tips

W hoa! Where did you hear that?

If your child uses a bad word at home, he or she may well have heard it from you. If you needed a reason to clean up your language, now you have a very powerful one!

On the other hand, there are a few reasons why it may not be completely your fault. For example:

Technology is quickly making parental controls a thing of the past. For example, the “best” clips from TV shows are: a) usually the “worst” for kids and b) usually available on YouTube. Parental controls are not perfect and let’s face it, these days it seems like children are born knowing how to circumvent them. Think for a second about what you were playing with when you were a kid. Well, your kid is playing with your smartphone. Go figure.

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Did you know that there is a 75-90% misuse rate for car seats? With statistics that high, the odds are that you are making at least one mistake that could compromise the safety of your child during a car accident.  This week marks Child Passenger Safety week, so we would like to share 8 car seat safety tips that you can use.

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So you’ve gotten through daycare and preschool, now what? Kindergarten can be a big transition for your little one, especially if they are going from a private child care center to a public school. They are leaving everyone that has become familiar behind, and have to learn how to cope with the higher demands that come along with being a kindergartener. The following tips for transitioning from preschool to kindergarten will help you as a parent in guiding your child along the way:

If you were an insufferable goodie-two shoes as I was as a girl, you would have given anything to be allowed in the room at this hallowed tete-a-tete to hear yourself heaped with laurels and praise by your admiring teacher and proudly and whole-heartedly endorsed by your modest parents.

But as a mom, praise (while lovely) is not really what you are there for. Here are some tips I received from friends as I prepared for my first parent teacher conference.

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As much as we try to protect our children, studies show that more than half of children will experience bullying at some point in their lives. Bullying can take place as early as preschool. To protect your child, learn to recognize signs of bullying and the steps you can undertake to prevent your child from being bullied again.

Recognize the signs of a bullied preschooler:

• Sudden unexplained fear of going to preschool
• Being withdrawn or depressed
• Coming home with unexplained injuries
• Complaining about another child (or other children) doing or saying mean things
• Avoiding eye contact when asked about preschool and seeming embarrassed or ashamed
• Complaining of headaches and/or stomachaches when they are not sick
• Being clingy and whiny when dropped off at preschool

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O

ne of the things I’ve learned in my years of working at a preschool and having my own as well as clients’ kids go to preschools is that many children do not sleep well in a daycare or preschool.  The last thing you want is to be away from your child for hours and then have to pick up a cranky overtired kid. Plus, if they do not sleep well during the day, they are more likely to sleep poorly at night. There are several ways to help your child sleep better and to help your child care provider help your child sleep better so you can pick up a happy, well-rested camper!

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aycare and preschool are great learning environments for children, not only to learn hard skills like math, reading and writing, but also soft skills like patience, communication, and teamwork. While socializing and interacting with others is critical for young children, being surrounded by other kids also means that your little one may pick up a bad habit or two. Nose picking, biting, and loud ear-splitting shrieking is not something you hope they’d learn, but it could happen. So be prepared and learn how to help your child break these bad habits.

1. Nose Picking. EWWW!
Nose picking is embarrassing but resist the urge to say anything negative. Most children pick their nose because they are bored, curious, or trying to relieve stress. Often times it is an unconscious habit. Children may also pick their nose because they have an excess of mucus and it “feels like something is stuck up there.”

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T

he first time I dropped my son off at day care, I was split between two distinct emotions. 1) the guilt/sadness that surrounds handing your beautiful baby over to another for the first time and 2) the unabashed giddiness that came on like a rush of free-time to the brain.  What was I going to do with all these baby-free hours?  I had work and errands naturally but all of those had previously been juggled with a baby on the hip, in the car, in the shopping cart.  I smelt freedom!

Fast-forward two weeks and somebody had clearly been up to something sneaky with the time-space continuum.  What had previously seemed like a huge block of free time had become mere minutes.  Nine to five had compressed itself into the space of one read through the email, a load of laundry and a conference call.  Maybe I ate a granola bar for lunch in there somewhere.  How could it be so!

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W

e recently wrote a post about questions you should ask your daycare to decrease your child’s chance of catching a bug this season. We got a lot of positive feedback from parents so we decided to come up with a list of things you can do at home to protect yourself and your family. After all, kids don’t just get sick at daycare, they can also catch a bug at home! Also, the 5 steps listed below not only apply to your children, but to parents as well, so make sure you implement these too 🙂

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We’ve had a pretty warm fall, but as the temperature drops, it’s time to prepare for the start of the cold and flu season. For parents with children enrolled in a child care facility, the big question is: are my kids safe with all the germs in daycare?

Here’s the truth: