the learning journey child care center

Charlie Bear's Child Care

Our team creates a safe, nurturing learning environment..

In an environment of nurturing care, children grow in confidence and learn developmentally appropriate skills to create a life-long love of learning. Charlie Bear’s Child Care is a dynamic program that provides early-learning opportunities for infants, toddlers, preschoolers and preschool-plus children of Gritman Medical Center employees and the local community.

Quality Education and Care

At Charlie Bear’s Child Care, we provide children warm, responsive, individualized care. We partner with parents and families to create a caring circle in which children are secure and nurtured. Our teaching staff applies curriculum and play-based learning activities. Children spend their day in a nurturing, safe and happy environment that promotes natural curiosity and desires.

Accreditation and Licensing

Charlie Bear’s Child Care is licensed and inspected annually by the City of Moscow’s Health and Welfare Department. We comply with all requirements for a licensed child care center.

We strive for excellence according to the professional standards set forth by the Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale. We are committed to meeting these national standards of quality education.

In addition to following all state and federal regulations, Charlie Bear’s Child Care participates in the Idaho Stars Quality Program. Although participation is not required, this is one more way we can go above and beyond for the children that attend our daycare.

Our educational program is based on Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale guidelines. This comprehensive program includes many areas that contribute to positive child development. The curriculum includes opportunities for children to make their own choices among various learning areas in the classroom, as well as daily teacher-planned activities in language, math, science, art, music and fine motor and gross motor areas.

Importance of Family

You are encouraged to be part of your child’s day at Charlie Bear’s Child Care. Daily reports and information are provided, along with a Parent Resource Center with books, videos and community updates. Family events are held throughout the year to develop strong relationships among the staff, families and children.

Staff-to-Child Ratio

In compliance with the City of Moscow regulations, the maximum teacher-to-child ratios are as listed:

Children under 2               1:3 Children 2-3                        1:5 Children 3 and older       1:10

We have the opportunity to leverage additional staff during structured learning times so that children receive the attention they need to maximize their learning potential.

Credentials and Education

The teacher in each classroom who plans activities must reflect Idaho’s Early Learning Standards and national standards, have a degree in early childhood education or a related field or have prior experience in early childhood programs. Assistants are also qualified by education or experience to work with young children.

All staff are required to have criminal background checks, child-abuse record clearances and annual health appraisals. Staff members are licensed through the City of Moscow. They are certified in First Aid and CPR, and they receive a minimum of 12 hours in annual service training related to their duties as early childhood educators.

The Daily Iowan

Iowa City childcare center sees improvement in staffing numbers

For Emily Brandenburg, director of Lionheart Early Learning, working in a child care center has always been something she is passionate about.

Since becoming director four years ago, Brandenburg has seen multiple staffing shortages at the center. However, Lionheart’s numbers have since improved, preventing a shortage that would warrant a closure of classrooms or the center as a whole.

Located at 2717 Northgate Drive in Iowa City, Lionheart is working to retain more staff members by boosting staff morale, gifting coupon books to staff members at Christmas, offering free coffee, and even giving away tickets to Heartlanders hockey games, Brandenburg said.

However, across Iowa and much of the U.S., many understaffed child care centers are struggling to stay afloat.

According to a survey conducted by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, or NAEYC, 37 percent of centers experienced some form of a staffing shortage while 35 percent were unable to open classrooms in the state of Iowa in 2021.

Missie Forbes, executive director of 4Cs Community Coordinated Child Care, said historically, the child care profession does not pay well due to high turnover and low retention rates of staff members. The average wage reported in the NAEYC survey was between $12.68 and $14.97 per hour for classroom teachers and roughly $19.79 per hour for directors.

According to Forbes, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated this issue to the point where many classrooms in Iowa were forced to close and subsequently struggled to reopen.

“A lot of programs are toeing the line, and one person calling in sick can topple the whole entire structure,” Forbes said.

At Lionheart, Brandenburg has experienced the effects of having many staff members call in sick. To cope with low staff numbers, Brandenburg said she would go into the classroom herself to help out.

Currently, the Johnson County Child Care Wage Enhancement Program, funded by the American Rescue Plan Act, allows qualified staff a wage increase of $2 in an attempt to mitigate high turnover rates. Child care programs can apply for this funding given they meet eligibility requirements.

Brandenburg said in a child care center, there is a certain ratio of staff members to infants and children. Varying in age, there are four babies per staff member at Lionheart.

Iowa Administrative Code 109.8 requires centers to maintain this staff ratio with numbers varying depending on the children’s ages.

“We make sure that depending on how many kids are in the classroom, we have the necessary staff to meet that ratio,” Brandenburg said.

Laurie Nash, youth and family services manager for Johnson County Social Services, said staff retention has been particularly difficult and adds to the pressure of keeping doors open.

“There is a lot of pressure in child care, and it is not as compensated, I think, as other jobs, making it hard to recruit and retain staff,” Nash said.

According to data from the Iowa Association for the Education of Young Children, national turnover rates for child care range from 26 to 40 percent per year.

Nash said the financial challenges to keep a child care center open — including mortgage, rent, and utility payments — never change regardless of staffing numbers.

“When there is frequent staff turnover, there are empty classrooms, and when there are empty classrooms, there is less income coming in,” Nash said.

Brandenburg said staffing impacts the center itself, but it also makes it harder on the individuals who choose to continue working there. Many staff members’ breaks get shortened or they are required to take a later break than normal when a staff member calls in sick, Brandenburg said.

“This can be very daunting because working eight hours a day with eight toddlers, for example, is a lot, and sometimes we don’t have the staff to replace them,” Brandenburg said.

Nash said families are affected by this shortage as well. When there are fewer spots in child care centers, families have fewer choices on where to send their kids.

“They may end up choosing a center that is further away from their home or work, especially for families with infants,” Nash said.

Brandenburg said many families don’t have family members who live nearby that they can rely on, leaving them no other option but to send their kids to a child care center. Brandenburg said this responsibility motivates her to provide the best child care experience possible.

“We want quality people here who want to work here, and this is truly the prime development stage for these children,” Brandenburg said.

Nash said families need reliable child care options that are consistently open.

“Child care is a basic building block of our economy, and if people can’t get to work because they don’t have child care, that is something that needs to be addressed,” Nash said.

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Welcome, Parents and Families

The early years are learning years for young children. In fact 90 percent of the brain develops before the age of five. Thinking of the future, it’s important to choose quality child care and early learning opportunities that are safe and right for your child. IdahoSTARS is here to support you. 

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Itom Ili Tosapo Am Remtituane, or Our Little Nest of Enlightenment Early Childhood Learning Center: A Provider Success Story from Pima County

This January, the Pascua Yaqui Tribe broke ground on a new child care center in Pima County: Itom Ili Tosapo Am Remtituane—Our Little Nest of Enlightenment Early Childhood Learning Center. This project has been decades in the making, fulfilling a community desire since the 1970s to open a tribal child care center.

For years, Yaqui families have needed more child care options. A Head Start program has provided critical services, but the demand for care outweighs the available spots. As a result, some families have turned down jobs to care for their children. Others have been hesitant to pursue outside child care options, preferring to leave their children in the care of grandparents or other family members. But when new funding sources emerged to support child care, like the Arizona Child Care Infrastructure Grant , the Pascua Yaqui Tribe saw an opportunity to bring their vision for a tribal child care center to life.

The community response to the early childhood learning center has been overwhelming. More than 200 people attended the center’s groundbreaking—double the anticipated turnout—and excitement is abuzz on Facebook. Our Little Nest of Enlightenment will not only create more child care options, but it will provide a Yaqui-based education to children, one that is relevant and responsive to community needs.

Augustine Romero, curriculum coordinator, facilitates monthly meetings with community members, parents, and elders to develop an entirely new curriculum that fosters Yaqui identity in children. Community members drive the conversation, deciding which topics to include. It’s a more time-consuming process than purchasing an existing curriculum, but it’s work that will reap rewards for years – passing on Yaqui culture and language to future generations that might otherwise be lost. Augustine calls it “soul work.”  

“We want to nurture five-year-olds as intellectuals who can think and recognize themselves as Yaqui thinkers,” shared Augustine. The tribe hopes to develop trilingual children fluent in Yaqui, Spanish, and English. And the elders leading the curriculum development are recognizing their own gifts, creating a legacy not only for themselves and the Pascua Yaqui tribe but also a new vision for how early education can work. 

A $488,000 infrastructure grant is one of several funding sources supporting the project. The tribe used infrastructure funding to purchase top-quality furniture and learning materials to outfit nine classrooms and program support spaces. Additionally, the tribe purchased technology, including computers and printers, to operate the center. Thomas Cupis, project manager for the early childhood learning center, shared how difficult it can be to find grants that support infrastructure, especially for new providers entering the child care space. Knowing that furniture was covered allowed the tribe to focus other resources on construction, especially as inflation caused project costs to increase. 

Our Little Nest of Enlightenment Early Childhood Learning Center will serve 124 children between 0-6 years old once it opens. But this is just the beginning. The tribe hopes to create an education system that serves infants through college students.

“We hope that one of these children who attends Our Little Nest of Enlightenment will fulfill that goal and create this 0-20 Yaqui-based system,” Augustine remarked.

Arizona Child Care Infrastructure Grant: Pima County Highlights

118 grants awarded  in Pima County totaling $11,160,789

99% of Pima County grantees improved the quality of their care

Pima County grantees created 750+ new child care slots

The  Arizona Child Care Infrastructure Grant  program was funded by the  Arizona Department of Economic Security  (ADES) and  First Things First  (FTF) through Child Care Stabilization Grants appropriated in the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act of 2021.

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Mikhail Mirer, M.D.

• Pediatrics, Neurodevelopmental Disabilities

Where I Practice:

• Pediatrix Neurology of South Florida

Mikhail Mirer, M.D., FAAP, is a board-certified, highly skilled pediatric neurologist with over 20 years of experience. He received his medical degree in 1990 from Moscow Medical Stomatological Institute in Moscow, Russia. Following this, Dr. Mirer completed an OB/GYN internship at Moscow City Hospital #50, his pediatric residency at Brooklyn Hospital Medical Center in New York City and his child neurology fellowship at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, New York. Dr. Mirer is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Education and Training

Professional School: Moscow Medical Stomatology Institute, 1990

Internship: Moscow City Hospital No. 50, 1991

Residency: Brooklyn Hosp-Caledonian Hosp, 1996

Fellowship: Long Island Jewish Medical Ctr, 1999

• American Board of Pediatrics - Pediatrics, Neurodevelopmental Disabilities
• American Board of Pediatrics - Pediatrics

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Pediatrix neurology of south florida at ftl multispecialty clinic.

• 1625 SE 3rd Ave Ste 415
• Fort Lauderdale FL 33316-2521
• 954-678-4437
• 954-764-1501 - Fax

Pediatrix Neurology of South Florida at Boca Raton Town Center

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• Boca Raton FL 33486-1026

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A friendly child care center proud of their children

Everyday care for your children, our philosophy.

Caring for children 9 months to 5 years of age in a play-based culture.

The goal of our childcare service is to provide a peaceful, warm, inclusive, and anti-bias environment for all involved in the program. We recognize children as individuals having their own unique needs.

We will encourage children to express their needs and emotions and to be responsive to them. We will design and implement a strong, rich, and creative emergent curriculum. We will provide an environment for children to succeed in and to gain a good sense of self, self-esteem, self concept and self-worth. This supports growing and learning in all areas of development (social, emotional, physical, and cognitive). The curriculum is full of practice, repetition, discovery and success.

We believe that children are an integral part of a healthy community. It is our mission to create a cohesive bond with parents and community members. We work in partnership to achieve an atmosphere where children are valued and able to reach their optimal development.

Learning Skills

Our curriculum is designed to help children grow in a safe learning-based environment. 

Responsibility

Learning to make decisions and stick by them.

Learning to work and play with others.

Communication

Learning to express themselves and connect with others.

Learning self-control and personal organization

Enquiring Mind

Making learning a lifelong passion

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The Eclipse Chaser

As millions of americans prepare to see a total solar eclipse, a retired astrophysicist known as “mr. eclipse,” discusses the celestial phenomenon..

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email [email protected] with any questions.

Can you hear — Fred, can you hear me?

[DISTORTED SPEECH]:

The internet is a little wonky.

OK. Well, [DISTORTED SPEECH]: Arizona. So the internet speed here isn’t really fast.

I think we’re going to call — yeah, I think we’re going to call you back on a — for the first time in a really long time — a landline.

[PHONE RINGING]

Hey, Fred, it’s Michael Barbaro.

You can hear me OK?

I can hear you.

Perfect. So, Fred, where exactly am I reaching you?

I’m in Portal, Arizona, in a little community called Arizona Sky Village. And it’s a very rural community. So our internet and phone lines are not very good. And the nearest grocery store is 60 miles away.

Wow. And why would you choose to live in such a remote place with such bad internet?

Because the sky is dark. It’s like the sky was a hundred years ago before cities encroached on all of the country. I guess you’d call it an astronomy development. Mainly, amateur astronomers who have built homes here far from city lights for the express purpose of studying the sky.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

So it’s literally a community where once the sun goes down, it’s pitch black. And some, perhaps all of you, are stargazing?

Yes, exactly.

Well, I think I’m beginning to understand why you might have the nickname that you do. Can you just tell our listeners what that nickname is?

My nickname is Mr. Eclipse.

From “The New York Times,” I’m Michael Barbaro. This is “The Daily.” Today’s total solar eclipse will be watched by millions of people across North America, none of them as closely as Fred Espenak, a longtime NASA scientist who’s devoted his entire life to studying, chasing, and popularizing the wonder that is an eclipse.

It’s Monday, April 8.

Fred, help me understand how you become Mr. Eclipse, how you go from being Fred to this seemingly very hard-earned nickname of Mr. Eclipse.

Well, I was visiting my grandparents at their summer home. And it was a partial eclipse of the sun back in the early 1960s. And I was a 10 - or 12-year-old kid. I got my parents to get me a small telescope. And I watched some of the partial phases. And it was really interesting.

And I started reading about eclipses. And I found out that as interesting as a partial eclipse is, a total eclipse is far more interesting. The moon is only 1/400 the diameter of the sun. It’s tiny compared to the sun. But it’s 400 times closer to the Earth. So it’s just this incredible coincidence that the moon and sun appear to be the same size in the sky. And once in a while, the moon passes directly between the Earth and the sun. And you’re plunged into this very strange midday twilight.

But they’re limited to a very small geographic areas to see a total eclipse. And this little book I was studying had a map of the world, showing upcoming paths of total solar eclipses. And I realized that one was passing through North America about 600 miles from where I lived. And that eclipse was in 1970.

And I was reading about this in 1963, 1964. And I made a promise to myself that I was going to get to that eclipse in 1970 to see it because I thought it was a one chance in a lifetime to see a total eclipse of the sun.

So just to be very clear, you see a partial eclipse, and you immediately think to yourself, that was fine. But I need the real thing. I need a full eclipse. And you happen to find out, around this time, that a real eclipse is coming but in seven years.

Right. I mean, there were other eclipses between that time and seven years in the future. But they were in other parts of the world. And I couldn’t buy an airplane ticket and fly to Europe or Australia.

And by 1970, I’d been waiting for this. And by this point, I had just gotten a driver’s license. And I convinced my parents to let me drive the car 600 miles to get down into the path of totality to see this great event.

Wow. Wait, from where to where?

From Staten Island, New York, down to a little town in North Carolina.

How did you convince your parents to let you do that? I mean, that’s —

Well, I had seven years to work on it.

[LAUGHS]: Right.

And I was just a nerdy kid. I didn’t get into trouble. I was interested in science. I was out in the woods, studying frogs and wildlife and stuff. So this was just a natural progression of the type of things I would normally do.

Right. OK. So I wonder if you can describe this journey you end up taking from Staten Island. How does the trip unfold as you’re headed on this 600 mile?

So, I think, on March 6, 1970, it was a Friday. My friend and I left to drive to the eclipse path. We probably got on the road probably at 5:00 AM because it was going to be a very long day.

And we’ve got a detailed map in the car, which I’ve plotted the eclipse path on. And we’re just trying to get far enough south to get into the path of the eclipse, which for us is easternmost Virginia or Eastern North Carolina. And I drive and drive and drive all day long. Very long day.

We get down to North Carolina right about maybe 6:00 PM. And we just see this little town in North Carolina that we’re driving through. And it happens to have a convenient motel right in the center of the path. And that was good enough. Got a room available. And we check in. And that’s where we’re going to watch the eclipse from.

And the next morning was eclipse day. It was a bright, crisp, sunny morning. There weren’t any clouds at all in the sky. And I was amazed that outside the back of the motel, in this grassy field, there were dozens and dozens of people with telescopes out there, specifically there for the eclipse that morning.

We were really excited about this. We set up our — my telescope. And we had another camera set up to watch it. And we walked around and marveled at some of the other people and their telescopes and discussed the eclipse with them. And the eclipse started probably around noon or 1:00 in the afternoon.

Describe the actual event itself, the eclipse. How did it begin?

Well, all solar eclipses begin as a partial eclipse. And the sun is gradually covered by the moon as the moon takes larger and larger pieces out of the sun, as it slowly crawls across the sun’s surface. And you don’t really notice much going on with a naked eye.

It’s really only in the last 10 minutes or so that you start to notice changes in the environment because now enough of the sun has been covered, upwards of maybe 90 percent of the sun. And you start to notice the temperature falling. There’s a chill in the air.

Also, since so much of the sun is covered, the daylight starts to take on an anemic quality. It’s weak. The sun is still too bright to look at. But the surroundings, the environment is not as bright as it was a half hour earlier.

You start to notice animals reacting to the dwindling sunlight. They start acting like it’s sunset. And they start performing some of their evening rituals, like birds roosting, perhaps calling their evening songs. And plants start closing up and the dropping sunlight. And then the dropping temperatures.

And there’s an acceleration now of all these effects. The temperature drop, the drop in the sunlight, it starts happening faster and faster and getting darker and darker. And maybe about a minute before the total eclipse began, we noticed strange patterns on the ground beneath us, on the grassy field that we were on — these ripples racing across the field. And these are something called shadow bands.

They look a lot like the rippling patterns that you would see on the bottom of a swimming pool, bands of light and dark, and moving very quickly across the ground. The sky is — it’s a dark blue. And it’s getting darker rapidly in this dwindling sunlight. And you go from daylight to twilight in just 10 or 20 seconds. It’s almost like someone has the hand on the rheostat and turns the house lights down in the theater.

You just see the light just go right down.

And the sky gets dark enough that the corona, the outer atmosphere of the sun, starts emerging from the background sky. This ring or halo of gas that surrounds the sun, and it’s visible around the moon, which is in silhouette against the sun. And along one edge of the moon is this bright bead of sunlight because that’s the last remaining piece of the sun before it becomes total.

And this is the diamond ring effect because you’ve got the ring of the corona and this dazzling jewel along one edge of it. You only get to see this for 10 or 15 seconds — it’s very fleeting — before the moon completely covers the sun’s disk. And totality begins. Suddenly, you’re in this twilight of the moon’s shadow.

And you look around the horizon. And you’re seeing the colors of sunrise or sunset 360 degrees around the horizon because you’re looking out the edge of the moon’s shadow. And looking back up into the sky, the sun is gone now. And you see this black disk of the moon in silhouette surrounded by the sun’s corona.

Maybe this says more about my nature than anything else, but what you’re describing, a little bit, feels like the end of the world.

Well, I think, when you see this all transpire, you can easily understand how people thought this was the end of the world because it seems far outside of the realms of nature. It seems supernatural. So you can see how people panicked that didn’t understand what was going on.

That was not your reaction?

No. I think it’s a sense of belonging — belonging to this incredible universe, both belonging and a humbleness that how minuscule we are. And yet we’re a part of this fantastic cosmic wheel of motion in the solar system. You almost get a three-dimensional sense of the motions of the Earth and the moon around the sun when you see this clockwork displayed right in front of you, this mechanics of the eclipse taking place.

It almost lifts you up off the planet, and you can look back down at the solar system and see how it’s all put together. And you’ve only got to, in that case — in that particular eclipse, it was only 2 and 1/2 minutes to look at this.

Wow. It’s kind of a clock in your head, saying, you don’t have much of this.

You don’t have much of it. And it almost seems like time stops.

And at the same time, all of a sudden, the eclipse is over. Those 2 minutes just raced by. And it’s over. All of a sudden, the diamond ring forms again on the opposite side of the moon, as the sun starts to become uncovered at the end of totality. And the diamond ring appears. It grows incredibly bright in just a few seconds. And you can’t look at it anymore. It’s too bright. You’ve got to put your filters back on and cover your telescope with a solar filter so it doesn’t get damaged. And you’re trembling because of this event.

Everybody was cheering and shouting and yelling. I mean, you would have thought you were at a sports game, and the home team just scored a touchdown. Just everybody screaming at the top of their lungs. And I immediately started thinking that this can’t be a once in a lifetime experience. I’ve got to see this again.

We’ll be right back.

OK. So, Fred, it’s the early 1970s. And you are not Mr. Eclipse yet. You’re just a kid who felt something very big when you watched an eclipse. So how did you end up becoming the premier authority that you now are on eclipses?

Well, after that 1970 eclipse, I started looking into upcoming solar eclipses so I could get a chance to see the sun’s corona again. And the next total eclipse was in Eastern Canada in July of 1972. And I started thinking about that eclipse. And by then, I was going to be in college.

And I started planning because that one was still something I could drive to. It was 1,200 miles instead of 600 miles.

So the summer of 1972 rolls around. And I drove up to the eclipse in Quebec to see totality and was unfortunately clouded out of the eclipse. I saw some of the partial phases. But clouds moved in and obscured the sun for that view of the sun’s corona.

You were robbed.

I was robbed. And I realized, well, I’ve got to expand my outlook on what’s an acceptable distance to travel to see a total eclipse because the next total eclipse then, in 1973, was through the Sahara Desert in Northern Africa. So I traveled to the Sahara desert for the eclipse, where we had decent weather, not perfect but decent weather. And we got to see totality there.

You saw totality in the desert?

In the desert. In the Sahara Desert. After that, it was just trying to get to every total eclipse I possibly could get to.

At this point, you’re clearly starting to become an eclipse chaser. And I don’t even know if such a thing existed at that moment.

Yeah. I don’t know if it was called that then, but certainly, yeah.

And if you’ll permit me a question that might seem maybe dopey to someone in your field, after you’ve seen one or two or three of these, do they start to blend in together and become a little bit the same?

Not at all. Each one is distinctly different. The sun itself is dramatically different. The sun’s corona is different at each eclipse because the corona is a product of the sun’s magnetic field. And that magnetic field is changing every day. So the details, the fine structure in the sun’s corona is always different. So every eclipse is dramatically different. The appearance of the sun’s corona.

Right. If you look at one Renoir, it’s not the same as the next one. You’re describing the corona of each eclipse as its own work of art, basically.

Exactly. Yeah.

So as you’re chasing these eclipses around the world, what is the place of an eclipse in your day-to-day academic studies and, soon enough, your professional work?

So I went to grad school at University of Toledo and did some work at Kitt Peak National Observatory, learning the ins and outs of photometric photometry — that is, measuring the brightness of stars. And eventually, this led to a job opening at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

And I got interested in the idea of predicting eclipses and started studying the mathematics of how to do this. And I took it over unofficially and started publishing these technical maps and details. And we published about a dozen books through NASA on upcoming eclipses. People would just write me a letter and say they wanted a copy of the eclipse bulletin for such and such an eclipse. And I would stuff it in an envelope and mail it to them.

So you take it upon yourself to make sure that everyone is going to know when the next eclipse is coming?

And no doubt, during this period, you keep going to each and every eclipse. And I wonder which of them stand out to you.

Well, I’ve seen total eclipses from Australia, from Africa, from the Altiplanos in Bolivia, from the ice sheet on the coast of Antarctica, and even from Northern China, on the edge of the Gobi Desert. But one of the most notable eclipses for me was I traveled to India to see a 41-second eclipse, which was very short. And besides seeing a great eclipse in India, I also met my future wife there. She was on the same trip.

I have to hear that story.

Well, she had been trying to see a total eclipse for about 25 years.

She tried to see the 1970 eclipse. But her friends who were going to drive down from Pennsylvania down to North Carolina talked her out of it at the 11th hour.

They talked her out of seeing the same eclipse that was your first total eclipse that was so important to you?

Yes. And they talked her out of it because from Pennsylvania, they were going to have maybe a 90 percent eclipse. They didn’t know any better. They thought that was good enough. And she regretted that decision.

So then she said, OK, well, I’ve got to get to the next total eclipse, which was in Quebec in 1972, the same one that was my second eclipse. And we were probably within five miles of each other in Quebec. And we were both clouded out. Then she was married. She was raising kids. She got busy with domestic life for 20 years. She became a widow.

So now, 1995, there’s this 41-second eclipse in India that is very difficult to get to. It’s halfway around the world. But she’s still itching to see a total eclipse. And we joined the same expedition, a travel group, of 30 eclipse chasers and end up in India for the eclipse. And we have fantastic weather. It’s perfect.

She was in tears after totality. She had been waiting so long to see it. And we struck up a friendship on that trip. By the time the 1998 eclipse was taking place in the Caribbean, at that point, we were together. That was our first eclipse to observe as a couple. I think our wedding cake had a big eclipse on the top of the cake.

[LAUGHS]: Perfect.

We made a music CD for the wedding that we played during the reception. And of course, all the music on the CD had sun and moon themes to it.

Nothing I can say, a total eclipse of the heart

Of course, we had “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” It was a must-have.

Had to. Had to.

It strikes me, Fred, that eclipses are such an organizing principle in your life. Your life seems to literally orbit around them. When you were a kid, you started planning for them years in advance. This work becomes central to your career. It’s how you meet your wife.

And you said, when I asked you, about each eclipse that they’re all different. And obviously, you’re different at each eclipse because time has passed. Your life has changed. And it just feels like your life is being lived in a kind of ongoing conversation with this phenomenon of the sun and the moon overlapping.

Well, the eclipses are like benchmarks that I can use to figure out what else was going on in my life during these times, because I remember the dates of every single eclipse I’ve been to. And if I see a photograph of the solar corona shot during any particular eclipse, I know what eclipse that was. I can recognize the pattern of the corona like a fingerprint.

That’s amazing.

And I the year of the eclipse. It reminds me of when Pat and I got married and between which eclipse we were getting married and had to plan our wedding so it didn’t interfere with any kind of eclipse trips.

And they just serve as benchmarks or markers for the rest of my life of when various eclipses take place. So they’re easy for marking the passage of time.

So we are, of course, talking to you a few days before this year’s eclipse, which I cannot fathom you missing. So where are you planning to watch this total eclipse?

Pat and I are leaving for Mazatlán, Mexico, actually tomorrow. And we’ve got about 80 people joining us down in Mazatlán for this eclipse in our tour group.

And for you, of course, this year’s eclipse is just the latest in a very long line of eclipses. But I think, for the rest of us — and here, I’m thinking about myself — this is really going to be my first total eclipse, at least that I can remember. And for my two little kids, it’s absolutely going to be their first.

And given the hard-earned wisdom that you’ve accumulated in all your decades of chasing eclipses around the world, I wonder if you can give us just a little bit of advice for how to best live inside this very brief window of a total solar eclipse, to make sure, not to be cliche, but that we make it count.

Well, I think one mistake that people tend to make is getting preoccupied with recording everything in their lives, what they had for lunch, what they had for dinner. And seeing the eclipse is something that you want to witness firsthand. Try to be present in seeing the eclipse in the moment of it. So don’t get preoccupied with recording every instant of it.

Sit back and try to take in the entire experience because those several minutes pass by so rapidly. But you’ll replay them in your mind over and over and over again. And you don’t want technology getting between you and that experience. And remember to take your eclipse glasses off when totality begins. Note how dark it gets during totality.

Take the glasses off because?

Well, the glasses protect your eyes from the sun’s bright disk. But when totality begins, the sun’s bright disk is gone. So if you use your solar eclipse glasses to try to look at the corona, you won’t see anything. You’ll just see blackness. You’ve got to remove the eclipse glasses in order to see the corona. And it’s completely safe.

And it’s an incredible sight to behold. But during totality, you just want to look around without the glasses on. And take in the sights. Take in the horizon, 360 degrees, surrounding you with these twilight colors and sunset colors.

You’ll easily be able to see Jupiter and Venus shining on either side of the sun during totality. And look at the details in the sun’s corona, fine, wispy textures, and any possible red prominences hugging against the moon’s disk during totality.

And let’s say it’s now the moment of totality, and you, Mr. Eclipse, can whisper one thing into someone’s ear as they’re watching. What would you say to them?

Enjoy. Just take it all in.

Well, Fred, thank you very much. We really appreciate it.

No, thank you. I hope everybody has some clear sky.

After today, the next total solar eclipse to be visible from the continental United States will occur 20 years from now, in 2044. In other words, you might as well watch today’s.

Here’s what else you need to know today. Israel has fired two officers in connection with the deadly airstrike on aid workers from the World Central Kitchen who were killed last week while delivering food to civilians in Gaza. In a report released on Friday, Israel blamed their deaths on a string of errors made by the military. The airstrike, Israel said, was based on insufficient and incorrect evidence that a passenger traveling with the workers was armed.

Meanwhile, Israel said it withdrew a division of ground troops from Southern Gaza on Sunday, leaving no soldiers actively patrolling the area. The move raises questions about Israel’s strategy as the war drags into its sixth month. In particular, it casts doubt on Israel’s plans to invade Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, an invasion that the United States has asked Israel not to carry out for fear of large-scale civilian casualties.

Today’s episode was produced by Alex Stern and Sydney Harper, with help from Will Reid and Jessica Cheung. It was edited by Devon Taylor; fact-checked by Susan Lee; contains original music by Dan Powell, Marion Lozano, Elisheba Ittoop, and Corey Schreppel; and sound design by Elisheba Ittoop and Dan Powell. It was engineered by Chris Wood. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Anthony Wallace.

[THEME MUSIC]

That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.

• April 11, 2024   •   28:39 The Staggering Success of Trump’s Trial Delay Tactics
• April 10, 2024   •   22:49 Trump’s Abortion Dilemma
• April 9, 2024   •   30:48 How Tesla Planted the Seeds for Its Own Potential Downfall
• April 8, 2024   •   30:28 The Eclipse Chaser
• April 7, 2024 The Sunday Read: ‘What Deathbed Visions Teach Us About Living’
• April 5, 2024   •   29:11 An Engineering Experiment to Cool the Earth
• April 4, 2024   •   32:37 Israel’s Deadly Airstrike on the World Central Kitchen
• April 3, 2024   •   27:42 The Accidental Tax Cutter in Chief
• April 2, 2024   •   29:32 Kids Are Missing School at an Alarming Rate
• April 1, 2024   •   36:14 Ronna McDaniel, TV News and the Trump Problem
• March 29, 2024   •   48:42 Hamas Took Her, and Still Has Her Husband
• March 28, 2024   •   33:40 The Newest Tech Start-Up Billionaire? Donald Trump.

Hosted by Michael Barbaro

Produced by Sydney Harper and Alex Stern

With Will Reid and Jessica Cheung

Edited by Devon Taylor

Original music by Dan Powell ,  Marion Lozano ,  Elisheba Ittoop and Corey Schreppel

Sound Design by Elisheba Ittoop and Dan Powell

Engineered by Chris Wood

Listen and follow The Daily Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music

Today, millions of Americans will have the opportunity to see a rare total solar eclipse.

Fred Espenak, a retired astrophysicist known as Mr. Eclipse, was so blown away by an eclipse he saw as a teenager that he dedicated his life to traveling the world and seeing as many as he could.

Mr. Espenak discusses the eclipses that have punctuated and defined the most important moments in his life, and explains why these celestial phenomena are such a wonder to experience.

On today’s episode

Fred Espenak, a.k.a. “Mr. Eclipse,” a former NASA astrophysicist and lifelong eclipse chaser.

Background reading

A total solar eclipse is coming. Here’s what you need to know.

Millions of people making plans to be in the path of the solar eclipse on Monday are expecting an awe-inspiring. What is that feeling?

The eclipse that ended a war and shook the gods forever.

There are a lot of ways to listen to The Daily. Here’s how.

We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode’s publication. You can find them at the top of the page.

Fact-checking by Susan Lee .

Special thanks to Anthony Wallace.

The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Dan Farrell, Sophia Lanman, Shannon Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Summer Thomad, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez and Brendan Klinkenberg.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Paula Szuchman, Lisa Tobin, Larissa Anderson, Julia Simon, Sofia Milan, Mahima Chablani, Elizabeth Davis-Moorer, Jeffrey Miranda, Renan Borelli, Maddy Masiello, Isabella Anderson and Nina Lassam.

Corey Schreppel leads the technical team that supports all Times audio shows, including “The Daily,” “Hard Fork,” “The Run-Up,” and “Modern Love.” More about Corey Schreppel

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Learning Journey - Belleville IL Day Care Center

Provider status: license not renewed..

About the Provider

Description : LEARNING JOURNEY is a Day Care Center in BELLEVILLE IL, with a maximum capacity of 83 children. This child care center helps with children in the age range of 3Y TO 5Y. The provider does not participate in a subsidized child care program.

• 225 S HIGH ST, 225 S HIGH ST BELLEVILLE IL 62220
• (618) 355-xxxx

Operation Hours

• Days of Operation Monday-Friday

Program and Licensing Details

• License Number: 321042
• Capacity: 83
• Age Range: 3Y TO 5Y
• Enrolled in Subsidized Child Care Program: No
• Current License Issue Date: Mar 02, 2016
• District Office: Department of Children & Family Services
• District Office Phone: (877) 746-0829 (Note: This is not the facility phone number.)

Location Map

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Awesome daycare. Love directors and the teachers-- they really care about the kids and communicate well with parents.

• 225 S HIGH ST, BELLEVILLE IL 62220
• Please be thorough in verifying the quality of this child care provider, and be sure to read any reviews and inspection records that can help guide you to an informed decision. You want to be confident your child is in good hands.
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• If you notice any inaccurate information on this page, please let us know so we can correct. Report Incorrect Information
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