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

Posts tagged ‘Family home daycare’

Preparing Your Family Home Child Care Environment For a Summer of Fun!

Summer is almost here and I want to inspire you to create a summer time environment that you, the children and the parents will love!

Most home providers care for a mixed age group of children and this blog post has been created to give you ideas for children between the age of one to twelve years of age.

Are you ready to discover how to create a summer time environment for the children in your care? Here are five fun and enriching ways to give your family home childcare environment a summer time look:

1. Add a Wading Pool in the Reading Area. This is a great way to create a cool space for reading. Be sure to add some pillow, lots of summer time books and stuffed animals for the young toddlers to hold.

2. In the Dramatic Play area add the following items for pretend play: sunglasses, empty sun tan lotion bottles, swim wear, flip-flops, beach bags, sun hats,etc. If your space is limited, use a large basket or storage container for the items.

3. Add a large beach towel on the floor for block building. Encourage the children to build on or around the beach towel. It will be cool to encourage them to build with sunglasses on!

4. Give your parent bulletin board a summer time look by adding orange paper as a background with yellow border. Also, use sun templates as the heading for menus, lesson plans and parent news.

5. Add boats or  people to your water table for indoor/outdoor water fun! ***To assure a healthy experience, be sure that the children wash their hands before and after water play. If you do not have a water table; use two dish washing pails.

Want more ideas? Be sure to check out the Summer Camp ePlanning Guide!

I look forward to your thoughts about this blog post.

Have a Fun and Safe Summer!

Shiketa Morgan

Category:

Family Child Care, Summer Program

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10 Steps To a Healthier & Safer Child Care Business

As I write this blog post, I reflect on my seven years of experience as a Medical assistant. As a Registered Medical Assistant I learned so much about the causes germs, the effects of sickness and disease.

Most importantly I learned how to stay healthy. I carried that experience into my Child Care Business and I believe mixing the two together has gave me the momentum to build a Quality, Healthy and Safe Child Care Business.

Along with my experience from the medical field, going through the Accreditation process 3-4 times, has inspired me to create a healthy & safe environment for young children.

Now, I am going to share with you (from my experience) 10 steps that you can take to provide a healthier and safe childcare business:

  1. Require that children wash their hands upon arrival
  2. Train your staff to be aware of the health & safety needs of young children in their care. This can be done in weekly memos, mentoring and/or with monthly health & safety meetings.
  3. Create an Illness policy that assures that sick children are not excepted into care and have a plan in place to isolate sick children when they become ill while in your care.
  4. Offer health & safety resources for parents on a regular basis. You are the expert and parents look to you for resources.
  5. Plan health & safety activities in your classroom(s) on a weekly basis. This could include: fire safety, hygiene practices, stranger danger, healthy eating practices, kitchen safety,etc.  Idea: Sing Health & Safety songs,read stories, play healthy games, hang health related posters on the walls.
  6. Conduct a daily or monthly health & safety checklist. Here is a sample Monthly Indoor Checklist
  7. Be sure to train your staff on how to effectively supervise young children. “ Safe Care is Quality care.” Join the How to Effectively Supervise Young Children email list, for more information on child supervision.
  8. Have a procedure in place that assures that your entire program is sanitized at least once a week. This will help to minimize the spread of Germs. Including, sanitizing all toys. * Sanitize mouthed toys daily.
  9. Require that at least 2 staff members (in the home or building) has CPR certification and First aid Training.
  10. If you do not have a first aid kit, create one today. To create your own  first aid kit, you will need: gloves, gauze, band-aids, first aid cream, medical tape, thermometer, splinter remover, ice pack and first aid procedures to refer to. (I may have forgotten some items, but this is a basic first aid kit) Be sure to create a kit for field trips, for your van and to take on the playground. Check out this article on First aid kits. Click here

For more childcare business tips, follow my podcast, facebook page,  twitter and subscribe to my weekly childcare business e-tips. When you subscribe to my weekly e-tips, you will receive the e-Course: “7 steps to Quality care.”

Thanks for all that you do for young children and their families,

Shiketa Morgan

Category:

Child Care Center, Family Child Care, Health/Safety, Quality Care

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