As the busy hum of your program year begins to quiet and summer transitions approach, it’s the perfect time to pause – not just to rest, but to reflect.

Childcare leaders often spend the year focused on the needs of others: children, families, staff, and licensing agencies. But what about your own leadership practice? What about your systems, your support strategies, and your center’s overall direction? May is the ideal moment to take a deep breath, step back, and take stock.

That’s why we created the Early Essentials Guiding Questions for Reflections – a practical tool to guide your thinking, gather insights, and strengthen your plans for the year ahead.

What’s Inside the Chart?

The chart covers nine essential areas of your work as a leader, including:

• Professional development and how it supports your team
• Your key program documents—when did you last revise them?
• Family engagement that goes beyond attendance and into belonging
• Communication with staff, families, and your wider community
• Physical space, safety, and even your program’s visual story
• Staff well-being and retention efforts
• Enrollment strategies and family onboarding
• Compliance with licensing and accreditation
• Financial health and budget reviews

Each section includes:

• A best practice summary to remind you what great looks like
• Guiding questions to spark meaningful reflection
• Ideas for improvement that can turn reflection into action

Why This Matters

When you intentionally reflect, you lead with greater clarity. You spot patterns. You gain insight. You grow.

And with tools like this, reflection doesn’t have to feel like one more thing on your plate—it becomes a leadership habit that fuels everything else.

At Early Essentials, we specialize in helping leaders like you develop systems, strategies, and support that actually work in real childcare settings. Whether you’re an experienced director or new to administration, our coaching, training, and tools can help you lead with confidence and care.

Ready to Take the First Step?

• Download the Free Guiding Questions Reflection Chart.
• Schedule some quiet time to jot down your thoughts—you can use the Summer Reflections chart to help with that
• Share your insights with your leadership team
• Choose one area to begin—the one with the simplest steps is best so you have quick success!
• Delegate where you can—partners need to be given opportunities to grow with your guidance
• Create a calendar to work through other steps…remember, quality services are a marathon, not a sprint! Daily or weekly work on one issue will soon mean success.

And if you’d like a thought partner to walk this journey with you, let’s talk. Our Early Essentials consultants are here to support your success—one practical step at a time.

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Let this season of reflection be the start of your strongest year yet.

Rooted in purpose, growing together…Sharon