Child Care ClassesHaving child care policies and procedures on how your daycare is run helps everyone. Having written, signed policies can also help protect you and the children and staff in your center. Parents can know what to expect from you and your staff, while staff can count on polices to help them deal with daily issues, such as handling disciplinary actions, cleaning and sanitizing procedures, health and medical situations, and feeding.

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Child Care ClassesChild care costs are on the rise. According to the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, Expenditures on Children by Families, a middle-income family with a child born in 2010 could expect to spend about $226,920 ($286,860 if projected inflation costs are factored in) for food, shelter, and other necessities to raise that child over the next 17 years. Expenses for transportation, child care, education, and health care saw the largest percentage increases related to child rearing from 2009-2010.

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Child Care ClassesWhen making a business plan to start a child care business, there are many decisions to consider. One of the first is to decide the ages of children you will serve. A preschool typically accepts children anywhere from about 2 1/2 to age 5 or 6 (pre-kindergarten). A daycare may accept infants as young as 6-8 weeks old and still keep children until the pre-kindergarten ages.  Some care facilities may also offer after school services for elementary-aged children.

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Child Care ClassesWe’ve rung in another new year, and this is often a time to consider the future, make fresh starts, or improve our current situation. In our current economic climate, job security and advancement are often on the minds of many. But, working on new skills and training for a new position can be tough in already busy lives.

  • If a career in child care is something you would like to pursue…
  • If you’d like to increase your skills and education in child care to become a Child Development Associate (CDA)…
  • If you’d like to work toward becoming a daycare director…
  • If you need to train your child care staff…

consider Extension Online child care courses.

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Child Care ClassesChild care safety is an important issue because young children explore their world with all their senses, including touching and mouthing anything within their reach. For this reason, it is very important to remove any potential hazards within their reach.

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Child Care ClassesEarly childhood programs must make sure they are doing everything they can to prevent and control the spread of illness and infection. Illness can be controlled by limiting the way pathogens (germs, microorganisms like bacteria, viruses, fungi, or parasites) can be transmitted (passed from person to person). The benefits of infection control include, reducing:

  • Child care illness
  • Number of doctor visits
  • Antibiotic use
  • Absences from school
  • Expenses incurred by parents of sick children
  • Cost to parents as employees
  • Cost of lost productivity at workplaces.

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Best Infant Car Seat & Car Seat InstallationFind the best infant car seat and instructions for safe car seat installation at: http://BuckleUp.tamu.edu

This website makes it easy for parents and care givers to find a certified child passenger safety technician in Texas.  A certified child passenger safety technician is someone who has successfully completed a national curriculum designed to teach the correct selection, installation and use of car seats.  At this free website, parents enter their city, county or zip code.  Then the website returns a list of certified child safety seat technicians in their area.  Technicians instruct parents and care givers on correct car seat installation, as well as, make sure that they have the correct seat for their child’s age, weight and physical development.

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Child Care ClassesChild care classes are important for Texas licensing, but they are also important because busy, working parents are looking for qualified child care providers to supervise, educate, and nurture their children. But, how do parents know which facility to choose? Many parents will go to great lengths to investigate their child care options. As a director or provider of child care, whether you are an in-home or daycare facility, you need to be the type of person and place that parents are seeking. This means being an individual educated in the nurture, safety, and developmental stages of children, and the design and set-up of a facility or home that appeals to parents and children alike. This also means having trained, qualified staff.

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Child Care GamesChild care games, as well as, “play” is very valuable in child care. Play is children’s “work.” Parents may worry that learning only happens with “seat work” style lessons. You can reassure them that child care games and play are an important part of their child’s day and that your job is to guide children’s learning through play.  Play is not only an outlet for fun and physical activity, but also as a learning tool. Children learn from play – motor skills, grouping and classifying objects, understanding order of events, concepts such as hard and soft, problem solving, making sense of the world around them, and about the world in new ways, such as through pretending to be someone else. Playing with others helps children learn language skills and cooperation, as well.

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Infant child careInfant child care research indicates that the first three years of life are critical for physical, social-emotional, and intellectual development. Infants’ experiences early in life literally influence the physical structures of the brain, opening the way for patterns of thought and behavior for the rest of a child’s life. Social emotional development begins at birth and continues throughout life, providing a foundation for meaningful relationships and learning. Infant child care can have a great influence on what infants see, hear, touch, taste, feel, and smell while children are in their care. Healthy relationships with caregivers  allows for optimal social emotional development to occur.

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