CINCYNANNYPALOOZA 2010 - The Recap!

Whew! After months of planning, CincyNanny had a fantastic event…
CINCYNANNYPALOOZA!

Nannypalooza is a national nanny conference usually held each year in the fall, by the National Association of Nanny Care (NANC). They goal is to bring nannies together, provide education and resources in a professional, yet fun atmosphere. This year, Nannypalooza traveled to 18 cities around the country, including Cincinnati for Nannypalooza – Nannies Across America!

On Saturday, September 18, 2010, twenty-five of our local nannies and childcare providers gathered for a one-day conference and recognition dinner in honor of National Nanny Recognition Week (NNRW). We offered three workshops in total: two in child development and one in professional development. We awarded door prizes, had a raffle to benefit Alyson Myatt (the nanny injured saving her charge in a fire), and gave out goodie bags for all in attendance. Nannies shared dinner and gathered resources. The goal of our event was to bring together nannies in community and honor each for the important role they play in the lives of children.

Rebecca welcomed everyone at the registration table. She passed on a folder with notes and resources along with a goody bag of donated items and literature, valued over the $25 ticket price!

What’s in the goodie bag?
(For links, please see the donor list at the end of this post)

Literature from many local and national resources: INA, NANC, Regarding Nannies, GTM, Cincinnati Family Enrichment Center, Cincinnati Family, Cincinnati Parent, Carseat Identification, 4C for Children Quaterly classes.
From 4 Nanny Taxes: a kids crayon and Interview tips
From NannyIsland: Gummy snack with postcard
From Regarding Nannies: Info. card with post-it notes
Gift cards and Coupons: $5 to Starbucks from GTM, Free Chick-fila Sandwich, 20% at Tanya’s Wellness (hair and spa), seven $1 off at Caribou Coffee in Anderson, Free Admission to the SwinGallery (local dance venue), Free Sunny Delight
From Kroger: 2 reuseable grocery bags and an insulated grocery bag
From Mike’s Hard LemonadeJello mold & CD,
From CincyNanny: Water bottle, Nanny connect cards

One of our conference sponsors was Books By Tara. Tara not only donated books and finances, but she and her mother joined us that day to share her books with us! BooksByTara are designed with an easy, flexible format to entice children’s interest and participation on every page. Intriguing photos of familiar scenes provide oodles of opportunities for looking; pointing; vocalizing sounds, words, phrases, and sentences; answering questions; and beginning in-depth discussions. Playful themes make learning easy and fun. You can now get her books at Joseph Beth in Hyde Park!

We had a travel theme with our tagline “the professional nanny conference travels to Cincinnati”. The hope was to communicate that this is a getaway even though it is in our city. We also included the conversation about traveling in the future to other cities for more opportunities, opening up the “nanny world” to all of our nannies!

Above is our table centerpiece… a re-make of a piece of luggage out of a photo storage box. On the outside stickers including one of the Nannypalooza – Nannies Across America logo. On the inside small envelopes with ice breaker questions for the nannies at the table.

At right you will see Amanda, who organized the all the wonderful food for our snacks, not to mention all the food for our recognition dinner…FREE! It was gorgeous and delicious. The nannies enjoyed snacking on the healthy fruit, Big Apple Bagels, and snacks both sweet and salty!

Below is our first workshop: Positive Discipline with Kerry Kane Miller from 4C for Children. Kerry was a very dynamic and inclusive speaker and specifically spoke about “Behavior Modification” and looking for those “Teachable Moments”. She spent time listening to our #1 frustration at our job and offered some solutions. Nannies were encouraged to share one thing they learned with the group, and that was really special to hear tangible steps to end a frustration.

Here are her Top 10 Teachable Tools:
1. Encourage positive behavior more than negative.
2. Give children as many choices as possible.
3. Use play to encourage children to express their feelings.
4. Use reflective listening.
5. Communicate your expectations daily.
6. Be consistent – be consistent – be consistent.
7. Teach the child to problem-solve.
8. Teach them that feelings are alright but behaviors many or may not be: The 3 rules of anger are: (1) You can’t hurt yourself, (2) You can’t hurt others, and (3) You can;t hurt your environment.
9. Teach them what they CAN do.
10. When needed use logical consequences.

At left, Greta with Kerry Kane Miller.

Our second workshop: Professional Communications was taught by Greta Schraer, the 2010 INA Nanny of the Year. Heard of her? It was pretty ironic that months ago I had planned to talk about Your Resume, Interview & Work Agreement – the 3 things that I see nannies struggling with in our city. I say it is ironic because weeks before conference I got to go through each of these again in my personal career. I shared a lot of resources with nannies, you can find most of them here: CincyNanny Resources. Some keys points were: (1) How to write a mission statement and use that in your professional communication with families. (2) Difference in a corporate and nanny resumes and possible elements to include. (3) The Interview Process (4) Your Work Agreement and “Sticky Situations” and (5) How to stay connected to the National and Local nanny worlds.

Our third and final workshop was taught by Jelecia Hoskins, on “Pre-Reading Success”. She not only reminded us the importance of literacy at young age, but challenged us to be diligent offering regular times set aside throughout the day. We discussed what we are already doing with children, sharing ideas and challenging each other. Then she built upon those. In the picture below, nannies were waling around the room, marking which literary terminology they recognized; some were words we had not heard since we were in school and others were brand new. Mrs. Hoskins took us through the terms and applied them to the different ages of children we are working with including: Site Words – Invented Spelling – Phonemic awareness – Environmental Print – Developmental Spelling – Alphabetic Knowledge – Literacy – Blending – Phonics – Syllables – Phonemes and Segmentations. We left with new but practical ideas!

After the 3 workshops it was time for our National Nanny Recognition Dinner. As nannies sat down with their food, we began announcing the raffle winners. We had 9 raffle packages donated: 3 Massage Packages, a Hair Cut and Style Package, Books By Tara Package, Craft Package, Wine and Picnic Package, Kids Fun and Games Package, and Starbucks Coffee Package. Below see Trisha, who organized, collected and packaged all of our wonderful raffle gifts and door prizes!

Here are some of the winners! (Sorry about my camera issues)

Nanny Kristina took home the Craft Package!

Nanny Kathy got the Massage from Tanya’s Wellness!

Nanny Molly was overjoyed with her BodyWorx Massage!

Nanny Kim received the Kids Fun & Games Package

Nanny Melanie was excited about her Haircut & Style from Tanya’s Wellness and Vera Bradley bag!

After dinner each nanny was honored. We shared their best moment/accomplishment from the rpveious year, and what an amazing, sweet time that was. Each nanny received a gift and all opened together. Inside was a frame, holding a spot for a picture. On Fri., Oct. 8th, nannies will be given a free sitting with Varney Photography. All picture will be posted online for purchase, and to insert in the frame. One both the frame border and the cake was the line…

To the world you might be one person, but to one person you might be the world.

I cannot express my thanks enough to Hyde Park Noodles, our other Large Sponsor! They donated all of our meals! That is right… ALL! Manager, Will Morrow, sat down to speak with us about our event and said that he saw our passion for what we were doing. He is single father, who strives to make his restaurant a welcoming family atmosphere and he could get on board with the calling of nannies. He is a new friend, and honorable leader in our community. Please, please, stop in and introduce yourself to him as a fellow CincyNanny. Thank him for all he gave to honor our local nannies!

Here are most of our attendees, a few had to leave early. First our professional picture, then they humored me with our silly picture… LOVE!

The event was wonderful, thanks to our fabulous committee who spent months planning, calling, and requesting donated items. I am thankful that I got to know these girls even better. They are exemplary nannies who gave so much to see our local nannies benefit! Thank you to Rebecca, Amanda, and Trisha! You were a great team!!

Big thank you to NANC, Nannypa-SUE-za, and Nanny Barbie for the fun and support!

This conference would not have been possible with out the generosity of so many people, associations, and businesses! Please continue to support them!

4C For Children

Big Apple Bagels – Anderson

Books By Tara, Tara McClintick

Cakes by Georgine

Caribou Coffee – Anderson

Chick-fil-a – Eastgate

Cincinnati Family Enrichment Center

City Barbeque- Hyde Park Plaza

Crossroads Church

Flower Basket – Ludlow, KY

Full Spectrum Health Center

GTM Payroll Services – Nanny Taxes, Payroll, Health Ins.