According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 12,175 children aged 0 to 19 die each year due to an unintentional injury. Unintentional injury is the leading cause of death for children in the United States. Types of unintentional injuries include but are not limited to motor vehicle incidents, drowning, suffocation, fire, and poisoning. National Child Safety and Protection Month recognizes these potential dangers and focuses on prevention. Here are some ways to prevent injuries in your day to day life: Food Safety: When using a stove, try to use the back burners with the pot handles facing towards the back of the stove. This prevents young children from reaching the hot contents on the stove. Motor Vehicle Safety: […]

Each year on Thanksgiving friends and families come together to celebrate their blessings and what they are most thankful for. This simple craft can help your child brainstorm some of the biggest blessings in their life. For this craft, you will need: writing and coloring utensils, stapler, scissors, paper, and this free printable   Step 1- By using the free printable, print the feathers and the crown.   Step 2-Cut out the feathers and the crown.   Step 3-Have the child color the feathers and the crown if they please.   Step 4-Brainstorm with the child and write down on each feather something that they are most thankful for this Thanksgiving.   Step 5-Staple the crown to fit the child’s […]

Fall may seem fraught with tiny dangers for tiny bodies: Halloween candy, sharp pumpkin-carving tools, and people in costumes jumping out from behind corners. But fall is also a great opportunity to learn about the world—something toddlers and young children do every day, all the time! One way to teach about a season is to pick a symbol and stick to it. An easy one for fall is the symbol of a leaf. If your part of the country doesn’t change colors as much, think of a different symbol (a pumpkin, mums, a school book) which represents a part of the season for you and your community. Try exploring this symbol in different ways. Something as simple as a cookie […]

As the sunshine sings, it’s tempting to always be on the go. Nothing is more exhilarating than a summertime day-trip—and, as much as we adults need to shower and recover our zen after the fact, we know that kids love going out. Time, money, and energy require, however, that we are not always renting out a school bus and reapplying sunscreen. Fortunately, part of the magic of childhood comes through taking the big things of the world and making them kid-sized. Bringing big summer activities to children makes experiences manageable, safe, and—most importantly—explorable. Here are three summertime field trips which we think work just as well right outside on the playground. Daytime camping: The simple act of setting up a […]

Ohio AEYC Conference April 19-21, 2018 Come See Us At Booth 322 The AIR team looks forward to the Ohio AEYC Conference in Sandusky every year! This year’s event is from April 19-21 and we hope you can stop by and say hello. Meet Some Of Our Authors And Trainers We will also have some of our talented authors in the booth with us. Stop by and say hello to some of the great authors that have created some of our courses!   Giveaway Time! Stop by the AIR booth for a chance to win an iPad tablets, gift certificates for AIR courses, and restaurant.com gift certificates. All you have to do us fill out a ticket at our booth! We will […]

Early Education Creates Better Outcomes Lucky: it’s a word we hear everywhere. A teacher is lucky to have such a well-behaved classroom. Parents are lucky to have such gifted children. Students are lucky to be so smart. “How did you get so lucky?” What is meant as a compliment can mask the belief that positive circumstances are outside of our influence—there is no rhyme or reason to success. Certainly, a myriad of factors affect each child’s life—to many to account for—and much of what life brings our way is truly beyond our control. However, we here at AIR Child Care believe that quality early childhood education sets children up for success in a way that allows and encourages better outcomes. […]

Social skills, like other skills, require teaching. We can set children up for success not only though numbers, shapes, and reminders to look both ways before crossing the street, but also through showing them to how be a friend. How do we, as care-givers, help children see each other as playmates and friends? Puppet games can provide a non-threatening and safe space for children to practice friendship skills. With puppets, children can try out social behaviors, and you, as carer, can help encourage healthy interaction. The first step is for children to see friendship modeled between puppets. This is where you get to be creative: use stuffed animals or make puppets from paper bags or popsicle sticks—anything will do! Then, […]

A cornerstone of friendship is the ability to take turns. One goal of care-giving, then, becomes teaching this skill. “Sharing” has become a hallmark of Kindergarten curriculum. But one year of classroom teaching is insufficient to plant, water, a grow a heart of caring. Learning to take turns can start at home. Almost any activity can be turned into an opportunity to take turns: when a child gives a hug, the parent or care-giver gives a hug back. With a pet dog or hamster, a child and adult can take turns rubbing its back. When playing with race cars, you can take turns using certain Hot Wheels. Taking turns teaches: • Self-control: Children must control their bodies while waiting for […]

The holiday season is full of stories of unexpected generosity. Children think of presents: looking forward in anticipation to receiving holiday treats. Some songs of the season teach children to they earn these gift. A famous jingle about Santa rings, “so be good for goodness sake!” Kindness is about more than earning gifts. Kindness is about giving without getting back. And as much as we like to credit ourselves for our own virtues, kindness is learned. As we model kindness, the mirror neurons of a watching child start to fire—he or she learns to how to be kind. Harvard’s educational department agrees that kindness is not a given for children but must be taught. With research, initiatives, and campaigns, their […]

We want our students to grow to be happy people. Benedictine Monk David Steindl-Rast, author of several books on gratefulness, begins his TED talk exploring the connection between happiness and gratefulness. He asks, “Is it really the happy people who are grateful?” His answer is, essentially: no, it is grateful people who become happy. “Please” and “thank you”—the words of gratitude, reflect manners, but they do not necessarily reflect a thankful attitude, the attitude which builds a foundation for a happy life. Robert Emmons, leader in the sciences on gratitude, teaches psychology at the University of California, Davis. He suggests tangible gratitude activities for early learners. He says, “You can also use concrete reminders to practice gratitude, which can be […]