RESOURCES

• Watch the full webinar here
• Join our newsletter! Earn your Professional Development hours with FREE sessions delivered right to your inbox every week
• Check out the producer of ECI, Playground, the Child Care Management Software

Leadership isn’t positional—it’s relational. Whether you’re a president, owner, principal, director, teacher, counselor, parent, or the person responsible for making sure lunch arrives on time—if you work with people, and especially with children, you lead. Leadership is not defined by a title; it’s expressed through presence, listening, and creating space for others to thrive.

In this session, Kimberlee Burt Hendricks, The Play and Learn Leader at A Child’s Space 2, will guide participants through an exploration of how play is not just for children, it’s a vital practice that nurtures creativity, connection, and emotional well-being for adults as well. Through stories, research, and reflective experiences, Kimberlee will illuminate how neuroscience and well-established leadership models reveal that play is not a distraction from leadership, but a catalyst for it.

As early learning environments continue to evolve, embracing play, both personally and professionally, has never been more important. Participants will engage in reflective discussions and playful moments that highlight how curiosity, imagination, and laughter strengthen leadership at every level.

Because when we understand the power of play, we lead and live with greater joy, empathy, and purpose.

Learning Objectives

After this session, participants will be able to:

• Explain how neuroscience supports the role of play in fostering creativity, focus, and well-being for both children and adults.

• Identify leadership models—including servant, whole, transformational, and psychological safety frameworks—that align with playful, human-centered practice.

• Reflect on strategies for integrating play into everyday professional interactions to enhance connection and trust.

RESOURCES

• Watch the full webinar here
• Join our newsletter! Earn your Professional Development hours with FREE sessions delivered right to your inbox every week
• Check out the producer of ECI, Playground, the Child Care Management Software

What if strengthening self-regulation could transform not only children’s behavior—but your entire classroom experience?

In this research-informed session led by Dr. Carrie Comer-Yates, you’ll explore how young children’s self-regulation skills directly influence teacher practice, classroom expectations, and student success. Dr. Comer-Yates is deeply committed to helping educators build foundational skills in social-emotional development, differentiate classroom supports, and care for their own social-emotional well-being alongside their students’.

Drawing from a comprehensive study of early childhood classrooms, this webinar examines the shared responsibilities between children and educators, the role of the learning environment, and the levels of support needed for children to thrive. You’ll gain practical, actionable strategies grounded in real classroom data—highlighting the critical roles of professional development, family engagement, and intentional instructional practices.

The session also explores how factors such as culture shape self-regulation and influence classroom expectations. By strengthening your understanding of self-regulation, you’ll be better equipped to foster positive social, emotional, and academic growth—creating more responsive, supportive, and successful learning environments, even within complex early childhood systems.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this webinar, participants will be able to:

• Identify how children’s self-regulation skills impact teacher practice and classroom dynamics
• Examine the shared responsibilities between educators, students, and the learning environment in supporting self-regulation
• Describe effective instructional strategies that strengthen self-regulation in early childhood settings
• Recognize the influence of culture and other contextual factors on self-regulation and classroom expectations
• Apply research-based approaches that support positive social, emotional, and academic outcomes for young children

RESOURCES

• Watch the full webinar here
• Join our newsletter! Earn your Professional Development hours with FREE sessions delivered right to your inbox every week
• Check out the producer of ECI, Playground, the Child Care Management Software

What if joy wasn’t a byproduct of good leadership—but the very foundation of it?

This inspiring and practical webinar invites early childhood leaders to explore what it truly means to lead with joy and purpose. Led by global consultant and innovation champion Karen Foster-Jorgensen, participants will discover how to apply the Joyous Organization Framework and the Joyous Leadership Collabratory™ to strengthen both the heart and health of their organizations—blending purpose, prosperity, positive mindset, and people-centered leadership for lasting impact.

Learning Objectives:

• Discover the principles of the Joyous Organization Framework and identify how joy fuels engagement, innovation, and long-term success.

• Explore the Joyous Equation as a model for balancing purpose, people, and prosperity within early childhood organizations.

• Reflect on leadership mindsets through the lens of invitational leadership and joyful practice.

• Design actionable next steps to strengthen both the joy and sustainability of your organization.

• Connect with peers through the Joyous Leadership Collabratory™ model—building community, reflection, and shared growth.

RESOURCES

• Watch the full webinar here
• Join our newsletter! Earn your Professional Development hours with FREE sessions delivered right to your inbox every week
• Check out the producer of ECI, Playground, the Child Care Management Software

What if the everyday “problems” you see in your classroom could become the spark for deeper learning?

When a block tower tumbles down or paint drips across a page, children are already engaging in problem-solving, experimenting, and exploring big ideas. This webinar will show you how to transform those ordinary moments into extraordinary opportunities through problem-based STEAM learning.

Together, we’ll explore how to design hands-on, developmentally appropriate centers that invite children to question, investigate, and solve challenges in creative ways. You’ll see how science, technology, engineering, the arts, and math can come alive through playful exploration that nurtures curiosity and builds essential 21st-century skills.

In this approachable STEAM session, hosted by Tiffany Berman, M.Ed we’ll walk through the process step by step—from observing children to uncover the problems they’re naturally drawn to, to choosing the right materials, to guiding child-led investigations that empower independent learning.

Learning Objectives:

• Discover how to use an observation and discussion tool to identify children’s curiosities and classroom challenges that can spark STEAM investigations.

• Create a plan for a developmentally appropriate, problem-based STEAM learning center that fosters exploration and discovery.

• Explore practical strategies for facilitating child-led investigations that encourage independence, creativity, and joyful learning through play.

RESOURCES

• Watch the full webinar here
• Join our newsletter! Earn your Professional Development hours with FREE sessions delivered right to your inbox every week
• Check out the producer of ECI, Playground, the Child Care Management Software

Early education program leaders around the world are increasingly enthusiastic about nature-based learning. Many leaders want to jump in wholeheartedly but find shifting the culture of their organization incredibly challenging. This webinar is a pause to say, “Imagine if…” Imagine if nature were another teacher in the classroom, if nature-based learning were core to the program’s culture, and if families were choosing your program because of its nature-rich experiences. In this session, Dr. Larimore will explore different ways to consider a nature-based approach in your teaching—from the structure of the day and the physical environment to planning and teacher-child interactions. She’ll share a wide range of possibilities for imagining—or reimagining—the ways we support young children through nature-based learning.

In this action-focused webinar designed for program leaders and administrators, experienced early childhood nature-based program leader and author Dr. Rachel Larimore will share her Trail Map for Leading Change—an approach for inspiring and supporting staff as they move toward nature-based teaching. In previous ECI webinars, she focused on the big picture of the Trail Map for Change and Step 1: preparing yourself as a leader. In this webinar, she’ll focus on Step 5 of the Trail Map: reimagining teaching practices to embrace nature-based pedagogy.

Come be inspired by the diverse and innovative ways early childhood programs are integrating nature-based learning into their classrooms.

Objectives

Participants will be able to:

1. Describe the core components of nature-based pedagogy.
2. Identify at least two ways to reimagine daily structure to embrace nature-based pedagogy.
3. Identify at least two ways to reimagine the physical environment to deepen nature-based learning.
4. Describe ways to support teachers in making small shifts toward nature-based teaching.

RESOURCES

• Watch the full webinar here
• Join our newsletter! Earn your Professional Development hours with FREE sessions delivered right to your inbox every week
• Check out the producer of ECI, Playground, the Child Care Management Software

In every classroom, on every playground, and over every shared meal, there are opportunities for healing. This immersive session invites early childhood educators and professionals to reconnect with their own wisdom, intuition, and power as everyday healers in the lives of young children.

Facilitated by educator and author Mike Browne, MBA, this webinar is more than professional development—it’s a restorative experience for the heart of our field. Together, we’ll explore how healing-centered practices can live in the routines and relationships that define early childhood care and education. Through story, breath, and reflection, participants will consider how trauma shows up in our classrooms and communities—and how safety, connection, and regulation can be offered in even the smallest interactions.

Whether you’re a teacher, cook, driver, family advocate, or administrator, your presence matters. Healing doesn’t happen in isolation—it happens in relationship. Together, we’ll remember that care is collective, and that every role in early childhood education is a healing role.

Intentions (Learning Objectives):

This session is not just about understanding trauma—it’s about:

• Restoring ourselves so we can hold space for children and families
• Honoring lived experience as wisdom
• Deepening connection, safety, and care across all roles
• Creating environments where everyone feels seen and valued
• Moving toward healing in community—through story, rhythm, reflection, and breath

RESOURCES

• Watch the full webinar here
• Join our newsletter! Earn your Professional Development hours with FREE sessions delivered right to your inbox every week
• Check out the producer of ECI, Playground, the Child Care Management Software

Play is innate, and all children have the capacity for playful selves. Yet many conventional views of play still rely on narrow developmental expectations that unintentionally exclude neurodivergent and disabled children. In this session led by Kerry Murphy (BA Hons, MSc)—author, Early Childhood Specialist, Lecturer, and Trainer—you are invited to re-explore play through a neurodiversity-affirming lens that honors the many functions and patterns of play.

You will be introduced to ideas that move beyond typical play frameworks, such as stage theory, and instead explore the diverse developmental pathways children naturally follow through play. Together, we will examine common play patterns in neurodivergent children and explore why these are valid and developmentally meaningful. We will also question neuronormative assumptions about what counts as “functional” play and recognize the depth of insight available when children are supported to play in ways that feel authentic to them.

Throughout the session, you will reflect on how neuronormativity and developmental norms can shape our interpretations of children’s actions. By engaging with practical examples, case studies, and reflective prompts, you will discover how to design play environments that are affirming, autonomous, accessible, and filled with joy, meaning, and knowledge creation.

Learning Objectives

1. To reimagine our definitions and understandings of play through a neurodiversity-informed and affirming lens.
2. To explore the influence and impact of neuronormativity on children’s play.
3. To learn about autistic play patterns as a framework for diversifying our understanding of all children’s play.
4. To be introduced to the Diverse Pathways for Early Childhood project.

RESOURCES

• Watch the full webinar here
• Join our newsletter! Earn your Professional Development hours with FREE sessions delivered right to your inbox every week
• Check out the producer of ECI, Playground, the Child Care Management Software

What does it really mean to move beyond anti-bias education in early childhood? For decades, anti-bias work has helped educators nurture children’s identities and celebrate diversity. Yet, despite these important efforts, inequities rooted in racism, ableism, eurocentrism, and monolingualism continue to show up in early learning spaces.

In this inspiring and challenging webinar, Dr. Jamie Cho and Ninderjit Gill will invite educators to look more deeply at how everyday practices can either reinforce or disrupt systems of inequity. Together, they’ll explore how justice-centered teaching can create new ways of being—where children’s cultures, languages, and identities are truly honored and where educators act as agents of change in their communities.

During this session, you will:

• Identify examples of Eurocentric practices in early childhood education.

• Reflect on how current classroom norms may reflect dominant cultural values and beliefs.

• Take intentional action steps toward centering diversity, equity, and justice.

  
  

Join us to reimagine what equity can look like in early childhood—and to strengthen your role in building programs where every child and family feels seen, heard, and valued.

RESOURCES

• ⁠Watch the full webinar here⁠
• Join our newsletter! Earn your Professional Development hours with FREE sessions delivered right to your inbox every week.
• ⁠Check out the producer of ECI, Playground, the Child Care Management Software

Every emotion, reaction, and behavior tells a story—and it begins deep within the brain and body. In this insightful and grounding session, we’ll explore the fascinating connection between the brain, the nervous system, and emotional regulation in early childhood.

Children’s ability to self-regulate doesn’t develop overnight; it’s nurtured through caring relationships and co-regulation with responsive adults. In this session led by Richard Cohen, M.A., we’ll trace how thoughts and feelings travel through the body to become actions—and what that means for the moments we share with young children each day.

You’ll gain a deeper understanding of:

• How the brain and nervous system work together to shape emotions and behavior.

• Why children’s “big feelings” are opportunities for connection, not correction.

• The difference between self-regulation and co-regulation—and the adult’s vital role in both.

• Practical, real-world strategies to help children (and yourself) move from dysregulation to calm.

This session will leave you with both the science and the heart of emotional regulation—equipping you with compassionate, neuroscience-informed tools to support young children’s social-emotional growth and your own well-being along the way.

RESOURCES

• ⁠Watch the full webinar here⁠
• Join our newsletter! Earn your Professional Development hours with FREE sessions delivered right to your inbox every week.
• ⁠Check out the producer of ECI, Playground, the Child Care Management Software

Most child care directors are trained to nurture children—not to crunch numbers. Yet without financial clarity, even the strongest programs can falter. In this high-impact session, bestselling authors and child care business experts Kate Woodward Young and Carrie Casey will show you how to shift from “hoping the bills get paid” to leading with confidence.

You’ll uncover three common blind spots that quietly drain centers of revenue and stability:

• Reading financial reports without fear—and knowing what really matters in a P&L.
• Forecasting with confidence, instead of reacting to every crisis.
• Using classroom-level data to make smart staffing and enrollment decisions.

Through quick-win demos and real-world examples, you’ll see how a single staffing shift can boost margins by 5–10%—and how the right tools can transform directors into financial leaders.

This session isn’t about becoming an accountant. It’s about gaining the clarity every director needs to safeguard their program, their team, and their future.

Walk away with practical tools you can use immediately, plus an exclusive invitation to dive deeper in our Masterclass on Child Care Finance for Directors—where we’ll equip you with the full system to thrive.