Your Child Care Weekly

This article published by the NAEYC gives tips on how to make you center more pleasant for children and their families. Tips like “decorate walls” and “display photos of children and their families” show that it’s the little things that matter.

Check out these tips to see if there is another little thing that you can do that will make a big difference.

Fine motor skills allow us to coordinate small muscle movements, usually, in coordination with the eyes. This article talks about ways of helping your children develop their motor skills by allowing them to do simple things like: opening and closing containers with lids; cutting with child-safe scissors; using a paintbrush; and playing with play dough. Check it out for more ideas!

July 25-29, the NAEYC is hosting a live event with Dan Gartrell – a guidance expert. He will answer posted questions about juvenile behavioral problems. Click Here to post your question now!

Yesterday the New York Times published an article that spoke about the fact that child care subsidies failed to encourage women to enter the labor force. I thought about the subsidies that we provide here in the USA and wondered if that was true for us too. Is it that our subsidies encourage people with children to work or is our situation is similar to the situation in Norway, they are given another way to beat the system?

In a recent take-a-break post, I showed a video of a child prodigy with tremendous musical ability and lightly posed a question about whether or not the reader had music in his classroom. Well, it turns out that the NAEYC does recommend that teachers integrate music into their activities and curriculum. Here’s a document that they’ve provided that explains both the importance of the presence of music and ways of integrating music.

Kids say that darnest things, don’t they?

Japan has one of the lowest birthrates in the world. In fact, the birth rate is so low that it has begun to cripple Japan’s economy. One of the reasons women are reluctant to have children is that it, more often than not, means that they will have to give up there careers. This is particularly true because of there are not enough daycares there.

I began to wonder, given the current economic climate of the US, would child care providers consider moving to Japan to open child care facilities there? Or any other country for that matter? Would you?

According to The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) a reflective teacher . . .

• examines his or her own reactions to
children or their actions to understand
their source
• is curious about children’s play and watches it closely
• documents details of children’s conversations and activities
• takes time to study notes and photos to
puzzle out what is significant
• eagerly shares stories about children’s
learning with families and co-workers
• asks co-workers and children’s families for
their insights
• reads professional literature to learn more
• shows children photos and stories of themselves to
hear their views
• changes the environment and materials to encourage new play and learning possibilities

Here’s a PDF doc provided by the NAEYC that gives tips on becoming a reflective teacher.