9 things to observe when visiting a childcare center

Here are 9 thing you must consider when visiting a childcare provider:

1. Kids to teacher/caretaker ratio
   This ratio should not really be more than 5 to 1, ideally more in 3 to 1 range. The more the number of kids the more divided the attention from the provider.
   
   
2. Age groups of other kids vis-a-vis your kid
   A mixed age setting is actually good for your kid unless the gap is too much. But there should be kids of same age as your kid also.
   
3. Cleanliness and Safety - for e.g. are there cleaners lying around ?
   You would be surprised when you look at county audits of the licensed day care. One of the most common issues we have seen are where cleaning liquids were lying around in children's reach.
   
4. The toys, posters and other such kid items - how and where are they placed
   Toys, books and their condition tells a lot about kind of activities as well as discipline that the care take is able to maintain.
   
5. Is the care take CPR certified.
   In case your kid is an infant there is a separate Infant CPR - ask for the certificates. The certificate should not be expired.
   
6. Look at the sleeping arrangements for the kids
   Where do the kids sleep, is it comfortable, quiet and safe?
   
7. Presence/Absence of television
   Lost of provider keep television in the same area as the kids play. There is a just a greater tendency to use the television this way, especially in a mixed age setting.
   
8. Backup plans
   What happens when the provider has to take a vacation
   
9. Provider's flexibility
   Time and again you'll find you get late, or leave early. The kids get attached to providers, it's important to choose a provider who is flexible enough that you don't have to ask the kids to adjust to someone else also.
   
   

Time with your child

To a child, LOVE is spelled TIME...

Watch this inspirtional movie taken from Simple Truths website:

http://www.tacmovie.com/

'Mommy bloggers' vow to avoid ethical conflicts

A nice article at about how mom bloggers found themselves blogging commercially and an ethical conflict. It's important for the authenticity of a medium that it is used truthfully.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/08/10/mommy.bloggers.ethics/index.html

Keeping kids entertained

Here is a great site with some wonderful ideas about how to have fun:

http://www.todayisfun.com/blog

You can browse the activities by age and specific topics also. Not the most organized, but does a good job still. have fun!

Create your own cartoons

Just came across this brilliant sire - http://www.creaza.com - it's free and allow you to create comics and movies - very easy and yet powerful try it out.

Here is what i created in less then 5 min

Storynory: Free Audio Stories for Kids

Found this nice website - http://storynory.com you can just play audiobooks right on the webpage and totally free. The initial part could be a bit annoying it has advertisement in the beginning but you can quickly go past that. Natasha does a great job!

The other interesting thing (and a hidden one) is if you double click on any of the words -it brings up a translation menu. I think this is very nice and there are quite a few languages available, but usefulness - not too sure

Ever wanted to write stories?

http://wemakestories.com/ is a unique suite of digital tools for children to create, print and share a variety of innovative story forms. Once you create an account you will be able to create pop-up books, customize audiobooks, design their own comics, produce exciting treasure maps and learn how to create a variety of entertaining adventures.

Unfortunately they do not offer a free service so one needs to pay $9.99/£5.99 but looks very interesting

7 Secrets to Raising a Happy Child

Nice article at zenhabbits, getting right to it:

1. Let your child know you are excited to see them when they enter the room.
2. Teach your child it’s okay to be bored.
3. Limit your child’s media.
4. Let your child know they are more important than work.
5. Let your child make a few of the rules.
6. Teach your child - don’t assume it’s all happening outside the house.
7. Model appropriate behavior.

Full article is at: http://zenhabits.net/2009/06/7-secrets-to-raising-a-happy-child/

I would add a 8th one which is always listen to your child. Many times this has happened that my son was doing something and I said no with my own preconceived notions and he comes back with and answer that just surprises me and makes his actions totally valid. Kind of similar to this article - http://www.figarospeech.com/teach-a-kid-to-argue/

Kids’ why questions

http://whyzz.com/ in an interesting service that offers parents kid-ready answers to how the world works whenever and wherever they are asked. 

Like Why does it rain?

Rain comes from clouds, which are themselves made up of lots and lots of tiny droplets of water that are holding on to each other. The water making up the clouds sometimes gets heavy, especially when the clouds encounter colder air. When the cloud's water droplets get heavy enough the droplets can no longer hold on to each other and they fall to the ground as rain!

A nice browser for young kids

I used to have my 3 year old son try and use Safari browser and he was getting comfortable with Youtube but then recently we tried Kidoz. If you have't heard , it's a nice browser which kids can safely use and I find my son enjoys it quite a lot too

Check it out - http://kidoz.net/

What a mess photo club

babycenter.com has a pictures of kids at their messiest best :-)

http://community.babycenter.com/photoclubs/a3017305/what_a_mess

What can my baby see?

very interesting research about how babies see things and recognize shapes colors etc.

"Until recently, many people, even some experts, thought that infants could not see very much. This idea is not new. William James, the great 19th century philosopher and psychologist, argued that the visual world of infants is a "booming, buzzing confusion." Over the last 30 years, developmental and experimental psychologists have intensely investigated visual development. Curiously, many current baby books have not mentioned newer findings. This article attempts to summarize, in non-technical language, some of the most important findings about what your baby can see and when each of these visual abilities develop."

http://www.ski.org/Vision/babyvision.html

Excellent Bike for 3-5 year olds

Recently we were researching for a great bike for our 3 year old son, looked through many different options and finally found this:

12" Boys' Tonka Mighty Tough Bike

It has a 4 star rating in Walmart with 100+ reviews, Amazon also shows 4.5 star rating with 10 reviews.

It's a solid built, looks cool specially with shockers. Price is great as well, about $65 - walmart is the best deal as of today.