childcare scenario questions

[ruralchildcare]

A 4 Year old hits another child on the playground. The child has already been in timeout earlier that day for hitting. What would you do?

It nap time and the children have been laying down for 30 minutes. 2 Children are still awake and refuse to take a nap. What do you do?

Its a childs first day at the center. He is having a hard time letting mom leave. What are some things you can do to help mom and child?

[ashleyh]

A 4 Year old hits another child on the playground. The child has already been in timeout earlier that day for hitting. What would you do?

Stay consistent. You hit you sit. If they can't stop then they can play separated.

It nap time and the children have been laying down for 30 minutes. 2 Children are still awake and refuse to take a nap. What do you do?

Separate them and place them away from the other children, and away from each other. Books, quiet time activities, etc.

Its a childs first day at the center. He is having a hard time letting mom leave. What are some things you can do to help mom and child?

Scoop the child up and try to show him/her all the fun stuff we do during the day. Send mom updates of a few pictures after they settle in.

[kendallina]

4-Year Old at the PLayground:

I don't do time outs, they don't work for me. I find it more effective to talk to the child, figure out the WHY of his behavior and work with him (and the whole group) to come up with strategies so that they don't have to hit. This usually involves helping the children to communicate their needs... i.e. saying, "you took that from me, give it back" "you hurt me when you hit me" etc.

2 children at naptime:

Experiment with moving their cots around, making sure room is dark enough, white noise playing, etc. Making sure they are staying on their cots, etc. You can't force a child to sleep, all we can do is give them the conditions that will make them sleepy.

First day of daycare:

If I knew ahead of time that child may have a hard time leaving mom, I try to prepare mom for it beforehand. I prefer a quick goodbye, hug and kiss, and then mom leaves. I ask the mom not to linger and to show her child that she's confident he's going to have fun.

I have had two children, however, that were really really difficult to do this with. Like, physically, they could not be pryed away from mom and were hysterical. This is tough spot to be in. I did have one mom who handled this really well. I got started with an activity with the kids and mom encouraged boy to join us. She sat behind him, slowly sitting farther and farther away from him. After about 20 minutes, he was so involved in what we were doing, she was able to tell him goodbye and he watched her go. But, this was a child who had been in my care for a while but started having problems when his mom was having health problems, which is why he didn't want her to leave.

[NoMoreJuice!]

A 4 Year old hits another child on the playground. The child has already been in timeout earlier that day for hitting. What would you do?

Every incident that occurs should be treated as a singular incident. I don't award more timeout minutes to previous offenders. Timeout, to me, is a good tool to use as a "cool down" period for angry or frustrated kiddos. Only after they are completely cooled off do I explain a cause and effect to them: if you hit, then you get to sit with me instead of playing. If you hurt another child, I will take away your (insert privilege) time. Reasoning means very little to a preoperational child. They are in the egocentric stage of their life, meaning they only understand how a choice or event directly affects them, not the other children. They are incapable of feeling empathy for the child they hurt, which makes our job completely frustrating when trying to curb the hurtful behavior. Just explain a consequence to them and enforce it.

It nap time and the children have been laying down for 30 minutes. 2 Children are still awake and refuse to take a nap. What do you do?

Leave them, unless they are disturbing another child. Give them a book or something quiet to do. I don't force any kiddos to nap, just to be respectful to the others who are napping.

Its a childs first day at the center. He is having a hard time letting mom leave. What are some things you can do to help mom and child?

Explain to mom that, while it hurts to leave her kiddo and it hurts the kiddo to be left, the pain is more like the sting of ripping off a bandaid. The quicker you rip, the sooner the pain goes away. I limit drop off time to a quick hug and then I gently (metaphorically) push parents out the door. It's written in my policy handbook that a prolonged dropoff means the child will be testing a)your resolve and b)who is in charge, and parents are to make this transition smooth for all of us by leaving quickly. But seriously, the bandaid metaphor helps all my new parents.