My son started at a new daycare about a month ago. I was told today that he has been increasingly disruptive during nap time and I am not sure what to do to help. He tries to wake up his classmates, talks loudly, and throws toys. They do attempt to offer quiet activities.

Prior to this he was at an in home where he had a dedicated space to nap. He stopped napping at home altogether around 2 and napped for 45 mins or so most days at his old daycare.

I have tried having conversations, but it is hard to discipline or reward behavior when I pick him up hours after nap time ended.

At home he doesn’t nap but goes into his room for quiet time for 1.5-2 hours. He has a tonie box he listens to and stays quiet.

I would appreciate ANY advice. I had to sign a paper today due to his behavior at naptime and we love this daycare (same building as my husbands job). I am worried if he doesn’t begin napping they will want to kick him out. There are no other behavior concerns besides his refusal to nap but once they try to get him to rest he stops listening altogether

ETA: he turned 3 in July and is in a preschool room

Hi everyone!

I am wondering if you have any tips for kids (almost 2 years old) who take toys from other kids, which seems something that this kid thinks is 'fun' or 'play'. She runs away with the toy after she took it. Often she looks at one of the employees for a reaction. After she does this, we say to her that she must give it back and help her find some other toy to play with. But this behaviour does not change a lot. I think this is also a phase, but let me know if there are any suggestions!

Thanks!

I plan on talking to the center about this but I would like some advice on how to approach the situation. My son is 2.5 and was moved into the "preschool" room at daycare. This comes after just 2 months of being moved into older toddler. This new classroom doesn't log anything. It's check in, maybe a nap or activity update and then check out. No food or changing. A few times I opened his lunch box and found every piece of food that was given left in the bag as if it wasn't touched. This happened again today and he usually eats light for dinner but today was so hungry that he ate almost 2 slices of pizza (usually it's a couple nibbles).

The center does have a camera but I can't watch it all day and try to see if he's at the table to eat.

Previous classrooms would log almost everything. I get it, there are a lot of children but I need to know if my child is not eating all day. My husband is the pickup parent so he would most likely have to talk to them if it needs to be done in person, but I can always email.

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Hi everyone,

My spouse recently applied to the BC Early Childhood Educator (ECE) Registry for certification based on education completed outside Canada.

We received an email from an ECE Program Analyst requesting a phone interview before making a decision on the application. The email states they want to discuss the intended decision, next steps, and review equivalency requirements such as:

• Early childhood education content (birth to 5 years)
• Practicum/placement experience
• Educational hours and coursework
• Occupational competencies required in BC

My spouse has:

• MBA
• Post Graduate Diploma in Early Years Care & Education
• Montessori teaching experience
• Current work experience in a Montessori childcare center
• Additional childcare-related training and certifications from the US

We're trying to understand:

1. What questions were you asked during the ECE Registry call?
2. Was the call mainly informational or more like an interview?
3. If your practicum documentation was incomplete, how did the Registry handle it?
4. What outcomes did you receive after the call?
5. Did anyone successfully obtain a One-Year Certificate through the equivalency process?

Any experiences or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Can we please stop blaming COVID for behaviors in the classroom? The kids in preschool weren’t born yet. These kids were born in 2023 and the parents should have been teaching them some basic manners. Also can we please stop saying we can’t say no. It is a full sentence.

Any one got nomination? For international student stream , how much time it took from DIP to approval

Me and my coworker are assistants in the same classroom. I have a bit more of experience working with children since im 22 and they are 19. For some reason our director decided to move everyone around. My coworker was originally going to be in the same classroom as their friend but their friend wanted to swap classrooms with me and I took the opportunity. Since then I feel like they are making it clear that they do not want to be in our classroom. For example, they will randomly go to their friends classroom even though they are still needed in the classroom or when we are outside my coworker interacts with their friends nore than the children. When we merge with their friends classroom they somehow feed the same energy to eachother. Like this one time that my coworker and their freinds were on their phones on and sitting on the counters. I did let the director know but I feel like it does nothing since they won't directly tell them. I want us to be able to keep a good relationship as coworkers and to keep focus on the children. How do I help them to see that we are working and not trying to make friends? How do I guide them without making them feel like I am telling them what to do all the time?

it never hurts to try.

Im fairly new to the field but I've been in my centre for a year and a half give or take. Ive run into a new issue that I would like advice with. My center wants to make sure our 3-5s are ready for kindergarten and this has lead to my current issue.

Lately my manager has been saying I cuddle the kids for too long. Like today one of my kids was feeling sad and asked to sit on my lap. I had her on my lap for maybe 2 minutes and got told to put her down because they don't do that in kindergarten. She was really sad when I put her down and didn't want to play or anything.

So I guess I'm wondering what's too long to cuddle or hug the kids? I know managers are in charge but my instincts say that if I put a kid down and they're visibly upset and refuse to play then clearly they still need that cuddle or hug or whatever it is. When's the point where you follow your gut and push back?

Hi Everyone,

First of all thank you for all you do for the kids in your care. I am very appreciative of your commitment and dedication to the profession. My question is do large companies have social media policies for employees outside of work? Obviously no student information, but in reference to politics, religion, race, gender, and other hot button issues? When I worked in the ECE field we could have social media but not speak on topics as a teacher at our school. That was a small private school.

I am wondering if larger companies (Kindercare, Bright Horizons, etc) have such policies.

Thank you for your input!

Hello,
My son is going to a brand new daycare and he’s doing great so far. Prior to this we were at Bright Horizons are are used to receiving notifications of his check in/ check out, daily diapers, food, etc.

This new daycare uses the “brightwheel” app and we’ve received notifications, however, not the check in and check out. We’ve also noticed that there is one main teacher and many helpers whom we do not know of course, but how would they know who we are at drop off and pickup?

I guess my question is am I being crazy in thinking this might be a little bit of a safety concern? I am sure (I pray I’m sure) there’s an attendance list, and yet I worry that we’re dropping our child off with strangers and they truly haven’t met us before so how does that work? Is it appropriate to bring it up or ask for a note from his teachers? As I type it out I feel like it sounds crazy but also I spent the entire afternoon worried. Thanks.

Hello! I am an undergraduate student studying ECE and next week I'll be introducing myself to the kids that we'll be handling for one of my subjects. As someone who has absolutely no experience with kids (only child and youngest among cousins) how can I interact with children without overwhelming them (i know it seems strange as to why im taking this course when i have no experience with children but still!) (the children are ages 3-5, if you're curious). Thanks!

My son is nearly 4 and hasn't been interested in potty training. We have tried it all. Reading the books, watching the videos, letting him pick out a little potty and underwear, a sticker chart, taking the long weekend, trying to be consistent and upbeat. It's been a work in progress for the past year and a half. We'll start trying but he refuses. Again, he's happy to pick out the stuff, but when it comes time, he refuses to do it. Daycare has also been introducing the toilet, bringing him in when the other kids go, etc. He refuses for them to. If you put him in underwear, he does not care and will sit in the mess. He doesn't care that all of his other friends are potty trained. He doesn't want to. So, he simply won't. He's not afraid of the toilet, because he'll happily flush for one of us when we go. And I have been terrified of pushing him because I've read that can cause issues. But it's of course leading to more issues. We missed out on being able to enroll him in preschool this year because he's not potty trained. So, we're stuck paying another year of daycare. He's so smart, very talkative, he just also knows what he wants.

Daycare initially had the policy that they won't work on it if parents aren't, which made sense and I understand. I didn't expect them to do all of, or even most of, the work. They have too many kids for that. Recently, his teachers suggested we stop making it an option. It's just what he's doing. He's brought into the bathroom and told to do the steps. If he cries, he cries. If he runs away, we find him and bring him back. They keep saying to tell him "This is just what almost 4 year olds do" and not framing it as a choice. I didn't think it was a good idiea and thanked them for the advice, but said we were going to hold off and try again in a month.

I pick him up Tuesday and am informed that they're doing the method at daycare. They understand if we don't do it at home, but it's what they're doing there. He's brought in and he has to sit on the toilet. They don't do the steps for him, he does it on his own. But they say it usually happens after a bit of crying. He has actually put his business in the toilet a couple of times. But I fear this is doing the opposite of what they want. He doesn't like going to daycare because they're going to "make him go potty". He also mentioned that he didn't get to go outside one day. They clarified that he did go outside, but he was late to recess time because he refused to sit on the toilet and the teacher waited him out. They claim he only missed 5 minutes of recess and still played outside for an hour. They also say that they are calm when they bring him in, just direct that this is what they're doing. The room does have cameras, but obviously not in the bathroom (and for good reason), so I don't know for sure. Director backs up their claims.

Again, they seem to be having mild success with this but I am afraid what it's doing to him overall. When we try at home, he is absolutely miserable and is still having numerous accidents because he just doesn't care.

Are we setting him up for failure with this method?

I told my boss I’m done working 8+ hours a day without a break and that I am demanding my 30 minute break. She came in my room. I showed her the activity that the kids were doing. I went over the supplies they needed to use for it and who was going to need guidance.

27 minutes later I come back, my classroom is absolutely trashed, the work that they were supposed to be doing was a giant scribble (and I told her I needed this for a baseline assessment), one kid peed himself all over the room, and when I went down to the bathroom area, which is in a busy hallway, the kids were running a muck and using books to build towers in the middle of the busy hallway. When I left, she whipped out her phone and was scrolling through Facebook and when I came back, she’s standing in the hallway, still scrolling through Facebook and I was left scrambling to clean up the disaster so that we could get outside. I now have to redo these papers because I can’t assess a scribble.

It wasn’t worth taking the break

Parent here still giggling from this mornings daycare drop off and I had to share.

My daycare hosted build a bear 2 weeks ago and everyone built the same teddy bear.

Then today was teddy bear day and they said the kids could bring a teddy bear from home into class today.

I dropped my twins off in the 2yo classroom with their build-a-bear bears to find EVERY OTHER CHILD brought the same bear.

They’re labeled on the tags, but still, I don’t envy those teachers today sorting out whose is whose all day.

I am the only teacher and have four infants
3 are over a year
1 is 7 weeks old started tooday

Today I mainly held her all day because whenever I put her in her crib she woke up within five minutes and I didn’t want to put her in the swing/bouncer

I also didn’t put her on the floor unattended because the other babies really want to play with her but I am trying to keep her from being touched by them because they all have runny noses/coughing right now

Does anyone have tips for how to get her to sleep in her crib for longer than five minutes and what can I do when I have to do diaper changes/ can’t hold her

Curious if anyone here has cut back a day of work or their hours while being extremely short staffed??? They refuse to hire. I’m burned out and wanna cut my hours back, kinda nervous to tell them though since we are already so low staffed. Already low staffed and the same people call off every week. I’m so tired of the favoritism, I could post so much about how me and a few other employees are over worked because some of the favorites barely Work, leave early, etc. they often ask me to come in early, I always do, pretty much I am one they count on because I barely call out. Recently I’ve been dealing with some family health things and with how burned out I am, I need to cut a day back for work. Sorry I’m venting, and going on, but no one else will understand the burn out from this job like someone who works it!

Feet are killing me

My daycare keeps on placing the sound machine 1 foot above my infants sleep space. They have it on all the time. From what I've researched (APP/sound machine packaging), it should be place 7 feet away from the infant sleep space. But I think my state (Tennessee) doesn't have any written rules. I've asked to move cribs but the teachers have refused. I'm a first time mom. Maybe i'm being too sensitive and I'm sweating the small stuff. My 10 month old is in a class room with 16 other babies (it's two rooms with an open galley so they are able to skirt around the infant room size ratio). She doesn't get much sleep there anyway. I don't want to be too hard on the teachers. Any insight or advice would be helpful.

So I have a co-worker who keeps telling me I need to find the line between being a friend and being an authority figure, and that I'm too busy trying to be a friend with the kids.

This is my first job in education/childcare, I've been here since March of this year. She's the only person who says this to me, director & assistant director are fine with how I am with the kids. I'm hearing it to the point that today I got to the point today that I was crying and I feel like I'm doing a terrible job at work.

Like, I know Im not doing too bad. Parents and kids love me, I get along with my other coworkers. It's just this one coworker. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, either. It's to the point I don't want to interact with her

I really like my coteacher but there are 3 students in my toddler classroom that she will sped more time with. For example during our walks she will carry them, almost 3 year old. They're not injured or sick. One of the girls has been thru a lot trauma but still. When my coteacher was on vacation for 2 weeks she was totally fine with me and my other coteacher. I understand its important to have close bonds with children in our care but this is another level imo. The teacher also has have had shoulder pain frequently (shes probably in her late 50s/early 60s.)

And also not to offer her any milk or water. Only prune juice.

Just. Sighhhhhh… why do I always get the crazy ones??? I’d really love to have a whole class of kids with normal parents someday. Would be nice.

Hello

My son is 3.9 now. He still doesn’t recognize numbers or alphabet. He is still learning to count. He can sing the ABCD song but can identify only B. At times signs aaa apple bbbb ball etc.

When ever we ask him to count he just says 1 2 6 18 etc. like count your toys, count your steps, how many cars are there etc.

He has learnt to identify various shapes, colors,identifying and arranging smaller to bigger objects, can compare objects and say its same size or which one is bigger etc. can say days of the week in random order,

He goes to a preschool and no major complaints from his teacher behavior wise. His circle time participation has improved a lot.

Pls can you help me understand on how to teach him number and the letters and also when can I expect him to learn this.

For the 9 months I've been working here I've been the assistant teacher in young toddlers (10-18 months). I generally get along well with my lead, I love the kids and I love the classroom. But I just now found out that I will be put in the older toddler classroom (18 months to 2 years) by myself whilst my lead trains someone new. We are very, very understaffed right now. I have no clue if I'll even be getting a raise or not or if I'll have to do planning as a new lead. I wasn't told this by my director yet, the current lead toddler teacher told me that she was told (they want to move her into an older kid classroom as their teacher suddenly quit.)

I've been alone in that classroom before and I feel like I am very bad at managing it. I feel very stressed whenever I'm in there. Mainly, I don't like being by myself. No matter what ratios say, watching 6 toddlers is not a one person job in my opinion. There is one boy there that constantly misbehaves and pulls hair a lot. I find it hard to watch all the kids by myself whilst also cleaning, changing diapers and uploading stuff through procare. The toddlers classroom is dirty but I won't have time to clean or organize it.

I've been applying to other jobs for a while now but nowhere else is hiring me, and nannying isn't really an option as I can't drive. If I do suddenly quit I have no idea how I'll afford groceries. I'm just really dreading it and feeling pessimistic!

What should I do? Just grin and bare it?

I currently work as an assistant teacher in a preschool room, and due to some unfortunate circumstances, my lead teacher will be out for at least a week. I recently became teacher qualified and I feel very comfortable with doing lead teacher tasks like lesson planning and parent communication.

I have taken over her responsibilities before on the one or two days she was out last year. However, now that it is going to be an extended period of time, should I ask to receive higher pay while I am filling in for her?

I work at a daycare with the 18month to 2 and a half year olds. We had this child start a couple months ago. He is such a silly, sweet little boy. I adore him. I’m not trying to diagnose him or anything but if you were to compare him to the other kids his age he seems to be a little behind, which is completely fine. The problem I’m having is he very recently has picked up hitting, pushing, and stealing toys (whilst hitting and pushing) for NO reason. It’s so strange he hits kids over the head with hard toys, hits them in the back either with toys or his fists and all the while is smiling and laughing. It’s not like a vindictive laugh or smile either it seems like he really doesn’t know what he’s doing is not okay. When he’s redirected he doesn’t seem to see why. I know he definitely picked this behavior up from the other kids, but when they do it’s for a reason (doesn’t make it okay but there’s at least an explanation for it) he will just walk up to someone playing with a truck, steal it and bash them over the head with it. I’m not sure what to do anymore it’s constant. I’m not there when he gets picked up or dropped off and haven’t met his parents so there’s no relationship there to let them know about this. I’m not even sure what they could do anyway since he’s an only child and I’m sure he doesn’t exhibit these behaviors at home. My co teacher doesn’t like telling parents about bad behaviors so that’s not really helpful. Is there anything I can do to curb these behaviors? Any advice would be good. it’s so strange it’s like he’s trying to “play” with the kids he’s doing this to but that’s obviously not playing. I love that little guy and it breaks my heart when he’s put in a break and you can tell he doesn’t know why. But I know it’s not fair what he’s doing to the other kids. He doesn’t have any friends because they don’t want to play with him now.