So, You're Having a New Baby? Childcare Vs Home Care.

Congratulations by the way. You have a very exciting and joyous time ahead of you.

Now what? Are you going to be a stay-at-home Mom or Dad or are you going to stay at work and keep your career going? or maybe even a combination as many parents are able to work from home.

My advice is pretty obvious. Look at the pro’s and cons of each scenario but one of the difficulties, however, is some parents may not know the pros and cons. For example, is the financial situation an actual gain if you go back to work, comparing work income to expenditure of childcare costs. Yes the thought may cross your mind that if you pay childcare costs out of your work income you may as well be working for nothing. Unless of course you look forward 5 years and then all childcare costs are eliminated if you choose public schooling, and your career is now 5 years more mature.

Another thought might be to go back to work but put your baby in the hands of a cheap home daycare and not a Childcare Center. But bear in mind that the primary carer in a home daycare setting may suddenly go off sick or on vacation, what happens then? There is a probability no cameras are in force and your baby may be at risk of a tired and lonely carer who takes it out on your baby, especially if your baby is fussy, as most babies are. Ask yourself, who will have sight and sound over your baby when the one carer goes to the bathroom or starts cooking up lunch. The same goes if you plump for grandma to stay at your home and look after baby. Questions would be, can they cope, will your relationship with Grandma suffer because she is restricted to caring for a newborn and all the work that is involved with that, (diaper changing, food preparation, playing and nurturing and developing the baby in all the domains of development etc.). Lack of social interaction with other babies would be reduced.

It would be crass of me to suggest that staying home with your baby is the not best solution, of course it is. It may not have the best financial outcome, but you must have already discussed this with the family before deciding to have a baby. So, let’s move forward with the fact you have already decided you want to keep your career on track and want someone to look after your new family member while you continue to advance your career. Lake Mary Childcare has a waiting list for babies going 8 months out so NOW IS THE TIME to choose a place to get onto the waiting list and insure a place for your baby.

The two options I see are home daycare or Grandma or a Childcare Center such as ours, Lake Mary Childcare.

Pros For Home Day Care

Price

Cons for Home Daycare

• Little oversight by State authorities

• Inability to provide care when sick or on vacation

• No assistance from other teachers

• You may have to bring your own formula or food

• Probably no professional developmental assessments

• Risk of lack of care due to no Director oversight

• Probably mixed ages of children that could range from 6 weeks to 5 years

Pros for Childcare Center

• Camera oversight

• Director and Assistant Director assistance for teacher

• State approved curriculum

• Dedicated baby room with NO risk of older children hurting your baby

• More social interaction with other infants and adults

• Formula and food provided

• Ability to either breast feed on site or bring expressed milk that will be stored in fridge (this may be provided by Home Daycare)

• 12hr opening times such as 6.30am to 6.30pm

Cons for Childcare Center

• Price

My advice is to choose a good Childcare Center that is clean, safe and trustworthy, supported by online reviews, state inspections and other parent references. Search online to see state inspections of your possible choice of center.

Lake Mary Childcare Center would be a good choice if you live in or near lake Mary, Florida but we are happy to share advice wherever you live. Just call us.

Are Daycares a baby-sitting service or a place for children to develop?

Daycare centers are more than just places where parents can leave their children while they work or run errands. They are also places where children can learn, grow, and have fun! We don’t particularly like the term “Daycare” for many reasons. It implies a place to drop off your kids and that once the day is over the center forgets about them. Lake Mary Childcare is a Childcare Centre that believes in bringing fun to education and to treat the child and parents as a family.

A good Centre can bring many benefits over just leaving your child with a sitter or a family member. We actually think we can compete with Grandma (sorry grandma) with a great curriculum that provides many benefits for children, such as:

- Socialization: Children can interact with other children of different ages, backgrounds, and abilities. They can make friends, share, cooperate, and learn from each other. They can also develop their communication and social skills, which are essential for their future success.

Actual Class at Lakemary Childcare: Published with kind permission of Parents.

- Education: Children can participate in various activities that stimulate their curiosity and creativity. They can explore different topics, such as art, music, science, math, and literacy. They can also develop their cognitive and motor skills, which are important for their brain development and physical health.

Actual Class at Lakemary Childcare: Published with kind permission of Parents.

- Fun: Children can enjoy themselves in a safe and nurturing environment. They can play games, sing songs, read books, and have fun with toys. They can also express their emotions and feelings in a positive way. They can feel happy, confident, and loved.

In the Playground at Lakemary Childcare: Published with kind permission of Parents.

So, in a nutshell, Childcare Centers are wonderful places where children can thrive and flourish. They are places where children can receive the care, attention, and support they need to grow up healthy and happy. Lake Mary Childcare is a place where children can be themselves and have fun!

Teaching Manners to Young Children

At Lake Mary Childcare we teach manners to children in our care. We don’t deliver the message through formal lessons but reinforce good manners throughout the day, especially at mealtimes.

How often do you go out and about and see children who havent been taught manners. From not saying please or thank you, being rude to others, snatching toys from their friend or pushing in. These are just examples. One thing you cannot do is blame the child. Young children do not have any concept of manners unless we as teachers and as parents show them and explain to them.

Showing young children how to show good manners can easily be done by being a role model yourself. When your child sees you saying please and thank you, being considerate, following rules and patiently keeping in line at the grocery store, your child is paying attention to your behaviour and will follow your lead.

The worse offence a parent can make is cussing out a fellow road user. Yes, the other driver may have been at fault but your child, sitting quietly in the back child seat, is listening to every mannerism and word you make. So, every time you drop the F-Bomb in the car, be assured your child will use that language in another setting, such as their daycare.

Keep your expectations age appropriate. For example, one and even two-year-olds have difficulty in sharing their toys but be patient and just keep explaining that sharing is a good thing. 3 and 4 year olds should be able to share and is not an unreasonable expectation.

Be explicit in explaining to your child that speaking with your mouth full or chewing gum at the dinner table is rude behavior and by using positive reinforcement, by giving praise when good manners are shown, will encourage your child to practice good behaviors.

Start by saying “You don’t get anything by not saying please” and by “saying thank you will really make the other person happy”.

Consistency and consequences (as needed) will show them that you are serious. And it simply may take lots of practice and reminders for proper etiquette to become part of who they are.

VPK Classes

VPK Classes at Lake Mary Childcare are coming to a completion for 2021-2022. All of the children in our class are now “READY FOR SCHOOL”.

How will we know that our students are truly ready for public school? Well, within 13 weeks of the start of Public School, the school system actually assess the children. The assessment is quite sophisticated, so we may go into more depth in a different post. The results are published online, and each Childcare Center, Daycare or Public School are scored for their class.

Lake Mary Childcare is extremely proud to announce that we received a score of 90 for 2021, which given Florida’s previous years overall scores probably puts us into the top 10% of all of Florida’s VPK classes. (including Public School run classes). I’m hoping that we come into the top 5% for Seminole County.

Getting a good score is a great boost to our teacher’s morale and confirmation that our school has the right curriculum and right approach to teaching. One of our mantras is “Learning to Learn” and our approach is to allow the children to discover and enjoy learning. We insist on small numbers of students in a class which allows for positive interactions between Students and Teacher as well as Student to Student.

VPK Students Learning Compound Words.

Lake Mary Child Care Follows Educational Standards

Lake Mary Childcare believe effective educators should provide the best possible learning opportunities for your children. First and foremost, our teachers need to keep up to date with child development theories and educational practices. This involves taking regular courses in different aspects of child development including keeping up to date with the State Early Learning Standards. Teachers must also attend at least 10hrs of in-service training every year.

We support any teacher that wants to progress their own academic education to gain the CDA (Child Development Associate), which is a very demanding credential, to gaining a Directors Credential.

What has this to do with Pre School Educational Standards? Well, it means our teachers are better qualified to effectively implement these standards.

What Are the Standards? The Standards are based four concepts of learning:

Play

Patterns

Cause and Effect

Communication

Play is a child’s work and is important for child development in that children learn Social and Motor skills as well as Cognitive Thinking. Gaining knowledge through play is far more effective than Rote Learning, a handout sheet or boring recitals.

Patterns exist everywhere and children can learn to make sense of the world by observing patterns and shapes as well as listening to music and trying to figure out the patterns in a song. Patterns also help children to understand Math by beginning to understanding numeracy with numbers, shapes and images that repeat themselves. They may also notice patterns in their environment and how they might classify them, helping in problem solving.

Children learn Cause and Effect at an early stage such as crying to get attention or if they drop something it breaks. By helping children to practice observations on Cause-and-Effect children can make a connection between actions and reactions. Building with blocks, mixing paint or experimenting with sinking and floating are all examples of the way we can teach the concept of Cause and Effect.

Children depend on language and teaching communication to make their wants and needs known. Asking questions to solve problems and play with others are important ways to support young children communication and language skills. We do this by setting up a Dramatic Play area in the classroom to engage in imaginative play where communication is practiced. Teachers can introduce vocabulary games, reading story books out loud and having a well-stocked children’s library in the classroom for children to pick out a book of their choice. There are many other ways to help children learn communication and use of language, but these are just examples.

So, by boiling down the actual Child Development Standards, which is a pretty thick book, into four main concepts, it helps teachers focus their lesson plans on Play, Patterns, Cause and Effect and Communication. We say a focused teacher results in a focused child who is learning to learn.

Have fun at home to, practicing these four concepts with your child.

Protect your Infant from SIDS

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is a terrible tragedy for Parents to go through. The health and safety community do not know what causes Sudden Infant Death Syndrome but what we do know is SIDS is the leading cause of death for infants between 1 month and 12 months of age. The most common age group is among infants 2 to 4 months old.

Even though we do not know the precise cause we can, as Parents or caregivers, use safe sleeping practices to reduce the risk of SIDS in infants under the age of 1.

Science tells us the truth that SIDS is NOT caused by:

• Immunizations

• Vomiting or choking

Facts

One in five Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Deaths happens when an infant is being cared for by someone other than a parent. Investigations have determined that although the parent puts the baby to sleep on their backs the caregiver is unaware of the procedure and puts the baby on their tummy to sleep.

“Unaccustomed Tummy Sleeping” increases the risk of SIDS. Babies used to sleeping on their backs then placed on their tummies by a forgetful parent or caregiver are 18 times more likely to die from SIDS.

Reducing the Risk of SIDS

• Always place healthy babies on their backs to sleep. Don’t use wedges to keep the baby in place as there is no evidence that this reduces the risk.

• Consult your doctor if you feel the baby needs to sleep on their back or side and then follow the doctors instructions. Lake Mary Childcare always require a doctors note explaining why the baby needs to sleep on their back or side. You also need to know the time frame for this doctors instruction. For example’ “What is the end date of the doctors instruction?”

• Always, always, instruct a baby sitter or caregiver of the absolute rule of “baby must sleep on their back”. Lake Mary Childcare mandatory rules are that teachers and substitutes must be trained on safe sleeping practices.

• Use safety approved cribs.

• Keep cribs free of toys, stuffed animals and extra bedding such as blankets, crib bumpers and pillows to prevent suffocation if the baby should roll over.

• Place the baby’s feet at the foot of the crib. Clothes such as a baby sleeper that is specifically designed for sleeping babies, is a good way to keep baby warm but not hot. Usually this sleeper has no feet or sleeves. Socks to keep babies feet warm are good too.

• Only sleep 1 baby per crib.

• Keep the temperature of the room comfortable for an adult in light clothing.

• When the baby is awake why not give some tummy time for the baby to exercise and strengthen their muscles and develop normally. This has to be supervised (in case baby falls asleep).

• NO SMOKING IN BABY’S BEDROOM. This practice has been linked to an increase in the risk of SIDS.

By the way, adult beds are not a safe place for babies to sleep.

Finally, have a plan if there is an emergency with your baby.

This is written by a Lake Mary Childcare and shouldn’t be used as a substitute for medical care or advice that is given by medical organizations. There are many resources out there for you to gather information and advice such as from ‘Healthy Childcare America”. Also check out advice given by the American Academy of Pediatrics. 888-227-5409 or just ask your doctor.

10 Emotions of Children and how to respond.

Part One :-

We will cover:

• Happiness

• Distress

• Interest

• Sadness

• Anger

How do you recognize an emotion that your child is showing and what you can do to enhance, protect and teach your child.

Well, we all have emotions which range from Happiness to Anger. As adults we have learned that if we don’t control these emotions bad things can happen such as anger. How many of us have hurt a loved one with an uncontrolled angry outburst. I’m not going to write about therapy here but how Parents can recognize emotions in the young children and teach them about these emotions and what they mean. It will give great comfort to your child.

Research has shown that children who understand their feelings learn how to handle their feelings and do better in many ways such as:

• Forming stronger friendships

• Able to calm down more quickly when upset

• Handling their moods and have fewer negative emotions

• They do better at school

Happiness

Happiness begins at birth. When it happens enjoy it with your child, acknowledge how good it feels to be happy. Make a note on what made them happy. Join in if they want or if they prefer, let them be independent. one careful that this happiness doesn’t lead to bursts of excitement that could put them in danger such as running in the street.

Look for:

• Smiling and giggling

• Eyes wide open and shining

• Energetic joy or looking content

Distress

Sometimes distress is not expressed through crying. it might mean they are hungry, tired, overstimulation, or even gas.

For a baby: Try feeding or changer his diaper. Hold and gently rock, maybe change the way you’re holding her, sing or listen to music or both.

For a toddler: Give comfort with a hug, explain everyone gets upset every now and again and that you love her no matter what she’s feeling, name the feeling so she understands what it is called, encourage her to talk about her feelings

Look for:

• Crying fussy or clingy

• Arching backs

• Covering their eyes

• Wrinkled forehead or pouty lips

Interest

Begins at birth and is a great time for learning.

For a baby: Follow their lead, is it a toy or teddy bear? Bring it closer so they can see and touch it. Use verbal description to teach your baby what it is looking at, like its a blue car or brown teddy, or a bumpy block. be careful though, as babies tend to put everything they reach into their mouths.

For a toddler: Again. follow your childs lead. If they are looking at a book ask questions about the picture and the story, also you should provide a safe area for discovery.

Look For:

• Raised eyebrows

• Open mouth

• Long gazes

Sadness

Begins at birth and children can show sadness in many ways such as crying, withdrawal and becoming quiet. Sometimes the best comfort comes from listening and honoring their feelings.

For a baby: Use a soothing tone of voice is probably the best way to give comfort or you could gently hold and rock them, maybe a car ride or or even just a bottle feed.

For a toddler: being with them and letting them know you love them no matter what they are feeling, tell the that you sometimes get sad too. Use this time to build trust by sharing their feelings and let them know they can come to you whenever they feel sad.

Look for:

• Droopy mouths or pouty lips

• Sniffling

• Eyebrows may come together

• Hanging there heads or slumping

Anger

Begins at birth. Children need you close when they feel angry but don’t force it if they push you away.

For baby: gentle rocking, soft touches, change the activity level either up or down. Make them feel safe by your closeness but if they will not allow holding don’t force it.

For a toddler: Gently stop inappropriate behavior such as hitting, find a quiet corner to chat about it, bring them close to you and try to find out what made them angry. Let them know that being angry is perfectly normal and that you sometimes feel angry too. Let them know the name of the emotion by saying “looks like you’re angry”. If it doesn’t work first time, try again a little later. You can use this occasion to teach whats ok and what is not ok when people get angry.

Look for:

• Eyes wide open and maybe staring ahead

• Bunched eyebrows

• Lips pressed together

• Body may be tense

Please look into our Lake Mary Childcare Blog page next month for Part Two to find out about Surprise, Disgust,, Fear, Embarrassment and Shame.

Working with Art Part 2

How does Working with Art help with a Young Child’s Developmental Growth?

As a follow up to our November post I’d like to say that I have been asked that question many times and it’s not a hard question to answer. Yes academic studies are very important for young children. Lake Mary Childcare prepare our young students for Kindergarten and beyond. So mathematics, reading and writing hold a very important place in our curriculum.

So is art just a diversion and just done for fun? Well, it’s a “Yes” and “Yes” answer. How many of you have been sitting working on a complicated Excel Spreadsheet, preparing a detailed presentation on Powerpoint or getting your figures right for the next quarters budget and getting ‘Mind Stuck”? That excel spreadsheet is just beginning to look like a jumble of numbers mixed in with horizontal and vertical lines but low and behold, take a small diversion and spend a few moments having a little fun, walking maybe, making a cup of tea, whatever it is, when you get back to the spreadsheet it suddenly becomes clear where you made that error in the formula. So diversions and fun activities refresh the mind and consolidate previous study. Lake Mary Childcare’s philosophy is always to learn through fun. It keeps children smiling, motivated and willing to learn.

But there are even more positives for young children working with Art.

The 8 Domains of Learning in our Lesson Plans:

Physical Development: Motor skills are practiced. Here is a young student who is practicing with one hand.

Approaches to Learning: Because art involves creativity children become eager to practice it. Art is a great way to allow curiosity, inventiveness and creativity.

Social and Emotional Development: With the whole class working together as a team to assemble all the paints, brushes and jars of water; team work is experienced.

Language and Literacy: Conversations between the children take place with questions being asked between themselves, for example, “what colors are you using? What are you drawing? They may even give their painting a title or autograph their painting at the bottom, all of which practice building relationships and emergent writing.

Mathematical Thinking: Learning how to create Patterns, Geometry and understanding Spatial Relationships all go to reinforcing mathematical knowledge.

Scientific Enquiry: Exploring how to mix colors in order to create new colors, experiencing effects of time and space on the paper (Paint dries over time, one object must be separated from another to be seen properly) adds to Scientific Knowledge.

Social Studies: This example lesson is about “Giving Kindness”, which will have an obvious positive social impact on the children.

Creative Expression: Children will experience many things including sensory stimulation through feel, color, smell, individual creativity and hopefully an appreciation of the arts.

So you see; Art projects greatly contribute to All the domains of learning for a child to develop into a well balanced child ready for Kindergarten and the world.

These are not stock images but are of actual students of Lake Mary Childcare. Permission by parents has been given for all the class photographs published.

What does a children’s painting activity do for their development?

Is painting just a time filler? Does it allow you to get on with other things while your child paints? What does painting have to do with child development. At Lake Mary Childcare we know the answer.

Why is painting so valuable for children?

Educators have discovered that painting becomes much more than just a simple activity. Painting is a way for children to do many important things: convey ideas, express emotion, use their senses, explore color, explore process and outcomes, and create aesthetically pleasing works and experiences.

It engages the brain which is extremely important for young children.

It is also a great sensory activity, especially when a child dips their finger into the paint and draws with it. It must be deliciously fun to place your whole palm of your hand into a plate of gooey paint and then make a hand print. Not to mention the pleasure of Mom and Dad who will no doubt be putting it into a scrap book and bring it out on their child’s graduation day.

Children can make many connections and ideas of how the painting process works for them, as well as what they enjoy about it. Watch a child painting and you will see a fully engaged child. You can almost see children’s thoughts, such as, “When I push my brush flat, my line gets bigger”, or “I like stirring this, but I don’t want to put it on paper or touch it”, or “I mixed red with more red and orange, and got fire color red!”

“Offer valuable painting experiences” says Penn State University

Painting soothes the mind which is often what is interesting to young children. The pleasant feeling of painting over and over, maybe using two brushes or even with their fingers, is what is important. Why not encourage the interests of the child, not the yourself. Children will become focused on creation and of putting their ideas down on paper. Young children cannot express their ideas in text form yet can do so in painting, and the rewards for the child are immense.

Young children need large pieces of paper (to have full range of motion) as well as a variety of brush sizes to experiment with. You will notice which size or shape brush is best for their conrol. Be careful of how much paint you place in front of them so it dent get too messy. But messy is good too. Dont be afraid. I can guarantee you child will not be scared of smearing paint everywhere or knocking over the water jar. Just plain how when we mix Blue with yellow we magically get green. They will have a field day exploring color mixing.

Painting areas should support the child’s physical abilities. Easels should be at correct height or sturdy platforms added to adjust height. Move chairs from tables to allow children to stand and paint if they wish. Very young children can be held in a lap or sit on the floor with an adult.

When you think your child is ready, a question like, “I see you used red and yellow. What other colors could you use” or “You’ve just painted a green splash just here but what do you want to paint on the other part of the paper” or “would you like to hang up your painting? if you do where? “We could tape it somewhere so everyone can see it, maybe on the fridge door if you like”.

Be inspired!

It is a good idea to teach children how to prepare to paint independently. Encourage children to ask to paint as well as request materials to use. Show your child where they can find painting materials. At Lake Mary Childcare we have dedicated art centers where children can paint on tables or easels. We also have rolls of butcher tape we buy from Sams Club and tape a sheet to the whole light of a table so a whole team of children can paint on it. We have lovely murals 6ft long to display on class walls. Oh… before I forget, teach your child how to clean up and put materials away. Its all part of the developmental process

Important connections

Penn State University states “Painting with young children allows you to see much more than a simple picture. If you observe with careful eyes and ears, you can gain tremendous information about your child. You can share with families what you have discovered and why you feel it is important. You can create enjoyable experiences and support development at the same time; what a masterpiece!”

So, Painting is not just an activity to pass the time its a valuable development tool for young children.

Lake Mary Childcare 3s Class painting a flower bouquet for the class watercolor project

By kind permission of the students parents

Lake Mary Childcare VPK Class painting on a letter L

By kind permission of the students parents

Why Lake Mary Childcare stayed open during Covid 19

Our Front Lobby

Yes, we stayed open but it was a difficult decision. As owners we had to balance the safety of the teachers, the safety of the parents dropping off and picking up and children attending against the fact that Florida deemed daycares as an essential business.

Some parents were still working in vital jobs such as in the City Commissioners Office, Nursing, Banking, Food Supply and Doctors Offices. They needed Childcare in order to perform their important work.

We made a business decision to waive all tuition payments if the Parents had lost their job, been furloughed or had so little hours that it would be impossible to put food on the table or pay the mortgage/Rent. After taking into account who would not be requiring services and who would, we estimated we would lose 80% of our Tuition income.

BUT, we felt it was worth keeping open to not only keep our school afloat but also to offer daycare to those essential workers. Because of the much lower enrollment, we offered our teachers a protected position if they wanted to stay home with their own children for social distancing safety measures. Two took up our offer.

We followed all the State mandated rules on remaining open to which we added our own safety measures, such as parents not being allowed to come past out front lobby and taking the children temperature on entry. We also suspended tours of the center. Masks were issued to the teachers and we did not allow our cook to do the normal weekly shopping but ordered online for delivery to the center.

Now restrictions are being lifted we still intend to keep some of our safety measures in place for the protection our Teachers, Parents and Children.

Slowly but surely our small students are returning and we have reinstated tours for parents looking for Daycare. We have recently enrolled 3 families and are approaching our centers capacity and will need to add to our waiting list that was pretty long before the Virus fell upon us all.

Let’s hope we don’t have another pandemic

Front Lobby Desk with Notices of Restrictions