Our consultations can focus on a variety of services, including:

• Observation and Documentation: One of our favorite consultation services is to arrive with cameras and clipboards in hand to gather the unfolding stories of your early childhood program. This documentation becomes the basis for staff professional development that demonstrates the importance of observing and documenting. In the process, everyone has the opportunity to learn skills and practice using documentation for planning and communications with children and their families. New insights, increased enthusiasm, and deepened respect for children comes from focusing on the particular children in your program. your environment, your approaches to staff development, and observing and documenting children’s work to plan curriculum and examine and communicate the teaching and learning process. We follow up our consultations with meetings or workshops to debrief and share ideas and discoveries.
• Space Planning: If you are in the process of designing or renovating a new space, or simply want to reconsider your current learning environment, we can help you with space planning. We use a variety of tools and experiences to examine your space, including photographs, stories, and examples from learning environments around the United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe, and taking inspiration from Montessori, the schools of Reggio Emilia, Waldorf schools, and our book, Designs for Living and Learning: Transforming Early Childhood Environments.
• Writing and Video Production: In addition to co-authoring our own books and producing our own videos, we individually contribute to other publications and projects. For example, Margie regularly writes for Childcare Information Exchange, Deb has contributed to Beginnings Workshops, we worked with the Center for the Child Care Workforce (CCW) to produce two videos on the Worthy Wage Campaign, and Margie has also worked with the Hilltop Children's Center and Kidspace on video development. We can assist you with video concepts, scripts, and production. Check out our current line of DVD's and videos and let us know about your writing and/or video project needs!
• Other Consultation: We can provide consultation on a variety of other quality improvement projects, ranging range organizational development, goal setting, and strategic planning, to team building, coaching staff, and designing in-service training or conference programs. We can help you prepare for accreditation self-study, improve your partnerships with parents, and develop model work standards for your staff. Contact us to discuss your goals, and we will help design a consultation plan that meets your needs.