strategy is to have a backup plan for setting aside time.

“Life gets in the way,” said Patrice. “Some days, it seemed impossible to sit down during nap time. A sick kiddo may need you or a large mess from the morning’s activities to clean up.

Give yourself grace. The plan may not always work out for you, and that’s ok. Pivot and continue.”

As a result, Patrice would incorporate additional time during the evening hours or Saturday mornings.

“The original plan was 10 hours a week, but as I moved through the courses, it was logical for me to finish one a day,” said Patrice. “A four-hour course I could start at naptime and finish in the evening. The more hours I finished, the more drive I had to knock out additional hours.”

Patrice became driven to take the courses because the new information was “intriguing.”

“It was like finding a book you enjoyed reading. You find every spare moment to dive back into that ‘good book’,” Patrice concludes.

Click here for a printable copy of this Spotlight.