Inspirational and Empowering Child Care Business Owners To Build Successful Child Care Businesses

Posts tagged ‘childcare’

Protect Your Child Care Business With An Activity Disclaimer

Many childcare programs provide a variety of open-ended art projects for the children in care. In fact, many of the activities are very colorful and consists of using materials that could potentially be placed in a child’s mouth once they take it home such as: scraps of paper, glue, stickers, paint, yarn, pom poms,etc.

I know what you may be thinking, “Isn’t the parent  responsible for their child at home?” Exactly, the parent is responsible for the supervision of his or her child at home.

However, what if you send home some art work or a sensory activity that the child decides to ingest and the parents says that you are responsible? How would you handle that situation?

My goal is to get you to think about reducing your liability and think about the art work that is being sent home with the children.

Questions to ask yourself before sending art work home: Is there anything that I’m sending home that could potentially be a choking hazard? Are any of the materials toxic? Should there be a safety note attached to the Sensory Bottle that Reads:( Please do not allow your child to drink this).

A recent experience at my Child Care Center inspired me to send home a disclaimer that informs parents that we are not responsible if a child ingests art materials while in your care.  For disclaimer ideas, I recommend that you seek some legal advice, be sure that your disclaimer supports licensing regulations or even contact your insurance agent. Be sure to add the new disclaimer to your parent handbook.

I look forward to reading your thoughts about this post. Please leave your comments below.

With Safety in Mind,

Shiketa

 

Category:

Activities, Art, Legal Matters, Policies

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An Aha Moment…

A moment of clarity, the aha moment is a defining moment where you gain real wisdom- wisdom you can use to change your life…or Business

 

As I was conducting my weekly classroom observations, a three-year old began to roll a car down my leg and my back. I must say that  I began to feel very relaxed as she rolled the car against my leg and back.

Then I noticed another child sitting next to me  playing with some play-doh and she asked me to smell it. As I sniffed the playdoh, it brought back  childhood memories that I had about playdoh.  In fact, I shared the  Aha moment with  the teacher in the classroom and she was so excited to discover that smell can bring back a simple childhood memory.

After my Aha Moment,I was reminded that smell can trigger a memory and if smell triggers a memory, than sensory play has to be great for a child’s brain development!

Moreover, this is why I believe that  it is important to have materials in the classroom that children can smell and experiment with.

Normally, I would have told the three-year old to only roll the car in the block area, however, I was amazed and soothed by the feeling of the car rolling against my skin. Furthermore, I thought about how children should be encouraged to be creative with how they use the materials, such as rolling cars on their friends; it just may calm down an excessively hyper child.

I shared this Aha moment with you to encourage you to provide more sensory play in your childcare business, because it is a great way to stimulate a child’s brain.

Feel free to share an  Aha moment that you have experienced recently in your childcare business. I look forward to reading your thoughts about this post.

Online Resource:

Smell, Taste and Nutrition: Building Block for Early Learning

 

Shiketa

Category:

childcare, Classrooms, play, preschool

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