“When the kids are outside they outnumber me. There are six of them and one of me,” said home day care provider, Meredith Patterson of Steubenville.

On Thursday, she had seen a black bear in broad daylight at a busy intersection near the Ft. Steuben Mall.

“He was coming out of the woods — that was enough for me. The kids are not going outside to play,” said Patterson.

Over the past couple of weeks bears have been observed right across the Ohio Valley: everywhere from the middle of the street to dog houses.

Patterson said that the parents of the children she cares for support her decision to keep kids indoors.

“They understand. … I don’t want to put them at risk at all. It’s on their mind and my mind. That’s why we’re inside,” she said.

Wildlife experts think it likely that the bears were kicked out of their wooded territory by other bears and will eventually go back to the wild.

I’ve just been reading a blog post by Rinch who worked at a childcare facility in Tibet. Luckily running a home daycare isn’t quite like this.

Here’s an excerpt:

“I have a new job! I work as a volunteer at the Rogpa centre which offers free childcare to recent Tibetan refugees so that the mum’s can go out to work. I’m enjoying my job but g’damn its hard work, 30 kids and only 5 carers! On the first day I got pissed all over (literally all over my leg) and had to change 2 pooey nappies….And we’re not talking nice throw away pampers we’re talking cloth nappies….no wet wipes…and lots of chunky exploding bums! Ah well I suppose its all good karma!”

You can read the whole thing here: Mummy to Many

Talk soon,
Mary Nightingale

P.S. Thousands of future or current home daycare providers just like you have already signed up to my ‘how to start a home daycare’ newsletter. It’s getting a bit overwhelming and I may cap signups soon, but for the time being you can still join. Don’t worry, it’s free. All you have to do is enter your name and e-mail below:

I’ve just been reading an article about communicating with children which you may find useful.

Here’s an excerpt:

“Listening for Love

There is nothing that makes a person feel more cared about than to be listened to. Take the time to be with your child as an interested, non-judgemental friend, and listen to what he has to say.

Listen with respect. Children’s concerns may be different from ours, but the emotions they feel are the same. Give your child freedom to express her feelings and views without fear of ridicule or judgment. Show her that you acknowledge and respect what she has to say.

Listening sets early patterns for life-long communication skills. If you take the time to listen, you teach them they are important. You help them trust their own perceptions. You also improve communication and make it easier to talk to them in the future. “Listening time” pays off in trust and courtesy down the road.”

You can read the whole thing here: Listening for Love

Talk soon,
Mary Nightingale

P.S. Thousands of future or current home daycare providers just like you have already signed up to my ‘how to start a home daycare’ newsletter. It’s getting a bit overwhelming and I may cap signups soon, but for the time being you can still join. Don’t worry, it’s free. All you have to do is enter your name and e-mail below:

I’ve just found some very useful information about public-private partnerships for child care.

If that’s something that interests you, I recommend you take a look.

Here’s an excerpt:

“During the past decade, rapidly changing political and economic forces have created an environment in which many public- and private-sector leaders have discovered a strong mutual interest in exploring new ways to form and sustain partnerships. As many states and communities are learning, partnerships can effectively bring together a wide range of contributors, including governments, businesses, philanthropies, families, and service providers, to expand and improve child care and other services for children and families.

This guide is designed to provide practical information on creating and maintaining public-private child care partnerships to increase and improve child care in states and communities throughout the country. It draws from the experiences and wisdom of successful partnership leaders at the national, state, and local levels to provide resources for existing and future partnerships.”

You can read the whole thing here: A Guide to Successful Public-Private Partnerships for Child Care

Talk soon,
Mary Nightingale

P.S. Thousands of future or current home daycare providers just like you have already signed up to my ‘how to start a home daycare’ newsletter. It’s getting a bit overwhelming and I may cap signups soon, but for the time being you can still join. Don’t worry, it’s free. All you have to do is enter your name and e-mail below:

I’ve just found a really interesting article about communicating with parents. I’ve reprinted it for you below:

COMMUNICATING WITH PARENTS

National Network for Child Care’s Connections Newsletter

Christine M. Todd
Human Development Specialist
Cooperative Extension
University of Illinois

Copyright/Access Information

As you begin the new year, think about how you might involve parents in the lives of their children. Imagine what it must be like for parents. They drop their child off at 7:30 a.m. and don’t see the child again until 5 or 6 p.m. When they do get together, everyone is tired. This often hinders meaningful conversation.

Even under the best of circumstances, children have trouble telling parents about their day. So much has happened that it is hard for them to remember individual activities. And the more limited vocabularies and experiences of younger children often make descriptions confusing or too brief. In contrast, older children often resent questioning by parents and are less likely to describe their day spontaneously.

As tired parents pick up tired kids, it is not always evident that parents want to know what is going on with their child. Here are some ways you can support their need for feedback.

1. Distribute a brief newsletter listing the activities of the week, upcoming events, etc.

2. Post a list of the day’s activities on the wall. Display the children’s projects under the poster.

3. Send a note about each child home once a week. Briefly describe an activity the child enjoyed. Talk about some of the friends the child has made. Mention one nice thing the child has done. It doesn’t have to be long, and it means so much to parents to get personal feedback. Focusing on the positive will help to strengthen your relationship with parents. If parents trust you, they will be more likely to work with you if any problems occur. It can also be helpful to list a question for the parent to ask the child. For example, you may write “Ask Julie about the song she made up today.” This will help foster two-way communication between parents and children.

4. Schedule a brief conference with parents early in the year to let them know how things are going and to give them an opportunity to ask questions.

5. Publish a list of resources for parents. Many organization offer free or low-cost pamphlets for parents on topics such as child development, discipline, nutrition, child safety, dealing with divorce, etc. You may also want to get a few of the publications and put them in a rack.

Child care providers have entered into a partnership with parents to raise today’s children. Be sure to include this important “partner” in your program!

DOCUMENT USE/COPYRIGHT
National Network for Child Care - NNCC. Part of CYFERNET, the National Extension Service
Children Youth and Family Educational Research Network. Permission is granted to reproduce
these materials in whole or in part for educational purposes only (not for profit beyond the cost of
reproduction) provided that the author and Network receive acknowledgment and this notice is
included:

Reprinted with permission from the National Network for Child Care - NNCC. Todd, C. (1994). Communicating with parents. In Todd, C.M. (Ed.), *School-age connections*, 2(1), Urbana-Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Cooperative Extension Service.

Talk soon,
Mary Nightingale

P.S. Thousands of future or current home daycare providers just like you have already signed up to my ‘how to start a home daycare’ newsletter. It’s getting a bit overwhelming and I may cap signups soon, but for the time being you can still join. Don’t worry, it’s free. All you have to do is enter your name and e-mail below:

I’ve just found an article that you may find useful in solving disputes in your home daycare. Here it is:

HELPING CHILDREN DEAL WITH DIFFERENCES

National Network for Child Care’s Connections Newsletter

Marilyn Brink, M.Ed., ECE
District Supervisor/Trainer
Two Rivers Head Start, St. Charles, Illinois

Copyright Access Information

When noted kindergarten teacher Vivian Paley and her students from the University of Chicago lab school adopted a new classroom rule: You can’t say “you can’t play,” they realized that’s not how things worked in the real world. They began to see that whether or not you could play often depended on how you looked or whether you were different. So Paley and her students decided to try to make their classroom “nicer” than the real world.

All children learn very early what adults around them value. Between the ages of 2 and 5, children are becoming aware of gender, race, ethnicity, and disabilities (Neugebauer, 1992). They can see how we feel about people who are different from us. And our feelings gradually begin to influence their feelings. Children do what we do, not what we tell them to do.

We need to become aware of our own attitudes. Ana Consuelo Matiella encourages us to give children an environment in which they can begin to learn about differences. Our goal in this type of environment is for children to develop fairness and tolerance for differences and to learn to challenge unfair treatment of others.

For the longest time, in our efforts to be fair, we have tried to treat all children alike. “I don’t even notice Kiki’s color,” her caregiver claims. Louise Derman-Sparks calls this the color-blind approach. She says that people who deny differences mean well. They are trying to counter bigotry by saying we are all alike under our skin. But this approach defines being different as something negative. When we deny a child’s differences, we ignore his uniqueness.

Because children form identity and self-concept during this sensitive period of development, we must answer their questions honestly and factually. We must take the time to challenge distorted thinking, which is actually preprejudice (York, 1991). Young children watch their parents and teachers to see how they react to prejudicial ideas and comments. Our responses greatly affect the ideas that they will form.

Preschool children are naturally curious about the world, and they have questions about specific things that they notice. Questions about physical, gender, ethnic, or racial differences may be difficult for some adults to answer. But the way we answer will influence the child who is concluding that something is “wrong” with a person who is different.

Elizabeth Cary, author of “Talking about Differences Children Notice,” gives some guidelines for responding to awkward questions. Children are more comfortable with differences when they understand why people are different.

RESPOND PROMPTLY. If possible, answer questions as soon as children ask them. If you ignore questions, children may decide that there is something wrong about the question or the person the question concerns. Children learn not to ask questions that make people uncomfortable. Prejudice often begins when children develop misconceptions based on their limited experiences.

GIVE SIMPLE ANSWERS. Answers should be simple and relate to a child’s experience and level of development. If a child asks, “Why is that man so dark?,” you can say simply, “He is dark because his mother and/or father is dark. You have blond hair just like your mother.”

MODEL RESPECTFUL BEHAVIOR, BOTH VERBALLY AND NONVERBALLY. Many people were taught as children not to stare. They were taught so well that they avoid looking at people with disabilities at all.

ACKNOWLEDGE CHILDREN’S FEARS. Some children are afraid of the unknown. They may have wrong ideas about people who are different. They may be suspicious of unusual people and resist the new and different. Fears should be accepted, and children should be offered help to deal with their fears. Helpful responses acknowledge the child’s feelings. You might say, “You’re scared of the man without legs.” Then give the child the tools and experiences to help her deal with her fear.

INTRODUCE DIFFERENCES THROUGH BOOKS. It can be less threatening for some children to meet people who are different first in a book. Issues surrounding differences can be discussed in terms of the characters in the book. Then you can broaden the discussion to include children in the group or people in the community.

It is important for adults to be sensitive to the unasked questions as well (Cary, 1992). If you sense that a child is confused or uneasy, try to verbalize those feelings for him. Get feelings out in the open so you can talk about them.

Remember, though, that actions speak louder than words. So we must be especially careful about how our actions shape the values that children learn as they encounter the people in their world. If we don’t act, they will learn by default the messages that are all too prevalent in the world. And we’ll find ourselves perpetuating ideas that we really do not want to pass on to our children.

REFERENCES

Cary, E. 1992. “Talking about Differences Children Notice.” In B. Neugebauer (Ed.), *Alike and Different* (pp. 11-15). Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Derman-Sparks, L. 1992. “Reaching Potentials Through Anti-Bias, Multicultural Curriculum.” In S. Bredekamp and T. Rosegrant (Eds.), *Reaching Potentials: Appropriate Curriculum and Assessment for Young Children*, vol. 1. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Heller, C. Spring 1993. “Equal Play.” In *Teaching Tolerance*, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 24-37.

Matiella, A. 1991. Positively Different: Creating a Bias-Free Environment for Young Children. Santa Cruz, CA: ETR Associates.

York, S. 1991. *Roots And Wings: Affirming Culture in Early Childhood Programs*. Minnesota: Redleaf Press.

Reprinted with permission from the Fox Valley AEYC, Elgin, Illinois.

DOCUMENT USE/COPYRIGHT
National Network for Child Care - NNCC. Part of CYFERNET, the National Extension Service
Children Youth and Family Educational Research Network. Permission is granted to reproduce
these materials in whole or in part for educational purposes only (not for profit beyond the cost of
reproduction) provided that the author and Network receive acknowledgment and this notice is
included:

Reprinted with permission from the National Network for Child Care - NNCC. Brink, M. (1994). Helping children deal with differences. In Todd, C.M. (Ed.), *Child care center connections*, 4(3), pp. 1-3. Urbana-Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Cooperative Extension Service.

Talk soon,
Mary Nightingale

P.S. Thousands of future or current home daycare providers just like you have already signed up to my ‘how to start a home daycare’ newsletter. It’s getting a bit overwhelming and I may cap signups soon, but for the time being you can still join. Don’t worry, it’s free. All you have to do is enter your name and e-mail below:

I just found a great article all about keeping records in your home daycare.

I’ve reprinted it below for you:

FAMILY DAY CARE RECORD KEEPING

Constance A. Bettis
District Specialist, Communities, Families and Youth
Cooperative Extension
University of Massachusetts
Family Day Care Facts series

Copyright/Access Information

YOU WILL LEARN:

- what records must be kept for your business.

- how to set up a record keeping system.

WHY KEEPING RECORDS IS IMPORTANT

As a family day care provider, you must keep good records. You are running a small business.

You must keep records of your income and expenses. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and your state Department of Revenue require them. You are in business to earn money. Good records will show you how much you are making.

Your support and licensing agencies require you to keep attendance and health records and medical authorizations for the children. These records are also needed to give emergency care. Your Child and Adult Care Food Program sponsor will review your menus and attendance records. Then, you will be paid back for some of the cost of the meals and snacks you serve.

SET UP A SYSTEM FOR KEEPING YOUR RECORDS

The first thing you need is something to hold your records. You can use a file cabinet, a drawer, or a sturdy box. A box or drawer is easy to carry. You may be able to take it to a table and do some work while the children are napping.

You need to put your records in order. You’ll need separate files for the children’s information, business records, Child and Adult Care Food Program, and other records that your sponsors need. Your records can be kept in large envelopes or file folders. You can make your own files from paper bags or cardboard.

CHILDREN IN YOUR CARE

You will need a folder for each child. Each child’s folder should contain:

* enrollment information such as the child’s name and birth date; food likes and dislikes; toileting habits; nap schedule; discipline methods; parent’s home, work, and school addresses and phone numbers; parent’s schedule.
* records required by your state licensing or registering agency.
* medical and health records, including emergency medical authorization and immunization records and information about any allergies.
* a signed copy of the Parent-Provider Agreement.
* copies of letters sent to parents.
* attendance records.

BUSINESS RECORDS

Your business records should include:

* receipts for all your day care purchases (groceries, toys, VCR tape rentals, etc.).
* your mileage record.
* a monthly record of income and expenses.
* a yearly record of income and expenses.
* copies of your liability insurance policies.
* copies of your tax returns.
* tax forms and instruction booklets.
* warranties for day care purchases.

CHILD AND ADULT CARE FOOD PROGRAM

Records for the Child and Adult Care Food Program may include:

* monthly menus.
* meal and snack attendance records.
* nutrition information.

ACTIVITIES TO DO

1. Make a business record box. Find a box to hold your records. Ask for a box at the grocery store. It should be big enough to hold 9″ x 11″ paper. Cover the box with contact paper. This will make the box sturdier.

Make dividers from stiff cardboard. Label the dividers by subject. Your labels could include “Children in Day Care,” “Monthly Income and Expenses,” and “Child and Adult Care Food Program.” Make or buy files for your records. Files can be grocery bags, manila file folders, or large envelopes.

Just for practice, decide where would you put the records listed below:

* Parent-Provider Agreement signed by Judy Smith’s mother.
* Receipts for disposable diapers and two baby dolls.
* Menus for the month of November.
* Medication permission slip for Joseph Olevio.
* Liability insurance policy.

RESOURCES TO EXPLORE

Visit day care providers in your neighborhood and see how they set up their record-keeping system. Ask your day care organization to show you and other providers how to set up your records.

DOCUMENT USE/COPYRIGHT
National Network for Child Care - NNCC. Part of CYFERNET, the National Extension Service Children, Youth and Family Educational Research Network. Permission is granted to reproduce these materials in whole or in part for educational purposes only (not for profit beyond the cost of reproduction) provided that the author and Network receive acknowledgment and this notice is included:

Reprinted with permission from the National Network for Child Care - NNCC. Bettis, C.A. (1991). *Family day care record keeping*. (Family Day Care Facts series). Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts.

Talk soon,
Mary Nightingale

P.S. Thousands of future or current home daycare providers just like you have already signed up to my ‘how to start a home daycare’ newsletter. It’s getting a bit overwhelming and I may cap signups soon, but for the time being you can still join. Don’t worry, it’s free. All you have to do is enter your name and e-mail below:

I’ve just found a very useful factsheet about dealing with aggression in young children which I thought my readers may find interesting.

Here’s an excerpt:

“Where does aggression come from?
Do humans just have a fighting instinct? Is aggression the outcome of frustration? Most recent studies view aggressive acts not as the sole fault of the individual, but also as related to a set of cultural and social circumstances.

What factors lead to aggression?

The child

A child’s temperament and his/her learned coping skills are critical to the youngster’s being able to manage aggression. Statements such as ”boys are supposed to act out their anger” or “she is wild” are common expressions that parents and others use to refer to a child’s temperament.

Temperament is that part of the personality that seems to be controlled by genetics. There are basically three types of temperament— easy or flexible (60 percent of children), fearful and sensitive (25 percent of children), and feisty or difficult (15 percent of children).”

You can read the whole thing here: Childhood Aggression: Where does it come from? How can it be managed?

Talk soon,
Mary Nightingale

P.S. Thousands of future or current home daycare providers just like you have already signed up to my ‘how to start a home daycare’ newsletter. It’s getting a bit overwhelming and I may cap signups soon, but for the time being you can still join. Don’t worry, it’s free. All you have to do is enter your name and e-mail below:

I’ve just found a great article about helping young children to overcome fear and build courage.

Here it is:

FEAR AND COURAGE

Charles A. Smith, Ph.D.
Human Development Specialist
Human Development and Family Studies
Kansas State University Cooperative Extension

Copyright/Access Information

Healthy fears are a part of everyday life. They help adults and children recognize and respond quickly to danger. Sometimes, however, fears keep people from things they want to do. Caregivers can help children deal with their fears in many ways. Here are some suggestions to consider.

ESTABLISH AN ATMOSPHERE OF ACCEPTANCE AND RESPECT. Children need a safe place to express their fears openly. Any fear is very real to children, no matter how unreasonable it appears to us. Avoid responding to children’s fears by ridiculing, shaming, punishing, overprotecting, or ignoring.

UNDERSTAND HOW CHILDREN’S FEARS DEVELOP. Some fears are very normal at certain ages. With time, children usually outgrow these fears. Infants fear loud noises, strangers, and separation from parents. Toddlers fear strangers, separation from parents, and the unknown. As their imaginations grow, preschoolers and school-age children fear the dark, being injured, animals, being left alone, and death. In addition to these fears, older school-age children worry about not living up to the expectations of parents and teachers. During adolescence, teenagers often worry about the possibility of things such as nuclear war and natural disasters.

ESTABLISH A PREDICTABLE ROUTINE. A consistent daily routine provides children with a sense of power and control. It lets them know what to expect. Children’s fears often stem from a lack of information about what is happening in their lives. When special activities occur or changes in the routine are necessary, talk with the children about what will happen.

PREPARE CHILDREN FOR STRESSFUL SITUATIONS. Activities such as field trips, visitors, or fire drills can be frightening. Often, children are afraid because they do not know what to expect. Before the event happens, talk with the children. Ask them what they think will happen. Help them understand what is likely to happen. Involve children in a group discussion following the experience to discuss what really happened.

TEACH CHILDREN HOW TO COPE WITH FEAR. Use words like “afraid,” “fear,” and “scared” to talk about how children feel. Talk about some of the fears you experienced when you were young. Talk with children about things you did when you were afraid. Explain how and why you did those things.

RECOGNIZE CHILDREN’S MOMENTS OF PERSONAL COURAGE. Take the time to notice when children courageously face personal fears. Express pride when you see them conquer a fear, such as climbing the jungle gym or joining a group of new friends.

Recognize when children’s fears are excessive. Recommend that the parents seek professional help if the child’s fear becomes disruptive to his life. Consider the following questions when reaching this decision. How long has the fear persisted? Is the fear harmful to the child? Is the fear interfering with normal behavior or relationships? Is the fear preventing the child from actively participating in life?

Plan activities that allow children to express their feelings. Children can express their feelings of fear and courage through singing songs, dictating and writing stories, reading stories, drawing pictures, or role playing. Here are several activities to try.

ACROSS-THE-BRIDGE-GAME

PURPOSE: to help children learn the difference between reasonable and unreasonable danger.

AGE: 2-1/2+

SETTING: large open area.

MATERIALS: balance beams (you can use long, wide pieces of wood on the ground.)

ACTIVITY:
1. Set up the balance beams in a large open area.

2. Ask the children to pretend that the beams are bridges across imaginary water.

3. Have the children walk one by one across the bridges by placing one foot in front of the other.

4. Encourage hesitant children gently. Help them recognize their feelings of fear as well as their abilities to conquer it.

BULLETIN BOARD

PURPOSE: to help children become aware of fear and courage.

AGE: 4+

SETTING: Bulletin board or wall.

MATERIALS: a large piece of plain paper and magazine pictures that illustrate fear and courage.

ACTIVITY:
1. Draw a front page of a newspaper on the plain paper. Title it “The Classroom Daily” - Fear and Courage Issue.

2. Talk with children about fear and courage. Use their ideas to write newspaper articles. Highlight the children’s names by their comments.

3. Illustrate some of the comments with the magazine pictures.

4. Display it on the wall or bulletin board where parents can see it.

MAKING A NIGHTMARE

PURPOSE: to provide children with a creative outlet for expressing fears related to nightmares.

AGE: 4+

SETTING: Art Center. Have a few children participate at a time.

MATERIALS: large grocery sacks stuffed with wadded newspapers and taped shut, yarn, tempera paint, brushes, smocks, glue, construction paper, and scissors.

ACTIVITY:
1. After reading *There’s a Nightmare in My Closet*, have the children make their own nightmares.

2. Spread the art supplies out on the table. Use the stuffed grocery sacks as the head and body. Suggestion: Older children could write or dictate stories about their individual nightmares.

DOCUMENT USE/COPYRIGHT
National Network for Child Care - NNCC. Part of CYFERNET, the National Extension Service
Children Youth and Family Educational Research Network. Permission is granted to reproduce
these materials in whole or in part for educational purposes only (not for profit beyond the cost of
reproduction) provided that the author and Network receive acknowledgment and this notice is
included:

Reprinted with permission from the National Network for Child Care - NNCC. Smith, C.A. (1992). Fear and courage. In Todd, C.M. (Ed.), *Day care center connections*, 1(6), pp. 1-3. Urbana-Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Cooperative Extension Service.

Talk soon,
Mary Nightingale

P.S. Thousands of future or current home daycare providers just like you have already signed up to my ‘how to start a home daycare’ newsletter. It’s getting a bit overwhelming and I may cap signups soon, but for the time being you can still join. Don’t worry, it’s free. All you have to do is enter your name and e-mail below:

I’ve just found an interesting article about using worksheets with young children which I thought you might find interessting.

Here it is:

WORKSHEETS: GOOD OR BAD?

National Network for Child Care’s Connections Newsletter

Peggy Patten, M.Ed.
Staff Development Coordinator
School of Human Resources and Family Studies
University of Illinois

Copyright/Access Information

Parents and child care professionals serve as children’s first teachers. Children become ready for school through the environments we set up and the activities we offer. Therefore, it is important to understand what does and does not lead to “academic readiness.”

Studies of children have shown repeatedly that young children learn best through active involvement with real objects in child-directed play. Children learn to read by being exposed to stories, books, and language from very early in life, rather than phonics drills or worksheets. They learn math by sorting, counting, and dividing real objects, not through completing problems on paper.

Does that mean then that there is no place for worksheets in a high-quality child care setting? No - for two reasons.

First, worksheets can provide opportunities to reinforce skills children are already working on - writing letters and words, identifying numbers in a sequence, identifying shapes and colors, etc. Worksheets should not provide the primary way children learn letters, words, colors, and numbers. Paper and pencil practice with these concepts can, however, reinforce awareness of concepts they are gaining through exploration and play.

Second, not all worksheets are created equal. Well-designed worksheets can encourage children’s creative thinking and problem-solving skills. Useful worksheets encourage children to expand their creativity or sharpen their thinking skills. These worksheets usually allow children to complete a task in many different ways. Here are some worksheet ideas that can foster children’s development in positive ways

* How many different ways can you complete this picture? (graphic of two cloud-shaped designs in opposite corners)
* You have just returned from a trip in outer space. You discovered a new planet. What does it look like? (graphic of spaceship, stars, and a planet)
* This is a magic wand. What did it make? (graphic of magic wand)

The above examples encourage creativity in children. They will also help children develop flexible thinking skills. These skills are sometimes called divergent thinking skills and are important to children’s intellectual development.

Worksheets can also help children develop problem-solving skills. Familiar examples are worksheets with dot-to-dot activities, pictures out of sequence, word scrambles, and riddles to be answered. These tasks can range in complexity from easy to difficult. Unlike the divergent thinking process described above, these kinds of activities call for organizing information to arrive at one answer. This process is called convergent thinking and is also important to children’s development.

There are several sources for worksheets that provide these creative thinking and problem-solving opportunities. Two that come to mind are the series of coloring books by Susan Striker and Edward Kimmel called the *Anti-Coloring Books*. They are available in many children’s book catalogues and in many local bookstores. Highlights for Children, Inc., publishes a series of books for children called *Highlights’ Puzzlemania*.

The goal, then, is to use worksheets as you would any other learning tool - as a resource that supplements a rich and varied program where children are actively exploring and interacting with adults, other children, and materials.

No article on worksheets would be complete without discussing how to respond to parents’ requests for worksheets. Many caregivers say that they would prefer not using rote worksheets but feel that parents expect them to. There are probably two major reasons why this occurs. First, parents often do not understand how children learn to read, write, or do math. Many mistakenly feel that children who do many worksheets will learn earlier or faster. An important role we serve as child care professionals is to help parents better understand what is and is not good for children at different ages. Here are some quotes from a pamphlet published by the United States Department of Education that may be helpful to share with parents:

“The best way for parents to help their children become better readers is to read to them - even when they are very young. Children benefit most from reading aloud when they discuss stories, learn to identify letters and words, and talk about the meaning of words… children whose parents simply read to them perform as well as those whose parents use workbooks…” (*What Works*, p.9).

“Children who are encouraged to draw and scribble ’stories’ at an early age will later learn to compose [write] more easily, more effectively, and with greater confidence than children who do not have this encouragement” (p. 14).

“A good way to teach children simple arithmetic is to build on their informal knowledge. This is why learning to count everyday objects is an effective basis for early arithmetic lessons” (p. 13).

As you can see, each of these statements suggests that creative, child-initiated exploration, rather than worksheets, contributes most to the early development of reading, writing, and math skills.

The second reason that parents often prefer worksheets is because worksheets are a source of information about their child. Remember, parents are not sitting in a corner observing all the wonderful things their children are learning. The feedback they receive about their child is limited to brief conversations at the end of the day and the “products” their child brings home. Parents’ insistence on worksheets may be due, in part, to their desperate need to know what is happening to their child during the day. Find ways to let parents know what their child did during the day, and what the child learned from those activities.

* Save the child’s artwork or products to send home.
* Use a tape recorder to capture children’s conversations while they play. Or tape the questions they ask while you read a story. Send the tape home with parents along with a note about what skills the child is gaining (e.g., vocabulary, social problem-solving skills, memory skills, etc.).
* Put up a bulletin board where parents can see it when they walk in. List each child’s name and one activity they really enjoyed that day. Next to the activity write the skills the child gained from it. Add pictures taken of the children engaged in the activities.
* Videotape children engaged in play. Send the video home with parents or schedule a time for parents to view it in your home.

You can help children grow and develop by providing developmentally appropriate worksheets, educating parents about how children really learn the three Rs, and providing feedback to parents about their children.
REFERENCES

U.S. Department of Education (1986). *What Works: Research About Teaching and Learning*. Washington, DC: Author.

DOCUMENT USE/COPYRIGHT
National Network for Child Care - NNCC. Part of CYFERNET, the National Extension Service
Children Youth and Family Educational Research Network. Permission is granted to reproduce
these materials in whole or in part for educational purposes only (not for profit beyond the cost of
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Reprinted with permission from the National Network for Child Care - NNCC. Patten, P. (1993). Worksheets: Good or bad?. In Todd, C.M. (Ed.), *Day care center connections*, 2(6), pp. 1-3. Urbana-Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Cooperative Extension Service.

Talk soon,
Mary Nightingale

P.S. Thousands of future or current home daycare providers just like you have already signed up to my ‘how to start a home daycare’ newsletter. It’s getting a bit overwhelming and I may cap signups soon, but for the time being you can still join. Don’t worry, it’s free. All you have to do is enter your name and e-mail below: