Bona Vista's Child Care Solutions

In the frenzy of the holidays, it's easy to overlook safety hazards. But while you're busy wrapping the presents and trimming the tree, it's important to keep your little ones safety in mind.

You already know that toddlers will put anything in their mouths from dog food to Christmas candy. With this in mind you must be extra careful about the decorations that you set out when there is a toddler in the house. A simple bowl of potpourri, a dish of hard candy, or a present decorated with a tiny bell can become a choking hazard for a little one. An easy way to check to see if something is a potential choking hazard is to try and drop it through a toilet paper tube. If it can fall through consider it a hazard and keep it out of little one’s reach.

When wrapping presents little ones love to help, and with close supervision this can be lots of fun. However, clean up carefully after wrapping presents. Young toddlers love scrap pieces of tape, ribbon, and wrapping paper (especially shiny foil papers) and could choke on them. Be careful to clean up your tools as well because, you don't want your child getting his or her hands on scissors and other sharp tools used to cut paper and ribbon. Even the edge on a tape dispenser is sharp enough to cut little fingers.

Stringing lights is a beautiful holiday tradition that requires a few tweaks for safety when little ones are in the house. Sparkling lights are highly attractive to little ones, but they can easily become entangled in them leading to cuts, abrasions, and possibly even strangulation. So if possible keep lights up out of children’s reach or carefully supervise children around the lights. There has also been concern in recent years about lead at the solder joint of Christmas tree lights. While it is true there are trace amounts of lead this is not something to panic about. To keep your children safe do not let them chew on lights (a good idea anyway) and have everyone wash their hands after handling them.

A final concern is holiday plants. They are beautiful and festive but some can be toxic. Your best bet is to talk to your local nursery about which plants are safe to have in the house around small children.

FAMILY CHILD CARE PROVIDERS...Don't miss this opportunity!

Up to 90 hours of family child care training IN YOUR OWN HOME!!!

REGISTER BY December 12, 2010

NAFCC is offering 2 online family child care training courses. Each course is worth 45 clock hours. Both classes are stand-alone and may be taken one at a time or at the same time.

Teaching and Learning in Family Child Care
· Explore the unique relationships that define the family child care environment
· Learn strategies for addressing guidance issues
· Discover the purpose of play and how to provide developmental learning activities that will keep your kids and parents excited about your program
· Grasp the professional and business practices that will help make your business a success

Creating Safe and Healthy Family Child Care Environments
· Understand how to arrange your home to facilitate positive learning experiences
· Learn what materials and equipment are developmentally appropriate
· Examine the health and safety concerns that are particular to the family child care environment

4.5 CEUs are available for the completion of each course and must be purchased at time of registration.

Courses begin January 10, 2011 and end May 6, 2011.

NAFCC Members
Course $150.00 (PER COURSE)
CEUs $50.00 (PER COURSE)
Non-Members
Course $200.00 (PER COURSE)
CEUs $50.00 (PER COURSE)

For several semesters, NAFCC, partnering with Salt Lake Community College, has offered Introduction to Family Child Care as a 45-hour online training course. If you completed NAFCC's "Introduction to Family Child Care" online course you have completed the curriculum that is covered in "Teaching and Learning in Family Child Care" and "Creating Safe and Healthy Family Child Care Environments"

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REGISTER HERE by 12/12/2010

Questions?-Contact us at training@nafcc.org or call 801-886-2322 ext. 335

More Information

Both classes are stand-alone and may be taken one at a time or at the same time. Each class will be considered complete based on its own merits. These two classes present a solid foundation for family child care providers new to the field and a best practices in family child care refresher training for experienced providers.

Teaching and Learning in Family Child Care

Materials included in this class are based on the NAFCC Quality Standards for Accreditation content areas of Relationships, Developmental Learning Activities, and Professional and Business Practices. It examines all of the relationships that make up the family child care environment including those between the provider and children, the children together, and the special relationship that exists between the provider and the client families. It also addresses the professional relationships that are part of family child care and explores the unique aspects of operating a family child care business. This class offers 10 lessons specifically targeted to providing developmental learning activities in a family child care environment including all domains of learning, information that reinforces the importance of scheduling and of providing a balance of both provider and child-directed activities, and strategies for addressing guidance issues.

Creating Safe and Healthy Family Child Care Environments

Materials included in this class are based on the NAFCC Quality Standards for Accreditation content areas of The Environment and Safety and Health. This class examines topics including home arrangement, materials, and equipment for the family child care program. It also addresses specific areas of concern regarding the safety and health of young children in group care settings. Creating Safe and Healthy Family Child Care Environments explores topics including minimizing disease in the family child care environment, planning and preparing food for young children, keeping children safe, and ensuring that the family child care environment is inspected for both health and safety concerns.

Requirements

There are no regularly scheduled class meetings: participants will learn where and when they choose within the time frame of the course schedule. Assignment due dates are included and will be adhered to during the course. Included are printable lecture notes, engaging discussion groups, weekly individual and group assignments, and links to additional material. This is an introductory course; there are no prerequisites.

With August just around the corner, many teachers are gearing up to restart preschool curriculums that they have let slide over the summer months. This is the perfect time to do a quick check to make sure that your curriculum is meeting the educational needs of your little ones, particularly two-year-olds. All too often two-year-olds are roped into participating in full preschool programs which they are not ready for. Two-year-olds are still mentally toddlers, in that they learn primarily through repetitive use of senses. When you try and force preschool style learning on two year old brains the results can be explosive, resulting in incidents of biting, tantrums, regression, and other challenging behaviors. So what should a curriculum for two-year-olds involve? Here are some quick learning experiences for two-year-olds that should be incorporated into any developmentally appropriate curriculum

• Daily reading experiences that include interaction with book through turn taking, finger plays, and re-enacting stories
• Comparing differences in size
• Frequent conversations about diversity that recognize differences in a positive way
• Simple sorting experiences such as sorting item by color or size
• Exposure to the natural world with an emphasis on caring for items in nature such as watering flowers or feeding birds
• Daily physical exercise that allows for jumping, throwing, crawling, tumbling, and yelling to allow children to explore their body’s strengths and challenges
• Simple science experiments that encourage questions

1. For example placing ice in a sensory table with water, hammers, sponges to explore melting
   

• Large blocks of uninterrupted play with toys that promote early learning such as

1. Dramatic play toys that allow children to recreate scenes that relate to real life
2. Block sets that include different sizes and shapes of blocks
3. Matching games
4. Art materials that are open-ended or are not focused on an end result but rather focused on learning how to hold tools and be creative
5. Quiet area that allows for reading and snuggling
   

Do you have questions about which medicine you should give to your child for his or her cold and cough? Are you concerned about all of the new recommendations for over-the-counter medications? Here is an opportunity for you to learn more about the current recommendations for free, from the comfort of your own home. This information is taken from the Capitol Connection, provided by the National Association for Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies.

Free Webinar on "Over-the Counter" Medicine

Child Care Aware Parent Network will be hosting a free webinar entitled "What Parents Need to Know About Over-the-Counter Medicine." The webinar will focus the latest recommendations surrounding over-the-counter oral cough and cold medicines for children and what parents need to know and look for when reading medicine labels to keep their children safe. Mimi Pappas, director of communications and outreach for Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA) will be the presenter. The webinar is scheduled for Wednesday, July 28 at 8:00 p.m. EST. To register for the webinar, click here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/858909043

As parents, you watch your children go through many firsts. From rolling over, to crawling, to walking, each milestone is cause for celebration. There is perhaps one major milestone that is celebrated above all others. The milestone that frees parents from diaper duty is being potty trained. When your child learns to independently and reliably take care of his or her own bathroom needs, it is a wonderful day of celebration because the road to this independence can be tricky.

Both pushing your child before he or she is ready or ignoring signs of readiness and waiting too long to start potty training can result in a difficult potty training experience. So how do you know when to start? While there is no one age that is the “perfect age” to start potty training, there are specific indicators of readiness that you can watch for in your child that signal he or she is ready for potty training. Signs to watch for include:

• Your child can hold his or her bladder or bowels for one to two hours at a time. This is essential to potty training success because children must be physically ready before you start.

• Your child is able to pull his or her pants on and off with little or no assistance.

• Your child is interested in bathroom experiences. This often presents itself in frustrating ways, for example if your little one is constantly flushing things down the toilet or watching you in the restroom, this is a sign of potty training readiness.

• Your child tells you when he or she is wet or has had a bowel movement. When children recognize that their diaper needs to be changed, this is a wonderful indicator of readiness.

• Your child can sit without support for five to ten minutes. It is possible to work with a child, who for developmental reasons does, not have the strength to sit unaided for up to ten minutes, but it can be challenging, and often requires additional assistance. If your child is showing other signs of readiness but may not have the physical strength or coordination to potty train, this may be a sign your child would benefit from additional support. Bona Vista has free developmental screenings, during which you can find out if your child does need extra help building muscle strength and developing coordination. Call 765-454-5340 to schedule an appointment.

If you read the list and have recognized the signals in your little on then it is time to start. Remember you always want potty training to be a positive experience. Let your child pick out a potty seat, celebrate any success, and be understanding of accidents. When you become frustrated because of a lack of progress or other accidents, do not punish your child. Punishing a child because of accidents can actually cause them to regress or lose the potty training progress they have made due to fear. Take a deep breath and remember: after all it is just poop.

If you are struggling with potty training challenges and would like free help call Bona Vista's Child Care Solutions to speak with a potty training expert 765-452-8870 or 1-800-493-3231.

Listed below are the training offerings for June 2010 through Child Care Solutions. Please contact us at 765-452-8870 or 1-800-493-3231 for more information or to sign up for a training. We look forward to seeing you soon!

SPEAK YOUR MIND!

Rate your community’s implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act!

People with disabilities, their family members, and their advocates are invited to complete the 2010 ADA POLL, a survey about how Indiana communities are doing with implementation of the ADA. It’s important that your voices are heard when accessibility and discrimination issues are being addressed in your community! So don’t delay – let us know what you have to say!

The 2010 ADA POLL is available online at: www.ThePollingPlace.org.

It is also available in alternative formats – see below

The ADA has been in effect since 1990 - nearly 20 years have passed for communities to remove physical, programmatic, and attitudinal barriers that prevent people with disabilities from becoming active participating citizens. Progress has been made, but there is still need for further compliance. The 2010 ADA POLL asks Indiana citizens to identify how they view current implementation of the ADA in their own communities. Here is your opportunity to provide opinions and ideas about where to improve accessibility!

The results of the 2010 ADA POLL will be used to "grade" your community +on its response to the ADA and will become a tool to educate policy makers, administrators, and the general public about the ADA. We hope that you will join us in this effort to learn more about community responses to the ADA.

To request the survey form in an alternative format, or for additional information, contact Dr. Vicki Pappas by phone: 1-800-825-4733 or e-mail: beheard@indiana.edu.

The 2010 ADA POLL is being conducted by the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community, in conjunction with the Governor’s Council for People with Disabilities, Indiana Protection and Advocacy Services, and the Great Lakes ADA Center.

Information provided by

Joel F. Fosha, Manager

Office of Marketing and Public Relations

Indiana Institute on Disability and Community

On April 24, 2010 Child Care Solutions was thrilled to host our first Director’s Retreat. This full-day retreat consisted of five hours of training, a director’s network meeting, and some surprise pampering. The Director’s retreat was the first event of its kind in the area; an opportunity for child care directors to come together and learn, not only alongside one another, but also from one another. Here is a sampling of what director’s had to say about the experience:

“This was a blast and I needed it so bad! I don’t feel like I’m in this alone.”

“It was valuable to talk with other directors and share ideas.”

“This was an amazing opportunity to network, relax, and rejuvenate! Thank you Child Care Solutions!”

“It was so refreshing to have help on administration issues.”

“I am going to go back to work feeling rejuvenated, and with ideas on help my staff to feel good. This is great.”

Based upon the feedback we received, directors can look forward to more retreats in the future covering issues such as: staff management, time management, strategic planning, and handling challenges with staff and families. Watch your mail for more information on director network meetings and the next Director’s retreat.