Monday Moxie: Minnesota Nanny Day by The Twin Cities Professional Nannies

The Twin Cities Professional Nannies (TCPN) is a nanny support group serving the Minneapolis and St. Paul metro area. Part of TCPN’s mission is to provide ongoing professional development for local nannies, families and community members. For the past eight years TCPN has put on an annual conference day in conjunction with the organization’s annual meeting. With this year’s theme – Come Play with Us – participants enjoyed the playful side of our careers.

Carrie Stolar presented Getting Kids Healthy and Back Outdoors. Carrie shared the most recent facts on children’s health and gave us ideas of fun things to do with kids outdoors! Ms. Stolar serves as Senior Brand Manager of the Säjai® Foundation. She graduated from Vanderbilt University, and earned her MBA at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Carrie’s responsibilities at the Säjai Foundation include product development and brand management. She introduced us to a child friendly program that is being launched with children from six to twelve, and also gave us great hands-on practical ideas to get children – and ourselves – outdoors and active. We all took home a handout full of new and rejuvenating ideas to use immediately.

Paulette Pelletier presented Fun & Healthy Snacks. Paulette shared ideas and recipes to liven up snack time. We all shared our experiences with snack time challenges and the incorporation of all ages at snack. Paulette came to us with 20 years experience and has an Early Childhood background. She presents workshops for those working in the child care field and has been a Toddler Head Teacher and Child Care Center Director. Paulette currently is the Conference Coordinator and Field Representative for Providers Choice-sponsor of the Child and Adult Food Program. Not only did we have a chance to share our experiences of success or challenge with snacks and mealtime, but we also had the opportunity to explore other options that the children in our care could benefit from right away.

Paulette graciously agreed to fill our third speaker slot since she had become ill. Her vast experience working with child care providers made it easy for her to shift gears and bring us Homemade Games. This presentation fit into our theme like a glove. Paulette demonstrated easy to create games, crafts and activities for all ages. She generously shared her supplies and ideas allowing conference attendees to actively participate in a make-n-take session. Although a last minute addition to the conference schedule, Paulette’s Homemade Game session turned out to be a participant favorite.

TCPN Founder and current President, Mallette Parry had these sentiments to share:

On October 10th of 2009 TCPN had it 8th annual conference. I am happy to say I did a much better job leading this year than the very first one we had 2000. I know and I can speak for many when I say that we had a wonderful time this year. We used the theme "Come Play with Us". The speakers were centered on this theme. There were three speakers planned for the day. The first talked to us about the importance of outdoor play, the next one talked about Healthy Snacks and Homemade Games. Our second speaker stayed because our 3rd speaker became ill the morning of the conference. From what I heard she was a favorite to many. We had just over 20 nannies attend the conference. As a current board member I was very happy. We had several new nannies attend the conference for the first time. I look forward to seeing them at future events and the conference next year.

One of my favorite parts of the conference was the centerpieces. Shellie, our conference chair brought in children’s toys which included: a child's tea set and battleship. And I brought in a bead toy.

We had a wonderful conference committee. The board and the committee worked very hard to make it a huge success again this year. The day was very rewarding and I came away with the reminder of the value of being outside, great snack ideas and some wonderful homemade games. I also want to extend my thanks to all who donated for door prizes this year. A special thanks to Regarding Nannies for their donations. Over all, I have to say we were very pleased with the whole day.

Other attendees made these comments:

"I loved coming away with so many ideas"
"All of it was great!"
"A really good conference, they keep getting better."

TCPN is fortunate to have a group of nannies who care enough to volunteer their time and talents to bring an annual conference of this caliber to local nannies. Hours of work and planning went into it and another great conference was the reward.

Conference Sponsors are the final ingredient needed to make the annual conference a success year after year. We want to acknowledge the following individuals and businesses for their support: Nannies from the Heartland, Mary O’Connor, Regarding Nannies, HomeWork Solutions, Breedlove & Associates, Mallette Parry, Shellie Jensen, Lori Baker, Melissa Weinacht, Becky Kavanagh, Jean Toenges, Michelle LaRowe, and the International Nanny Association.

TCPN normally holds their Nanny Day the 2nd or 3rd weekend in October. Be on the lookout for the announcement of the 2010 date.