0:08

Welcome to the childcare business podcast

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brought to you by ProCare solutions.

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This podcast is all about giving childcare

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, preschool daycare after

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school and other early education professionals,

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a fun and upbeat way to learn about strategies

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and inspiration you can use to thrive.

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You'll hear from a variety of childcare

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thought leaders, including educators,

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owners, and industry experts on

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ways to innovate, to meet the needs of the children you

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serve from practical tips for

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managing operations, to uplifting

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stories of transformation and triumph.

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This podcast will be chalk full

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of insights. You can use to fully realize

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the potential of your childcare business.

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Let's jump in,

0:53

Welcome to the childcare business podcast.

0:56

Um, you know, I think we're in technically

0:58

like season two now, I'm not quite sure

1:00

how many episodes we've had, but if you've

1:02

listened to any of our shows, you know, I'm Ryan Ney

1:04

, I'm the vice president of sales here at ProCare

1:07

software. And, you know, the format of

1:09

our show is we really just try to bring on guests that

1:11

we have identified and, and

1:14

interacted with , um, throughout the industry

1:16

that we think would, you know, be able to provide some really

1:18

valuable content and , um,

1:21

you know, talking points and, and expertise

1:23

in the industry. And , and today is

1:25

no exception to that. I'm , I'm really excited

1:27

to talk to our guests today. And so I

1:29

wanna introduce her. Um, Laura

1:32

Delgado , uh , is the vice president of

1:34

curriculum and professional development at learning

1:36

beyond paper, which is a leading provider

1:39

of a hundred percent digital curriculum. Uh

1:41

, Laura is a former early learning teacher.

1:44

She's a center director, former center director

1:46

and owner , uh , and she's got a master's

1:48

degree in leadership in education and more

1:51

than 25 years of

1:53

experience in early childhood learning.

1:55

So if no other reason, when somebody has

1:57

25 years of doing something it's

1:59

worth listening. So we're, we're excited

2:02

to , um , have you on the show. Good morning, Laura,

2:04

how are you ?

2:05

Hi, good morning, Ryan. Super excited to be

2:07

here. Thank you.

2:09

Yeah, we were just talking, you know, sometimes

2:11

before we start recording, we start talking about,

2:13

you know, where are you physically at and what,

2:16

what , what are you gonna do this weekend? Or

2:18

how was your week? But you were just talking, you

2:20

just got back from a conference in, in

2:22

Washington DC, right? What was, what was the conference

2:25

you were at?

2:26

So the conference was childcare aware actually

2:28

right across from DC , uh , in

2:30

Arlington,

2:31

In Arlington. And you're , you're typically

2:33

located in Florida. So we were talking

2:36

about like, I'm in the Pacific Northwest.

2:38

We're talking about how spring is holding back

2:40

and winter still wants to hold on. It's a

2:42

little bit cold and rainy up here. And

2:45

you had to point out that it's cold in Florida too.

2:47

Like you had a cold snap of 70 degrees

2:49

.

2:49

<laugh> right . Like pull

2:52

out our cardigans <laugh> ,

2:54

Which is kind of , uh , we're all ready for

2:56

that weather here in the Pacific Northwest. So send a

2:58

little our way , um , for sure. Lauren

3:01

talk to, if you can, I would love to introduce

3:03

you to our audience and maybe just

3:05

get a little idea of, you know,

3:07

who you are like. So I know we're gonna talk

3:10

about your role at , at what we call LBP

3:12

, but learning beyond paper and , and kind of the

3:14

work you guys are doing now, but can you

3:16

talk a little bit about your background? I

3:18

know you originally, you know, got

3:20

into ECE intentionally

3:23

talk , talk a little bit about, you know, how that started

3:25

for you .

3:27

Well, if I can go to the way, way

3:29

back, I actually have more than 25 years experience.

3:32

Um, so I know before we got

3:34

on, we were talking about how I lived

3:36

in Saudi Arabia for four years. And that

3:39

was during , uh , when I was in middle

3:41

school and my friends and I used

3:43

to babysit when they would have events

3:45

for the adults, you know, dances, Valentine's

3:47

dance, things like that . And so my friends and I would

3:50

babysit and there

3:53

was a big event coming up and

3:55

we had asked the community center director

3:58

to see if we could use the multipurpose room

4:00

because we had so many requests for babysitting.

4:04

And so we did that. Um , my

4:06

mom ended up , uh , staying with us

4:08

to have, you know, an adult supervision. And again,

4:10

this is late eighties, early nineties when

4:12

12 year olds could babysit six month old

4:14

babies. And after

4:17

that event, it was so successful that

4:19

the community organizer asked my mom

4:22

if she would open up the first preschool on

4:24

that base. And it's still there today. And

4:27

so it's funny because I always say that

4:29

I followed in my mother's footsteps

4:31

because she had preschools my , you

4:34

know, growing up, but it almost

4:36

is like she followed in my footsteps

4:38

and then we came full circle. Um,

4:41

so she opened up the first preschool there

4:43

and my friends and I would work there after school, you

4:46

know, when we got out and then over the summer. And

4:48

when we returned to the states, she started

4:50

working for different chains and eventually

4:53

opened up her own preschool. And

4:55

then after I , uh , graduated

4:58

high school and college , uh , decided

5:00

to go that route as well. I

5:02

actually worked for , uh , fortune 500

5:05

company as a trainer , uh

5:07

, for about six years and then decided

5:10

my heart just wasn't into it. Children were

5:12

always calling me , uh , I , I loved still

5:14

going to visit her preschools and

5:17

I ended up opening up my own center. So

5:19

I've that background of

5:22

being a camp counselor, an assistant

5:24

teacher , uh , assistant director

5:27

and everything that entails

5:29

with that, with that role, we all

5:31

know that they're doing everything, they're cooking, they're

5:33

driving the bus, their team curriculum. Uh

5:35

, and then eventually I sold

5:38

my centers and went to work for some

5:40

national chains and then ended

5:43

up at the office of early learning in Florida.

5:46

So Florida's department of education, office of

5:48

early learning. And I was a

5:50

regional facilitator, which is basically a

5:52

mentor coach and trainer for south Florida providers.

5:56

And , um, and that really was an eye

5:58

opener for me because the

6:00

challenges that I was having as

6:03

a teacher and as a center director, I

6:05

thought they were unique. And when

6:08

I started working for Florida's office of early learning,

6:10

going to thousands of preschools,

6:13

literally across the country , not just Florida,

6:16

I realized that the challenges that I was having

6:19

back in the early two thousands and the

6:21

challenges that my mother was having in the nineties,

6:23

everybody was having those across the board. And

6:26

so I was trying to figure out a solution, what

6:28

can I do to impact the industry , um

6:30

, to, to make things better? Because ultimately

6:33

if we make things better for the

6:35

workers and the teachers that trickles

6:37

down to higher quality education

6:40

for children.

6:41

Yeah. That's amazing. I , I wanna double click

6:43

on a couple of things that you said there. So first of

6:45

all, I just gotta ask, so you were Saudi

6:48

Arabia, you, it sounds like it was

6:50

on a military base. So were you there, you had

6:52

a parent in the military. Did I hear that? Right?

6:55

Right. So my dad was actually retired military

6:57

and then worked for McDonald Douglas , uh

6:59

, for years after. And so we worked

7:02

on a base, but contracted through McDonald

7:04

Douglas.

7:05

So what just, this has nothing to do with

7:07

what the majority of our episode

7:10

would be about curriculum. But I'm

7:12

just curious, like, as, as a young person,

7:14

looking back to your time in Saudi Arabia, what

7:17

stands out about the culture and

7:19

lifestyle? Like when you think back to that season of

7:21

your life, is it something you look back you're

7:23

like, oh, it's amazing plays . I'd love to go back.

7:26

What memories do you have? Just curious.

7:29

It was really one

7:31

of the best times in my life. Um,

7:34

it, we traveled all over the

7:36

world, you know, I'm a military brat. Um , my

7:38

mother's from Argentina, my father's from Mexico, my

7:41

stepfather's from the us , a lot of traveling

7:43

, uh , personal and, you know, because

7:46

of work and I got to live

7:48

in a lot of different places, but Saudi

7:51

Arabia was the polar opposite from anything

7:53

that we've ever experienced , uh

7:55

, from the culture to the landscape , uh

7:57

, the people , uh , the way of life

7:59

, uh , you know, a lot of people would say,

8:01

oh, but you're a woman, you know, didn't

8:04

you like the way that they, you know, treated

8:06

women and it , we just didn't have that experience.

8:09

You know, that it , it taught me

8:11

to respect other cultures. Sometimes

8:14

we don't understand them. Um, but

8:17

it really, really gave me that

8:19

sense of tolerance and trying

8:21

to understand other cultures and

8:23

other ways of life . Uh , it

8:26

opened up my, my mind to, to

8:28

the way other people live. Um, it,

8:31

it really was just an amazing experience

8:33

on so many levels. Uh , the education

8:35

that I got there was amazing. It was, it was an American

8:37

education, but , um, just amazing

8:40

professors from around the world. Uh,

8:42

and then just the experience of being

8:44

in that type of culture and exploring

8:46

the desert and seeing camels walk up to your

8:49

backyard. It was just an amazing experience. And

8:51

we were also there before,

8:53

during, and after the first

8:55

Gulf war. So desert storm, desert shield,

8:58

desert storm, all of that. Um, so

9:00

that was another layer to that experience being

9:02

kind of in a war zone. Um, what

9:05

was, was interesting as well.

9:07

Yeah. Being able to see that

9:09

like world event happen from that

9:12

side of the world, as opposed to,

9:14

you know, on the us side, I'm sure it was

9:16

interesting to see, you know , how that was perceived,

9:19

you know, in Saudi Arabia and,

9:21

and kind of what the impact was. I always think I'm

9:24

a big fan of those, you know, experiences when

9:26

you travel internationally or you have

9:28

those experiences, it sounds like listening to you talk

9:30

about it. You know, it's still like

9:33

formative in your life even today.

9:35

Like just, you know, what you learned, what you observe

9:37

the different culture. Um,

9:40

if nothing else, that's a good thing to, you

9:42

know, point out to, to anybody listening.

9:44

Like if you get an opportunity to put yourself

9:46

in a immersive experience like that, it's

9:49

invaluable.

9:50

Absolutely. And I try to pass that on to

9:52

my daughter. You know, I say study,

9:55

you know, that that's really important, but go out

9:57

there and see the world for yourself and live

9:59

those experiences because there's nothing like meeting

10:01

someone who doesn't speak the same language

10:04

and trying to figure out, you know, what you're trying to say or

10:06

different foods or things like that. So really

10:08

super, and I do believe that it

10:10

all ties back to also my mission with

10:12

early learning, because, you know, it's

10:15

important to me to add that diversity

10:18

into the classroom and to , you know,

10:20

children are born just so open

10:23

and like sponges and wanting to understand

10:25

different things around them, not just

10:27

other cultures or other people, but, you

10:29

know, we have such an opportunity to really

10:32

develop empathetic citizens of

10:34

the world.

10:35

Yeah. I like that because that's a great, like

10:38

segue a little bit into the work that you're doing now.

10:40

Cause I going back to kind of your career path

10:42

and story of, you know, working for the state of Florida

10:45

and being able to go, you know, you were talking

10:48

about challenges that you and your

10:50

mom experienced, like firsthand as teachers

10:52

in an actual preschool and

10:54

you wanted to go try to help impact those. Can you,

10:56

can you articulate, like, what were some of those

10:59

key challenges that you experienced and that

11:01

you kept seeing, like being repeated from school

11:03

to school and then maybe talk

11:05

about how that transitioned into,

11:07

you know, what you're doing with learning beyond paper. Now,

11:11

The number one challenge that

11:14

again, I thought was unique to, to,

11:16

to my program or my mother's program was staffing.

11:19

Staffing has always been a

11:22

challenge , um, finding qualified

11:24

, uh, caregivers, early

11:27

educators, teachers , um, and

11:29

retaining those, those, those staff

11:31

members. Um, that was the biggest challenge.

11:34

Um, you know, there were times that I

11:37

would hire somebody on a Friday and they wouldn't show

11:39

up on a Monday or they'd come in on a Monday and

11:41

leave for lunch and never come back or they

11:44

look amazing on their resume. But we

11:46

, when you put 'em in front of 10, two year olds, they don't

11:48

know what to do. Um, and so

11:51

staffing has always been a challenge. And what's

11:53

interesting is, and this is something that I talk

11:55

about a lot. We've been on the conference circuit for

11:57

the last year, going to different

11:59

conferences across the country and

12:01

staffing, you know, is being blamed

12:03

right now. The staffing crisis is being blamed

12:06

on COVID and the quarantine, and, you know, what's

12:08

happening right now in the world. But

12:11

I try to remind everyone as

12:13

many times as I can, as much as possible

12:15

that we've had a St a staffing crisis

12:18

since the eighties , um, in childcare

12:21

. So it's nothing new. It's definitely

12:23

amplified and it's worse now. Uh

12:26

, but there's always been a staffing crisis . I remember

12:28

my mom having to, you know, I'm just gonna hire

12:30

this person because I need a body. I need

12:32

to meet that ratio. Um , but as soon

12:34

as I find someone , uh , that's more qualified,

12:37

you know, I'm gonna have to let this person go. Um,

12:40

and so that was one of the things

12:42

that, you know, one of the pain points that

12:45

I had as a director, as an owner , um,

12:49

when, you know, when I had my centers,

12:52

the other pain point was

12:54

curriculum, we're implementing a , um,

12:57

a quality per curriculum , um,

13:00

finding teachers that had the capacity to

13:02

do that, because you can spend a hundred

13:04

thousand dollars on an amazing curriculum, but if

13:07

you don't have the staff that

13:09

has the capacity , um,

13:11

and the ability to implement that curriculum, it's

13:14

useless.

13:15

Yeah. So, and that's where I wanna spend,

13:17

you know , obviously it's where, what your wheelhouse

13:19

is and what you guys are focused on. So I

13:22

you're exactly right on the first point about staffing.

13:24

I mean, I, I don't know if there's been a

13:27

guess we've had on the show and I don't know if there's a customer

13:29

that we talk to in the industry right now

13:31

that on some level doesn't bring up the staffing

13:33

challenge, but I do love how you, you know,

13:35

kind of explain like this isn't new, it's been

13:38

amplified and there's a light that's

13:40

being shown on it now around the

13:42

challenges it's created. And I

13:44

think that's the silver lining, I think, because the

13:46

attention it's getting and trying to provide

13:49

and recruit high quality

13:51

, talented individuals into the industry

13:53

and the need for them, it's, it's creating

13:56

a focus of how do we do that as an industry?

13:58

How do we go bring the

14:00

right people into the industry and make it attractive

14:03

to them and keep 'em ? Um, so

14:05

I , I wanna talk about state of

14:07

Florida. How did you end up at learning beyond paper

14:09

then? And can you talk to me about what

14:12

your role is? And then we're gonna talk a little bit

14:14

about some of the specifics around what you

14:16

guys do.

14:18

Yeah. I , um, actually met our

14:21

CEO , Peter Smith through a previous

14:23

, uh , job that I had.

14:26

Um, and we hit it off. And I,

14:28

when I was working at the office of early learning,

14:31

one of the dreams that I had, and

14:33

I thought it was, you know, a dream that I would never fulfill

14:36

because it's very expensive to create a curriculum

14:38

is I wanted to develop a

14:40

curriculum that was meaningful and

14:42

intentional for teachers. And

14:45

, um, so I had kind of a skeleton, you

14:47

know, an outline of what, what I wanted it to be. And

14:49

I wanted it to be online, fully digital.

14:52

I wanted it to be steam based 21st century.

14:55

And when I met Peter , um, he was

14:57

actually working on something similar. And so we

14:59

kind of put our minds together and, and

15:01

it grew from there. And it

15:03

, it was , it's just been an amazing, an

15:05

amazing experience. Um, you

15:08

know, when I worked for the office of early learning,

15:10

I was part of the curriculum review

15:12

team. So we had to review , um,

15:15

curriculum from different publishers to see

15:17

if we would approve them to be on the approved

15:19

list in Florida, their boxes

15:22

and boxes and boxes of books and binders

15:24

, um, to go through

15:26

the vetting process, do they meet the Florida standards?

15:29

Do they meet, you know, early learning standards? And

15:31

, um, and you know, I've

15:33

been in the industry for over 25 years with

15:35

a master's degree. And I didn't

15:37

even know where to start. I had all these books and binders

15:39

in front of me, and now I'm thinking, you

15:42

know, a 20 year old that is just coming

15:44

into the, into the classroom and they're

15:46

handed these books and binders, how are they supposed

15:48

to implement this curriculum? And

15:52

a lot of times childcare

15:54

centers will buy curriculum that is

15:56

on the approved list, just to meet that

15:58

need to check off the box because they're getting some

16:00

type of a grant or some kind of funding. And

16:03

when I would go into the classrooms, I sometimes

16:06

they couldn't find the curriculum. Sometimes it

16:08

would be in a closet , um, on

16:10

a shelf gathering dust . I , they didn't, even

16:12

when I asked them, you know, show me, you know, how you

16:14

do your lesson planning. They were kind of just winging

16:17

it, but they had these , these boxes

16:19

there, they just didn't know how to implement it. And

16:22

so one of the things that I wanted to

16:24

do is really support

16:26

teachers in a way that no other company

16:29

has done or is doing. Um , there's

16:31

no other curriculum right now that is

16:34

supporting teachers. The way that learning

16:36

beyond does from the beginning, we've

16:38

been very intentional with

16:40

, um, who is part

16:43

of this journey with us , um, down

16:45

from our content team

16:47

that creates our activities all

16:50

the way to our sales team. Everyone

16:52

had to have had some type of experience in

16:55

the classroom, in the preschool setting,

16:58

cuz it's one thing to learn about childcare

17:01

in a college classroom, which is great education

17:04

university. Education is great, but

17:06

to actually be in front of those ten two year

17:08

olds by yourself is a completely different experience.

17:11

And so when we hire people,

17:13

we want to make sure that they understand what

17:16

the childcare center director and teacher

17:19

goes through in order for our curriculum

17:21

to be intentional and relevant and really

17:23

help solve those problems and challenges that they're

17:26

going through . Um , so even our CEO

17:28

, Peter Smith , he owns preschool

17:30

centers. Um, you know, everybody

17:33

has been involved at some point in their career , uh

17:36

, in, in an early learning setting. Um,

17:39

our commitment is to provide high

17:42

quality equitable 21st century, early

17:45

learning experiences and opportunities

17:47

for children. But like I said before,

17:49

you cannot do that. If you don't have

17:52

the teachers or the staff that have the tools and

17:54

capacity to be able to implement and deliver those

17:56

lessons. So what I wanted to set

17:58

out to do, and what we wanted to do at learning beyond

18:01

is the teachers where they are. And

18:04

I call it scaffolding teachers while

18:06

they're scaffolding the children. And

18:08

so in real

18:11

time, when the teachers have those

18:13

tablets in front of them and they have

18:15

our lessons, it's not only telling

18:17

them step by step , what they should do or

18:20

what they can do for the activity to meet the,

18:22

the , the objective. Um, but

18:24

it's giving them the why behind it. Why

18:27

is it important for the child to

18:29

measure out their own ingredients? Right.

18:31

Well, because it develops self-help skills and independence.

18:33

So the why is right there. Um, if

18:36

the child doesn't have the

18:38

language and the vocabulary to be able to answer

18:40

an open ended question right

18:42

there in front of them, it says if the child

18:45

does not have the language in vocabulary,

18:47

then model the answer. So if you ask,

18:49

how did it feel to you when we added

18:52

water and the child doesn't have that

18:54

language in vocabulary, then say, does

18:56

it , did it feel sticky? Did it feel dry?

18:59

So we're , we're teaching teachers

19:02

how to speak to children, how to ask those

19:04

open-ended questions because

19:07

it's one experience to, for example,

19:09

make Plato and it's a different

19:11

experience for the child to make Plato

19:13

. And then have the teacher ask , how

19:16

did it feel? What was the first ingredient?

19:18

What do you think was going to happen when we added

19:20

the water? That's where the learning is

19:22

happening, making the play dos fun. And

19:24

there are some, you know, there's learning going on,

19:27

but when the teacher engages in those open-ended

19:29

questions with intent and with an objective

19:32

and goal in mind, that's where the learning

19:34

happens. That's where the child goes from point

19:36

a to point B with their learning and understanding.

19:39

Yeah, that's amazing. I wanna like the , I

19:41

wanna break that into two buckets there, a little bit of

19:43

what you just talked about, like building curriculum

19:45

design for students, and then also

19:48

building curriculum design for teachers, which I

19:50

think is a unique perspective that we don't hear

19:52

a lot, but just in terms of the curriculum

19:54

itself, I , you know, I , I've heard a

19:57

lot talking about , um, you

19:59

know, like developmental progression

20:01

and why that's important. Can you just talk

20:04

like from LBP standpoint,

20:06

how was the curriculum that you guys use

20:08

developed? So what ages does it cover? And

20:11

was it built around like, like science,

20:14

was it built with like educators

20:17

and a lot of research and feedback? I'm

20:19

just curious, like, how does that get

20:21

built? And then maybe like, even,

20:24

and this is for my own edification, like

20:27

how do other schools and other

20:29

maybe curriculum companies , um,

20:31

develop curriculum, like, like what is the main

20:33

thing that you see in the industry? Like when you're

20:36

talking to a school, you mentioned a

20:38

lot of these schools maybe have

20:40

bought something just to check a box, but

20:42

they're not really using it. So I'm curious, is

20:44

that a pretty typical scenario where schools

20:47

would you say are just winging it? So I know there's a

20:49

lot there. So first question is how was

20:51

your curriculum developed? What kind of research

20:53

went into it? And then , um,

20:56

you know, what, what do you see as a typical

20:58

environment for schools that aren't doing a

21:00

great job with curriculum?

21:02

Well , um, learning

21:05

beyond paper is, like I said,

21:07

21st century, early learning. Um,

21:09

it's steam based . Uh , so a lot of

21:11

math and science along with language literacy,

21:14

social, emotional , um, a

21:16

couple of things that set us apart is that

21:18

we are birth through pre-K four.

21:21

Um, that's a differentiator as

21:24

well because some curriculum that's

21:26

out there is either infant, toddler or

21:29

preschool, but we have that thread

21:31

from infants all the way up to pre-K

21:33

four. Um, and then

21:37

the , we have a , a , a focus

21:40

on math and science. Uh , I , I would

21:42

really like to get into that , uh , you

21:45

know , after we discuss this, but, you

21:47

know, we feel in

21:51

, in it's interesting because in this

21:53

country we don't really focus on

21:55

math until the later years until

21:57

elementary school and studies have shown

22:00

that infants are capable of learning

22:02

math. So , uh , I'll unpack that

22:04

<laugh> a little bit later. Um, but

22:07

so I'll , you know, really important to,

22:09

to explain that as well, our

22:13

<inaudible> is set out in a

22:15

developmental progression. So we developed it in

22:17

that developmental progression. And what that means is

22:19

we are not just a collection

22:21

of activities, our lessons

22:24

build upon , uh

22:27

, for example, counting.

22:29

All right . So let's talk about early math a little bit. So

22:32

counting a child, counting

22:35

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, if

22:38

the teacher is not able to really

22:40

understand where that child is

22:42

developmentally with early math

22:44

and counting that child might just be counting

22:47

for memory because maybe the parents have

22:49

been counting with them, but is there meaningful

22:52

counting there? Do they understand that two

22:55

is one less than three and one more

22:57

than two, one more than one? Sorry. Um,

23:00

do they understand that, you

23:02

know, are they learning the

23:05

, that growing number?

23:08

Um, so, so in

23:10

order for children to learn how to

23:12

count, there's a

23:14

prerequisite there, which is sorting. And

23:19

a lot of people don't understand that that

23:21

is the foundation to early math and

23:23

counting is sorting. So for example,

23:25

if you have a bin full

23:28

of , um, different colored

23:30

blocks and you ask even

23:33

a two year old or a three year old , depending on

23:35

where they are developmentally, how

23:37

many yellow blocks are there in order

23:39

for them to count the yellow blocks, they first need

23:41

to sort out the colors. They need to find all

23:43

the yellows, which is a technique,

23:45

right? And so after they sort

23:48

those yellow blocks, then they count how

23:50

many there are. But in order for

23:52

the child to know how to sort

23:54

out blocks there's other foundational

23:56

, um, development that that

23:58

needs to happen. And so that's

24:01

where you can expose

24:03

young children infants

24:07

to those early math concepts with intentionality.

24:10

So what, what we recommend

24:12

is for example, in an infant room, if

24:16

you think about exposing babies

24:18

intentionally to certain things that

24:21

are related to math, you can

24:23

set up , uh , a shelf or

24:25

an area by color. So

24:28

let's say , uh , this week, everything

24:30

in the block center is going to be yellow, right?

24:33

Because a six month old, you know, you can't,

24:35

you can talk to them and say, this is yellow. This

24:37

is, you know, this is the yellow square, this is yellow ball.

24:40

So they're starting to understand those

24:43

likenesses , um , or

24:46

maybe next week, everything

24:48

in the block center is going to be a square,

24:51

so different colors, but all squares

24:53

and cubes and things like that. And

24:55

so studies show that

24:58

we are actually born with

25:00

natural mathematical abilities versus

25:03

language and literacy. So if we're put in a

25:05

room by ourselves, we don't develop

25:08

language. Language is we have to see it modeled.

25:10

We have to hear it. You know, we have to , we have to

25:12

see how our, you know, the mouths move and,

25:15

and things like that. But math,

25:18

if you give a young baby

25:20

or a toddler, a choice of

25:23

a plate with two Cheerios or a

25:25

plate with a mound of Cheerios,

25:27

they usually go to the more so we're born

25:30

with that lesson more mm-hmm , <affirmative> , you know, the lesson

25:32

more capacity , um, or

25:34

understanding, but we don't

25:36

really do much with that in preschool.

25:39

Uh , we're starting to, we're definitely starting

25:41

to, but not when I was in preschool. Um,

25:43

and so if we build on that

25:45

intentionally, so the center

25:47

example, if I'm gonna , you know, if I'm

25:50

going to start exposing

25:52

children to, you know, those different early

25:54

math concepts, and I'm intentional

25:56

with it this week, everything's going to be yellow in

25:58

the block center next week, everything's going to be blue.

26:01

You're setting that foundation for children to

26:03

start recognizing the differences in colors

26:06

that child progresses through

26:09

the toddler years, the twos, the

26:11

threes. Now I'm building on

26:13

that, right? So now, you know, they understand

26:15

yellow and the differences between yellow and

26:17

red, they understand that a cube

26:20

is different than, than a , a cylinder or,

26:22

or , um , a ball. And

26:25

you're, you're giving them the foundation to sorting.

26:27

So that's how that developmental progression

26:29

goes. That's how you scaffold them , um,

26:32

you know , to the next level. So when you

26:34

get to the question of how many yellow

26:37

cubes are in that bin, that

26:39

child now has that foundation of

26:41

understanding, you know, what the color yellow is,

26:44

what does, what is a cube where

26:46

, um , and now they can, you know, sort

26:48

that out and, and, and

26:51

count them, which leads to the

26:53

elementary age, which now we're going to do

26:55

multiple sorts. We're going to add, we're going to subtract. We're

26:58

going to do, you know , algebra and things like that. So

27:01

it it's, that's how our

27:03

curriculum is set apart. That it's

27:06

not, it's not just a collection

27:09

of activities, they

27:11

build upon each other. So if somebody

27:15

can chooses, they might be skipping a crucial step

27:17

that will lead to a crack in that foundation.

27:19

Yeah, that's amazing. Cuz it , a lot of times, you

27:22

know, myself included might think, you know, you hear curriculum

27:24

and you think of higher education. And, but

27:26

now, you know, realizing that based on,

27:29

you know, what, what you in, in

27:31

the space know to be true, those

27:34

developmental stages start

27:36

at birth. So, so what

27:38

about like for a school that says, oh,

27:40

you know what, we didn't have this type of curriculum

27:43

in place in our infant room, but we wanna

27:45

get started. Is it something that's still like

27:48

that you could pick up as, you know,

27:50

two year olds and three year olds and still receive the

27:52

benefit from it and, and kids will,

27:54

will catch up and, and progress naturally.

27:57

Is that a fair statement?

27:59

Absolutely. Because in every

28:01

single activity we actually have learning

28:03

supports. So , um, we

28:06

give teachers tips on how to differentiate

28:08

instruction, how to observe

28:10

and almost assess a child to see, are

28:13

they at the level of this activity or

28:15

do we need to take a step back , um,

28:17

and scaffold them up? Um, so it

28:19

does , um , take into account different learning

28:22

, um, learning styles,

28:24

developmentally, you know, where

28:26

they are developmentally and go from there.

28:28

So they don't have to start the CU . Um

28:31

, they can start it at any time . They can start the curriculum

28:33

at any time of the year using that same

28:35

method , um, observing and getting to

28:37

know their children where they are developmentally.

28:40

Yeah. And I would imagine that this, and

28:42

I would love to see if you guys have any like feedback

28:45

fr on this from your schools or just whether it's

28:47

observations or actual like studies

28:49

being done. But I would imagine having

28:52

the right curriculum also impacts,

28:55

and that's the other bucket I was talking about earlier, the

28:57

teachers like, and things like morale and

28:59

culture, like as a teacher, if

29:02

I'm having to go try to figure out my own lesson

29:05

plans all day and get creative, like for

29:07

a certain amount of time, I might be able to do that.

29:09

But I would imagine that gets like difficult.

29:12

Do , does this impact, do you guys see the impact that

29:14

it has on teachers? Is that part of like your value

29:16

positioning in terms of like how

29:19

it impacts staff in the classroom?

29:21

Yes. A hundred percent. We've received so much

29:23

feedback, you know, when we've done pilots

29:25

, uh , of on the curriculum , uh

29:28

, before we launched and you

29:30

know, our, like I said, our , our focus

29:32

is those high quality , early learning , um

29:34

, opportunities for children. But

29:36

also we wanted to hear from teachers, right? So,

29:39

you know, children did have the learning gains.

29:41

You know, we, we based our curriculum on different

29:43

research and studies. And then again, the feedback from

29:46

, uh , the results from, from the pilots

29:48

that we did showed that children

29:50

that were , um, that

29:53

were following the learning beyond curriculum, did

29:55

have those learning gains were achieving and

29:57

meeting those early learning , um , standards

29:59

from the state and getting ready for

30:01

kindergarten. Um, but the

30:04

teachers centers

30:06

were retaining their teachers because

30:08

teachers were no longer having to lesson

30:11

plan on Sunday night on their couch, not

30:13

getting paid, trying to get ready for the

30:15

next week because there's no time during the day.

30:17

There's no planning time. If there

30:19

is planning time, a lot of times it

30:21

gets mixed because , um

30:23

, people are calling out or their staffing

30:26

shortages. So there isn't time for the teacher to

30:28

leave the classroom. Um , so paid planning

30:30

time is really something that is a luxury right

30:32

now. Um, and so the feedback

30:34

that we're getting from owners and directors is

30:37

that teachers really, really

30:40

appreciate the, it's almost an appreciation

30:43

for the curriculum for this new tool, because

30:45

it's saving them time. It's saving directors

30:47

and owners money, you know, planning time,

30:49

money, three to five hours minimum. I

30:51

mean, if you multiply that times' an hourly

30:53

wage, that's, you know, thousands of dollars a

30:55

year. So the curriculum pays for itself.

30:58

The other thing is we've

31:01

actually, and this was the first conference that

31:03

we ever went to. Um, it was last

31:05

year and we felt like

31:07

we were going out. We were, we were putting

31:10

our baby out in the world and we didn't

31:12

want any, anybody to say anything bad

31:14

about our baby. You know? So we , we went to our

31:16

first conference in Orlando last year. And

31:20

one of the very first comments that

31:22

we got was, wow,

31:24

this is exactly what my teachers need,

31:26

because they don't want to go through books

31:28

and paper anymore. They want everything

31:31

right now. You know, I

31:33

want it right now, right. When I , when I click

31:35

on it and it really made us feel like,

31:37

okay, what we set out to do is actually

31:40

meeting the needs and the challenges , um,

31:42

that the directors are having right now,

31:45

you know, we have up to five generations

31:47

in the workforce, but the majority are

31:49

these new digital natives are coming into

31:52

the workforce. They live on their phone, they live

31:54

on an iPad. They're technologically inclined

31:56

and they're teaching and

31:58

caring for digital natives, right? So

32:01

our phones and iPads might even be obsolete by

32:03

the time these two and three year olds are in

32:05

the classroom teaching the , the next generation.

32:08

And so we are

32:11

definitely trying to shake

32:13

up the industry, be intentional,

32:15

be relevant, and really be , um,

32:19

specific with the needs that we're trying to meet , uh

32:21

, with , with these new digital natives, 21st

32:24

century. Um, and, and really

32:26

being , uh , mindful of

32:28

what the teachers are going through while

32:30

meeting the , the needs of the children.

32:33

Yeah. And that's a really, really good point.

32:35

Like when we look at, you know, kind of your

32:37

philosophy and your delivery tools, learning

32:39

beyond paper is a hundred percent digital

32:42

delivery. Correct. So traditionally curriculum,

32:45

you know, was, you know , big booklets,

32:47

you would order the curriculum, correct me if I'm

32:49

wrong, cuz I'm, I'm new

32:51

to this you're

32:53

Right standpoint .

32:53

But yeah. So if I was like, you know , a decade ago

32:56

or 20 years ago, or maybe even

32:58

some schools still do this, you pick

33:00

your curriculum and then that curriculum provider

33:03

ships, you like a huge box of materials

33:06

and there's a binder that goes in the class and

33:08

that's how teachers would access it. But LBP

33:11

learning beyond paper, all digital delivery. Is

33:13

that correct?

33:14

Yes, that is correct. Um, the

33:16

, the wonderful thing about that as well is

33:19

that when you are a center on

33:21

a budget and this is your

33:23

small business and you spend 30

33:26

to $50,000 on a

33:28

paper based binder based curriculum,

33:31

and in order for you to

33:33

get the next edit addition , you're

33:35

pretty much gonna pay another 30,000 to

33:37

50,000. When the new addition comes out

33:39

three to five years later, education

33:42

is ever changing and

33:44

it changes on a daily basis. Research comes

33:46

out on a daily basis. So if it's

33:48

already published, how can that change on

33:50

a diet ? Right? You have to wait

33:53

until the new edition comes out. Um,

33:55

we have made a promise to our users

33:58

that we want to be learning partners with

34:00

them . Um, many of them have our personal

34:02

cell phones . They'll text us and say, Hey, I

34:04

did this activity. It was great, but it would be wonderful

34:06

if you could add something like this. Um

34:09

, and we do it, you know, we do focus groups.

34:11

We, again, we don't want another

34:14

curriculum company. We want to be useful.

34:16

We wanna meet those needs and we wanna be intentional

34:19

with what we do. Um, and so

34:22

we're able to make those changes, you know,

34:25

by a click of a mouse stroke of a key,

34:27

we make those changes. So if, if , uh

34:30

, the national association for education

34:32

of young children comes out with a new position statement

34:34

tomorrow, we can add it to our curriculum. Other

34:36

publishers can't do that on paper.

34:38

Yeah. Quick turn . Which, which kind of leads to

34:41

like how this whole partnership between

34:43

learning beyond paper and ProCare came

34:45

about, you know, when you're talking about the digital

34:48

natives and what we've seen in terms of

34:50

like, you know, the , the demographics

34:52

of the parents whose kids are in early

34:55

childhood environments, they

34:58

don't use pen and paper. They don't write checks.

35:00

They expect everything to be, you

35:02

know, available to them on their phones and tablets.

35:05

And it's really our wheelhouse as

35:07

well, Laura , in terms of, you know, the technology

35:09

we design and deliver to help providers,

35:12

you know, run their businesses. Can

35:14

you talk, cuz I know that you've been , uh

35:16

, leading the charge with our product team

35:19

on, you know, how can we, as two

35:21

separate companies come together to provide value

35:24

to early educators into

35:26

the centers that use ProCare and use

35:29

LBP . Can you talk a little bit, if you

35:31

, if , if a childcare owner is using

35:34

ProCare as a platform to run their business,

35:36

like how does this integration and

35:38

partnership work and, and what are the benefits

35:41

to them? Like how does that play out?

35:44

I mean, the benefits are just tremendous. Um,

35:46

I was an early user of ProCare 20

35:48

years ago when I had my center and I wish, I

35:50

wish I had something like this that was happening now.

35:53

It's incredible. Um, because

35:55

people don't want to log into

35:58

five different platforms and,

36:00

you know, again, the paper based curriculum.

36:03

Um , so this really, truly is a 21st

36:05

century solution. Um , you know, ProCare

36:08

early learning, powered by beyond,

36:11

and then all the features that ProCare

36:13

offers their , uh , childcare centers

36:15

with , uh , on the management side of the business.

36:18

Um, it is just incredible. It's, it's going to

36:21

save a lot of time. A lot of money , uh

36:23

, parents are , are going to be very happy. They

36:25

can see what their children are doing on a daily basis,

36:28

what their, you know, daily reports and communicating

36:31

pro care , um , teachers like that they can

36:33

do everything right in that ProCare app. Um,

36:36

owners , directors can see what's happening in the classroom

36:38

in real time . Um, so it's,

36:40

it really is a tremendous , uh , uh

36:42

, partnership. We're super excited to

36:44

be part of it. Um, and again,

36:47

everything that we do is intentional. So this

36:49

to me is a perfect partnership because

36:51

you all have been the leaders , uh

36:54

, with, with supporting childcare centers in

36:56

a different way. So now with curriculum, it's,

36:58

it's almost full, full scale there.

37:01

Yeah. And it's just, you know, from our perspective, you

37:03

know, it's obviously adding just another piece of,

37:05

you know, integration. You, you hit the

37:07

nail on the head and when we talk with schools and,

37:10

and our customers, it's always about, if

37:12

we can bring in more resources into

37:15

one central, you know, repository or,

37:18

you know, software platform, it just means less

37:20

administrative work and less administrative

37:22

work means you've got more time with

37:25

families, more time with your teachers as a

37:27

school owner or administrator, you

37:29

know, more time to focus on the things that

37:31

you wanna focus on. And so for schools that say, you

37:33

know, look, we wanna have a quality curriculum.

37:36

We wanna have something that's, you know, research

37:39

based and thought out and does all the things that

37:41

you mentioned earlier, Laura, and

37:43

we just want it to be available without

37:46

us having to log into separate systems.

37:48

Like that was something that we heard a

37:50

lot from our customers and,

37:53

and we, that's why we've partnered with you guys.

37:55

And that's why this whole ProCare early learning

37:57

and, you know, learning beyond paper partnership happened

38:00

is so that, you know, our, our mutual

38:03

customers can benefit in

38:05

one place. And so, yeah, it's been a lot of fun. I

38:07

mean, it's, it's early days, but I know for me

38:09

and my team, even being able to

38:12

tell our customers that we have one extra thing

38:14

that we can, you know, help you with has

38:16

been, you know, the , the response

38:18

early on has been amazing. So we're excited, really

38:21

excited.

38:21

Yeah, we are too . <laugh>

38:23

What is it ? So what is it like moving forward

38:25

for learning beyond paper and, you know,

38:28

in the industry and in curriculum, like you mentioned

38:30

that it's ongoing, how does what's

38:33

what's next for you guys? Is it just a continuing

38:35

to kind of refine the curriculum, continue

38:38

to update the lessons? Are there plans

38:40

like to extend it to different age

38:42

groups or different, you know, focuses

38:44

or is it really right now, our wheelhouse

38:47

is birthed to four and we're gonna keep kind

38:49

of making improvements to that area.

38:52

We , uh , we have different things in

38:54

the work. So right now we're working on

38:57

full Spanish translation. So

38:59

, um, that should be

39:01

released , uh, sometime

39:03

in the next school year 22,

39:05

23 , um, providers will be

39:07

able to have the full curriculum in both English

39:10

and in Spanish. Um, we have

39:12

gotten requests for school, age

39:14

curriculum because a lot of centers do have those

39:16

after school programs and camp programs

39:19

during the summer and early learning does

39:21

go through , uh , age eight, which

39:23

is third grade. So that is definitely

39:25

on our roadmap is to do , um , the

39:28

school age , um , uh , curriculum

39:30

as well. And, you know, there are

39:33

other things that we would like to add going down the

39:35

road right now, we are , um

39:37

, going through our professional

39:40

development. We're developing that I'm , I'm

39:42

working on a lot of different , uh , best

39:45

it's based on best practice. So our professional development

39:47

is not on learning beyond paper

39:50

per se. It's about best practice.

39:52

So it doesn't matter what curriculum you're using. If

39:54

you attend our professional development sessions, you're

39:56

going to learn about what equity means

39:58

in the preschool classroom , um, how to

40:00

set the stage for learning , uh , when you're

40:02

setting up your environment , um, you know,

40:05

intentional interactions between teacher

40:07

and children. Um, so yeah,

40:10

there there's a lot, there's a lot that we have , uh

40:12

, planned , uh , the first one being that Spanish

40:14

translation. So we're really excited about that.

40:17

That's gonna be huge. We, we hear that

40:19

so often around, you know, in

40:21

, especially obviously in areas where there's

40:23

a lot of, you know, Spanish speaking

40:26

, you know, families that

40:28

need to be able to teach. Are you guys well

40:30

, I'm just curious in terms of how you do

40:33

that practically from a translation standpoint, are

40:35

you using like Google type tools

40:37

to do the translation or are you literally like

40:39

somebody like yourself is taking all of the

40:42

content and translating it into Spanish

40:44

?

40:45

Yes. Um, there , Google

40:48

translate is great. It gets you out of a bind, but

40:50

it , it , sometimes it translates to

40:53

literally, and you

40:56

can get into trouble because with Spanish

40:58

language, there's so many dialects, so many variations

41:01

that some words can offend in other

41:03

countries. Um, some words have

41:05

different meanings. Um, there are a lot of

41:07

nuances in the language, so we cannot

41:10

use a translation app. Um, so

41:13

yeah, we know we have people that are literally

41:15

taking it ed by sentence and

41:17

translating it. And then we are taking

41:20

that , um , that translation

41:22

and sending it to other native Spanish

41:24

speakers to look at cultural

41:27

awareness, cultural sensitivity,

41:30

relevant. It's very, very , um

41:32

, specific when you're translating into Spanish.

41:35

Yeah. That's gonna be, that's gonna be a

41:37

nice upgrade. We're excited about that

41:39

one. What , what about, so if people, I know we're

41:41

running short on time, and so I want, you know, main thing

41:43

we obviously wanna do is like, introduce

41:46

like the ProCare world to the fact like

41:48

this, this new partnership and,

41:50

you know, ProCare early learning, powered

41:53

by, you know, learning beyond paper, all

41:56

of the benefits of the curriculum that you, you

41:58

know, talked about. We just obviously want to get the word

42:00

out. If, if people listening

42:03

to the , this episode want to learn

42:05

more about LBP , want

42:07

to learn more, maybe Laura talk

42:09

to you or reach out to your team. Can

42:11

you talk a little bit about how the

42:14

industry can find you and

42:16

how they could reach out if they've got questions?

42:18

Absolutely. So our , um,

42:21

they can reach us [email protected]

42:25

. Um, they can reach [email protected]

42:31

. Uh , we're on social media, we're

42:33

on LinkedIn, you know, all the different platforms there.

42:36

Uh , we're definitely open to conversations

42:39

and we would love to , to meet anybody out there. That's

42:41

interested in learning beyond.

42:43

Yeah, love it. And you know , last thing I'll

42:45

say both for ProCare and learning

42:47

to be on paper, we're gonna be at, you know, now that

42:50

conferences are back in person, we've, I've

42:52

been to one a couple weeks ago. I know you've

42:54

been to a few of your team. I saw Karen down

42:56

in Austin a few weeks ago. Um,

42:59

so come visit us at

43:01

the booth that we have. So anybody that's

43:03

listening, you know, get out to the conferences is

43:05

so like energizing to get

43:07

back around the people in this

43:10

industry. And I know you guys are gonna be attending a

43:12

lot of those over the, the course of the year as well.

43:14

And so that's another great place where people can find

43:16

us. Um, so Laura really appreciate

43:19

your time. It was extremely

43:21

insightful. I think it's gonna be valuable content.

43:23

So appreciate you joining our show.

43:25

Thank you, Ryan. I'm very excited for, for

43:28

what's to come with this new partnership.

43:30

Same take care.

43:32

Thank you for listening to this episode

43:34

of the childcare business podcast, to

43:37

get more insights on ways to succeed in

43:39

your childcare business, make sure to hit subscribe

43:41

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43:44

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43:46

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43:49

over to our resource [email protected]

43:52

until next time.