New York SBDC Research Network

On a recent afternoon at the CrossFit gym in Long Island City, Queens, 3-year-old Ella Reznik bounded toward an array of hoops and candy-colored bouncy balls, her ponytail and her mother trailing her. Ella’s brother Adam, 4, padded along nearby on rubber black mats and inspected some metal bars bolted to the wall. The gym’s owner and coach, Michele Kelber, greeted the Rezniks and other children with a series of high-fives and smiles. Soon, class was underway: duck, duck, goose; burpees; and dangling from monkey bars. CrossFit, the hard-core workout regimen, has a growing new demographic to court: preschoolers. As the issue of youth fitness — from obesity to proper exercise regimens — takes on more resonance in schools and communities across the country, CrossFit Kids and other preschool fitness programs are raising questions about when and how children should start playing organized sports or hitting the gym. More from the New York Times .

I love that there is an association for just about everything. The National Association for Sick Child Daycare is one you may not have come across yet. This association has been around for a number of years and supports those running quality childcare services for sick children. With so much in the news about the challenges faced by workers with little or no sick time or single parents who bear the brunt of sick season, the issues are significant and the solutions thin on the ground. "Obstacles exist that hamper the development of needed sick child care programs. There is an absence of providers largely due to lack of information, lack of licensing procedures for sick child care, difficulty getting insurance, and funding challenges. " We have occasionally had requests for clients starting specialized daycare programs and this association offers a number of how-to documents for reasonable prices - most are about $30, with the directory of sick childcare facilities costing quit...