Preschool

Here is a startling statistic:

Every year, over 200,000 children are injured on playgrounds in America.

That’s a troubling number for parents, but those running child care and preschool programs should also be concerned. Whether you run a large preschool or a small home daycare, the children in your care every day can suffer one of those injuries.

The likelihood is that at some point, one of your toddlers or preschoolers will fall and get hurt on your preschool playground. That’s pretty much inevitable. However, the severity of the injury (and the legal ramifications if the parents were to sue you) can be minimized if you work to keep your child care playground safe and up to code.

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This post was originally featured on the CareLuLu parent blog.

As a child, I pretended that I was a teacher and told everyone I was going to be a teacher one day.  As life would have it, I ended up obtaining a business education and working in the financial accounting and auditing world for 15 years.

When I became a parent, I found out how challenging it was to find reliable high quality child care.

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Let’s face it. Small business ownership is not easy, especially a child care business. It takes commitment, perseverance, intelligence and hard work.

Lots of hard work.

You have to be willing to change with the times, pay attention to your market and adapt when necessary. Small businesses that go under tend to do so because they get “stuck in a rut” or are unable to change quickly enough to meet the new demands of their customers.

However, running a child care business is different.

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A preschool open house is an invaluable marketing tool. It allows you to showcase your program and facilities and give parents a firsthand view of what you are doing at your center. It is also important that you make a great first impression as parents will judge you and your child care center or preschool based on that first visit. Here are 10 steps for organizing a successful child care center open house.

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It’s time for school pictures! How fun!

Well, not always.

Many times, picture day can become a stressful, tiring and downright crazy day that leaves preschool directors pulling out their hair and toddlers crying in their teacher’s arms. Why is that? There are a few reasons but the biggest is just that young children don’t do well with changes in routine. In addition, parents have very high expectations for what they want their children’s photos to look like. When it comes to picture day, as a child care provider, you have two main priorities:

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J ust when you think you’re all set to welcome the newest addition to your child care program, little Susie’s mom chimes in, “I forgot to mention. Susie is deathly allergic to nuts. Can you accommodate her?”

Before you start madly examining the floor of your child care center or home for peanut shell remnants, or begin throwing everything in your snack cupboard out, know you aren’t alone in addressing nut allergies. With 1 in every 13 children under the age of 18 having a life threatening allergy to nuts in the US today, it’s inevitable that at some point you are going to have a Susie walk through your door.

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As much as we try to protect our children, studies show that more than half will experience bullying at some point in their lives. Bullying can take place as early as preschool and as a teacher or director, it is important that you take actions early on in order to prevent bullying. In this post, we’ll discuss bullying: how to recognize it, prevent it, and what to do if bullying does occur at your preschool.

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