Starting A Day Care Center Can Be Profitable When Following These Five Ingredients Of Success

The demand for child day care in the US is rising. This is due to many factors including but not limited to the steady increase of working single mothers, more and more married couples working during the day and parents seeing the benefits of day care on a social and educational level.

A viable opportunity exists for day care in most US markets. In 2002 two thirds of all women with preschool aged children worked outside their home. In 1975 only 39% of all women with preschool aged children worked outside their home.

It is very attractive to work from home while running a day care business but careful examination of all the details must be considered to ensure success and compliance with the law. Read the rest of this entry »

What Types of Food Should You Serve in Your Daycare?

Parents want to make sure that their kids are eating healthy food, so they make sure that they will be preparing healthy foods. How about when they are not around, they need to bring their kids to the daycare, are they sure that their kids are still eating healthy. Definitely, parents would make a review and check out if their kids are eating the right foods when they are in daycare.

As an owner of a daycare, you need to see to it that you will be serving nutritious foods. Actually, you do not only have impact on the nutritional intake of the kids under your care but also with their eating behaviors and health habits. You need to be there to help the kids learn the right mealtime behavior and also to enjoy different varieties of nutritious foods. Read the rest of this entry »

Need Ornaments for your Tree? Try These 2 Simple Crafts for Kids

Christmas is a holiday where all kinds of kids crafts are created at home and in the school environment. Crafts for kids, however should be an activity that should bring fun and excitement to children’s activities aside from adding a bonding to the adults that are doing the projects with them. Educational arts and crafts is a way of doing crafts with children where they are not blindly copying the adults model but are creating things that they are capable of creating at their own developmental level. When children create at their own level a number of things occur. It creates a great feeling about themselves, as who can feel good about crafts projects that are copycat models of someone else’s. Children who create their own projects without adult input feel much better about themselves. A further benefit educational arts and crafts gives children, is its allowance for so much more creativity. There is very little that represses creativity more than having to copy anothers work. Educational art encompasses a few different types of activities. There is the cafeteria style that allows children to choose materials to work with, there is process only art where the process is what counts along with a few more. The point of it is that all of the crafts under educational arts and crafts should be age appropriate, and allow for freedom of creation and expression. Below I will give you 2 clear cut, almost effortless Christmas craft ornaments that you can make. The first one uses plastic throwaway cups: The children will now love to color their cups using only permanent markers that work on plastic. Try to get the kids to cover up the cup with markers as much as they can. When they are done, take a cookie sheet and put the cups upside down on it and put in the over at around 350 degrees. Watch them melt in the oven for a few minutes until they are the right size that you like. Make sure you keep a close eye on them so they don’t totally burn up. The cups and the tray of course, get very hot so the children must be kept away until they cool. When they are cool, make a hole in the center and use colorful ribbon to hang as an ornament for your tree. For our next craft you will use any unused or not needed dvd’s or cd’s. Next step: Give the kids all types of things to decorate them with and them string them up on the tree. There are loads of ways to decorate the cd’s. You can color with permanent markers, glue and glitter them, collage over them, decoupage over them, and decorate them with whatever shiny, decorative materials you can find. Once they are done, get some pretty ribbon and hang them from your tree. If you want to see what a crafts acitivity done in the cafeteria style is like then check out this Hanukkah Crafts collage

Christmas is a holiday where all kinds of kids crafts are created at home and in the school environment.

Crafts for kids, however should be an activity that should bring fun and excitement to children’s activities aside from adding a bonding to the adults that are doing the projects with them.

Educational arts and crafts is a way of doing crafts with children where they are not blindly copying the adults model but are creating things that they are capable of creating at their own developmental level.

When children create at their own level a number of things occur.

It creates a great feeling about themselves, as who can feel good about crafts projects that are copycat models of someone else’s. When the crafts project is totally created by the kids themselves, it makes them feel much better about themselves.

Creativity is also a wonderful reason to switch to educational arts and crafts.

There is hardly anything more that cramps a child’s creativity than being expected to totally copy and adults rendition of a project.

There are between 4-6 kinds of art type of activites listed under educational art.

There is the cafeteria style that allows children to choose materials to work with, there is process only art where the process is what counts along with a few more.

The point of it is that all of the crafts under educational arts and crafts should be age appropriate, and allow for freedom of creation and expression.

Explained below are two simple and inexpensive Christmas crafts activities that you can make from items around your home.

The first one uses plastic throwaway cups:

Offer the kids permanent markers in many colors for them to decorate their cups. Encouraging the children to color all over the cup will make for a nicer ornament.

When they are done, take a cookie sheet and put the cups upside down on it and put in the over at around 350 degrees. Leaving them in the oven between 2-3 minutes will allow them to go down to a good size. Keep an eye on them so they don’t disintegrate in the oven. This part must be done by adults only as it gets very hot.

When they are cool, make a hole in the center and use colorful ribbon to hang as an ornament for your tree.

The second activity is a neat way to use all of your old, ready to throw away cd’s.

Next: Add lots of decorative materials and get them hung on the tree.

There so many methods of beautifying the cd’s.

You can color with permanent markers, glue and glitter them, collage over them, decoupage over them, and decorate them with whatever shiny, decorative materials you can find.

Once they are done, get some pretty ribbon and hang them from your tree.

If you want to see what a crafts acitivity done in the cafeteria style is like then check out this Hanukkah Crafts collage

Faige Kobre is a former teacher and director of Early Childhood Education. She is the founder of The Educational Art Institute which teaches adults how to teach children art and give crafts that raises self esteem, teaches thinking and problem solving skills and explodes their creativity. kids crafts projects ideas for self esteem and creativity

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/childhood-education-articles/need-ornaments-for-your-tree-try-these-2-simple-crafts-for-kids-1561647.html

Crafting A Home Child Care Business Plan

To start your own home day care facilities can be exciting, but you need to put in some thought to ensure a successful enterprise. Make no mistake; while it is run in your home, it is still a business. It is not as simple as converting the garage, building a play area outside and buying some children’s furniture. You need to think of the rules and regulations regarding running a day care center as well.

While there seems to be a lot information to gather, establishing a proper home child care business plan will help you lay out a detailed step-by-step plan with all that you need to know in order to to start a home day care business. Before you begin writing your business plan, make sure your decision to start one is sound. To do so, you have to ask yourself a couple of important questions. Read the rest of this entry »

Help Your Son to Read With The Right Books

As a librarian and the mother of a boy who was considered a below average reader in the traditional education system, I developed a keen interest in books that would help him become interested in reading. As a visual child he loves images, so books with lots of colourful pictures are a must.

Here’s a list of ways to engage your son in reading:

1. Find Books They Are Interested In.
OK…now when I say books I am thinking broadly. I’m not just thinking of dusty cream colored pages filled with tiny black writing. I’m talking comics, magazines, beginner readers, picture books, non-fiction tomes, anything!

These days there is no excuse for a boy not to find something they are interested in reading. There are so many visually appealing books on just about every conceivable subject just waiting to entice viewers into sampling the words that expand on their colourful images.

For visual learners, this is their generation to shine.

2. Really Look For The Best Books To Give Your Child
I mean really look for them and look at them. Not just at the cover or the subject matter, but look inside. Trust yourself. Just because it says Beginner Reader doesn’t mean that it is right for your son.

Just say your son is a “reluctant reader” and loves Star Wars. There are heaps of books on Star Wars so where do you start? The Jedi Quest, Jedi Apprentice and Last Of the Jedi series’ are great but are too dense and overwhelming for early readers. The Dorling Kindersley Beginner Readers are appealing but the vocabulary might be too frustrating for readers who struggle.

Random House released a series of Jedi Reader books to coincide with the prequel films at four different levels of reading and you can find them on ebay. Their vocabulary selection is highly suitable for early readers. Also, comic publisher Dark Horse released a series of comics called Clone Wars Adventures that has many visuals and a few well-chosen words.

Go for what you think will work and if in doubt test it out…Gently.

3. Be Patient & Be Consistent
Be really, really, really patient and totally, totally, totally consistent. Read with your visual learner each day with him sitting by your side. Set aside a time where you read him a book and then he reads to you.

Read him a chapter of a book like Geronimo Stilton, My Father’s Dragon or a few pages of a Tintin book so he can watch the story as he hears your words. Then encourage him to read to you, whether it be a page or a small book, he will develop not only a steady reassuring love for the time he spends with you but a sense that you are really interested in his reading.

You are sharing two things that are so essential to his life-journey: Love and words.

4. Fill Your House With Comics And Other Visual Books
You don’t have to spend a fortune to do this. Thrift stores, second-hand book sales and the king of all things cheap and accessible, eBay, are the places to start.

You can buy auction lots of all-ages comics from the 1980s to the 2000s at a great price. Try the Marvel STAR imprint, Groo (Groo is great for visual humor), Batman Adventures, Justice League Adventures, Teen Titans, Cartoon Network Block Party, Loony Tunes and comic strips like Garfield. Many all-ages comics have also been collected into trade paperback format at an affordable rate.

Purchase new or previously read books in visual series like Geronimo Stilton or visual dictionaries and guides (Usborne offer a great entry level Encyclopedia and information series) to space flight, dinosaurs, computers, mechanics, and thousands of other subjects, one of which is bound to entrance your child.

Once you have books in your house they will pick them look at the pictures then put them down, pick them look at the pictures then put them down and one day they will pick them up and read a few words.
Cool!

5. Reading Levels are a Guide only!
I was acutely aware that my 8 year old son was nowhere near reading fluency while some kids his age were reading Harry Potter by themselves. As a child I was one of those kids who read everything I could get my hands on.

It took a while for me to accept that my son learns in a different way and will come to reading in his own time. I just need to be there to guide him with patience and the right resources. When he is ready I have the books that will open the door to words and the new world that reading ushers in to his life.

Read more about visual books like Geronimo Stilton or comics for kids. Article and sites are maintained by a homeschooling mother with a passion for visual literacy.

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Opening A Daycare – Setting Expectations

Thinking of opening a daycare? One of the more difficult tasks will be setting the parents expectations on how the day to day rules pan out. It is very much an “art” and you have to work with each parent separately, based on their personality.

Setting expectations and laying out your rules is critical to your long term success. You have to be firm yet sensitive not to create tension. You will see the parent’s everyday and having a good ongoing relationship is key. Remember that this is your daycare, your house, your business so don’t be shy when it comes time to laying down the law. You have to be firm and okay with hurting people’s feelings once in a while. Read the rest of this entry »

Admired Educational Kid Toys For Today

Parents may not spend a heap of time pondering upon the make-believe educational toys they provide to their children, but perhaps they must start. A closer examination at play time shows that totally different types of toys stimulate completely different sorts of child development.

A seemingly realistic function-wise operating cash register is integrated with a solar-powered calculator that can accommodate real-size dollar bills The bigger than normal sized buttons and a giant number display makes it appropriate for various levels of educational learning ability. The toy comes with plastic coins, play bills, make believe credit cards and different accessories

Electronic educational toys are flawlessly adapted to the kid’s age and talents/inabilities. Toy makers are very careful about the age they suggest for his or her toys, as kids too old or young will lose interest quickly (and as a result not learn something). Additionally, toys created by companies like Vtech and Leapfrog can help kids with learning disabilities to learn at their own pace, in a custom atmosphere (their home) most suited to their learning needs.

To please both parent and child, look around for nice toddler books. Books created particularly for toddlers are usually ones created from chunky cardboard. They may have pop-up characters, animals with fur that kids will pet, and flowers with a scratch-and-sniff scent. It is necessary for parents to scan to their youngsters to introduce them to language and ideas, and additionally to instill a sense that reading and learning are important. Books conjointly give nice bonding moments between parents and children.

Remember not to overdo it. Sure, it is tempting to strive and single out the most important and best gift that will be at the party. It is forever flattering when the birthday boy or girl latches on to the gift you presented, and barely lets go long enough to finishing opening the remainder! However, the size of the gift and the amount of cash you spend is not as vital as the influence that your gift could have on that exact child. Select something that can incite their minds and encourage their development.

Costumes are the ultimate pretend toys for role playing. Costumes like cowboy clothes for boys and ballerina costumes for girls take them directly into the make believe realm where their dreams all come true.

Jigsaws encourage hand and eye co-ordination. These come as wooden or in huge pieces for this age range. Many of the puzzles have lift out items with pictures beneath to assist children of this age obtain object recognition skills, manual dexterity and form matching skills.

The Best Toys R Us is the premier resource for cash register toys and educational kid toys. Click on the links to visit the website.

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Multiple Intelligences and Homeschooling

Multiple Intelligences first came up through the name of Howard Gardner. His theory was introduced to all when his ground breaking book Frames of Mind were published in 1983. The stunning theory from this great man opened the door to a greater understanding of individual talents which included spatial, logical (mathematical), musical, kinesthetic, and verbal. For example the best time or a kinesthetic child to learn when he actively takes part in some action or participating on a physical level rather than competing with paper and pencil sitting in the classroom. In spite of being so talented

A kinesthetic child is often being leveled as a problem student where as the only problem remains upon the teaching method. The basic theme of home schooling is to let the children grow according to their own style. Countries like China and Japan makes their children self dependent right from the very beginning. The first word that a Japanese child learns is “Do it yourself” that reflects the approach of Japanese towards the children.  An ancient Chinese proverb gives a clue its like. “Let me do it myself, I understand, Show me, I remember, Tell me, I forget” one can see this proverb in action watching children play. Kids absorb information at an incredible rate and learn through the senses. They question and explore everything around them because their curiosity is boundless.

The intention of Chinese and the Japanese towards their children is that they let their children explore in their own way without the interruption of any body. Chinese and the Japanese people are being motivated in doing so because of the two remarks stated above about the natural tendency of the children. They give highest priority to the self growing of the child. Every child has his own way of learning. It might not match the expected way of the parents. But they should not loose their temper. Rather they should hold their patience and let the child grow in his way. This attitude of the parents will increase the opportunity for the child to explore his own talent which is the main objective of the method of home schooling.

If the child gets complete freedom to learn whatever he or she likes, the tendency to find the most comfortable way to grow up will increase. When the students get freed up of the restraints of traditional schools, children are enthusiastic active learner stains and ranks for all students nation-wide. In 1983 the Theory of Multiple Intelligences by Howard Gardner was proposed in his famous book of Frames of Mind. Gardner’s proposal said that to create a unique person, there are seven and more recently eight, distinct intelligences works together.

Gardner expressed his requirement of two basic principles at its core to establish the ideal school for the future. Firstly he asked for the authority under which people would be able to explore them completely along with having unique and varied abilities, and interests. Secondly, people should be given informed choices as part of their educational experiences as it’s not possible for one person to learn all. Gardner states that “in assessment of individual abilities and proclivities, an individual-centered school would be rich. It would look to match not only to curricular areas of individuals, but also particular ways of teaching those subjects. And the school would seek to match individuals with the various kinds of life work options which have availability in their culture after the first few grades” The theory of Dr. Gardner can be key element in terms of nursing every child and build them up for the future.

Tehira Hasan is a freelance copywriter and can write any topic you want. She love to write on health, real state, dating, self improvement, home security, gardening and technology related contents.Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/childhood-education-articles/multiple-intelligences-and-homeschooling-1459460.html

Business Plan And Ideas For Starting A Daycare Business

One of the worst things about starting a business is wondering how you can be different from everybody else. This isn’t a usual worry for franchise businesses like 7/11-they have regulated services and products that are the same no matter what branch you step into. Starting your own business-and making sure that it sticks and is remembered is risky and exciting. This is where a great business plan comes in.

If you’re anything like me, who has a vague idea of organization and planning, this can be a daunting process. What business plan? Can’t I just wing it? Of course you can, but even people who wing it have a plan in the back of their heads. Read the rest of this entry »

Tips in Fundraising for Your Daycare

Starting a child care center business may be not that easy, just like any other business there are factors you need to consider. One great factor you need to prioritize is the money to start up with. Of course in this new venture you need enough capital to run your day care center.

It will be easier if you have money of your own. In that way there will be no hassle to look for any way to start your day care center, all you have to think is how to run the day care center since you already have the means. Read the rest of this entry »