Keeping the children in your care safe is a constant concern. The Head Start Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center has created a tip sheet for families about safety and injury prevention for young children that offers helpful guidelines for at home, outside, in water and in vehicles. This resource can be a helpful checklist to share with families.

Safety and Injury Prevention Tip Sheet

 

Mother helping daughter (2yrs) put on coat

Stephanie Mckinstry from My Caterpillar Clubhouse, a Certified Nature Explore Classroom,  shares how she incorporating books and images of nature into her program. Listen below for her tips.

 

Research shows the importance of providing children with many language opportunities, including talking, reading, and singing. This tip sheet, created by the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services in partnership with Too Small to Fail, gives excellent practical tips on facilitating a rich conversation with preschool children, including using questions, expanding the child’s words, and interactive reading!

Tips for language rich -Preschool

 

Family child care provider Melody Robinson shares the following information on a tip sheet for parents when their child is ready to start learning to use the toilet.  She has found that sharing this information has helped parents support their child’s success in her family child care and also when the child is at home.

 

Helpful Tips for Potty Training for Parents

This list of do’s and don’ts will help you and your child to be more successful at potty training. This is a new learning experience for your child, and you can make it less stressful for them by being patient. They will learn the necessary bathroom skills.

Potty Training Reminders:

No belts

No suspenders or overalls

No onesies t-shirts

No body shirts

No hard to unsnap clothing

(These items hamper the child’s success at potty training)

Potty Training Do’s

Wear only pants with elastic waist

Wear easy to lift or pull down clothing

Wear pull-ups, velcro diapers, or panties with rubber covering in case of accidents

PLEASE SEND EXTRA CLOTHING IN CASE OF ACCIDENTS

This tip sheet from Illinois Early Learning offers information and insights about why children express separation anxiety and how it is a typical developmental behavior.  There are also helpful suggestions for how to ease anxiety during separations.  This is a resource that is useful for both child care professionals and families.  Illinois Early Learning is funded by the Illinois State Board of Education and offers many other tip sheets as well as a variety of resources for professionals and families.

crying

Separation Anxiety and Children Tip Sheet