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Seems that the weeks and months keep going quicker every year... The daily increase of Christmas music being played reminds us that the holiday season is nearly upon us.  Are you beginning to feel irritable, or tense?  Are you losing sleep or gaining weight?  Do you just feel overwhelmed?

If so, maybe you are suffering from holiday stress.  Most of of us end up dreading the holiday season because it is an exhausting time and the children are more "active" than normal.  So what can we do to put the fun back into the holidays?  All the experts say to start by lowering your expectations...  We don't always need to strive for that perfect holiday mixture of Norman Rockwell and Martha Stewart.  Maybe you even need to start some "new" family traditions.

Family Education has some great tips to reduce holiday stress...

1. Reassess and Prioritize
Holiday stress sets in when you try to do it all. Stress is an emotional reaction to circumstances that you feel are out of control. To cope, take some time out, rethink what's stressing you out, and look for alternatives.  Also, change your demands to preferences: Tell yourself, "If I have time, I'll do this and that. If not, I'll only do that."

2. Delegate!
Does the house need cleaning or decorating? Let each family member be responsible for a room or create a "job jar." Everybody takes a turn choosing what his or her job will be. Jobs can be color-coded according to age. When you delegate, you have to make your expectations clear to your kids, and you may have to lower your standards a little bit.

3. Don't Give in to the "Gimmes"
"I want, I want!" This familiar phrase can wear parents down over the holidays, but giving in to your child's every request can cause financial distress. Psychologist Dorothy Cantor says, "It's okay to tell your child that a gift is too expensive. Tell him that even Santa Claus has limited funds."

Another way to fight the commercialism of the holidays is to beef up on the traditions that don't cost any extra money. Bake cookies, go caroling, give to needy families, or volunteer. Explain to your kids that there are a lot of families who don't have as much as they do. To get kids into the spirit of giving, ask them to pick a few of their old toys to donate to the less fortunate.

4. Be Realistic About Relatives
When the in-laws visit this season, have realistic expectations for the short term. Don't try to solve past issues with family members over the holidays. It's not the time to bring up every little irritation. Use discretion. And if going to a certain relative's house every year causes a lot of holiday stress, decide if you really need to do it. Maybe you can go every other year instead.

5. Flexibility Can Buy You Time
How can you get anything done when the little ones are home on vacation and you only have a few days off? University of Indiana education professor Janette Shaw suggests parents take turns looking after kids with neighbors or colleagues. And how about hiring a babysitter to take the kids to the movies or to play with them for a few hours while you're working around the house.

6. Set Limits for College Kids
A college student home for the holidays can wreak havoc on family routines. For months now, your teen has been on his own and doing things very differently. The disruption could be the college girlfriend who plans to sleep in your son's bed. Or perhaps your daughter is now accustomed to sleeping with the radio blaring. Whatever the case, you'll need to set some ground rules in advance. Everyone's going to have to compromise during the visit. So it's important that parents and kids be respectful of each other.

We don't need to be perfect to enjoy this time of year... In fact, if you think about it, this is the time of year that we celebrate someone else taking care of our imperfections.  Relax and enjoy it!

// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 3:35 PM 0 comments

"He knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake.."

No, I'm not into singing Christmas songs already.  I just wanted to inform the child care providers in Minnesota of a new web application called "DHS Licensing Information Lookup" that the MN Deptartment of Human Services now has online.

Go to http://www.licensinglookup.dhs.state.mn.us/ to access public licensing information that is readily available to consumers and license holders.  This site provides:

• A list of licensed providers that can be sorted by city, county, or zip code. 
• Current status of a provider's license, including active, conditional, supsended, or revoked licenses.
• Services that a provider is licensed to provide including amount of kids that they are licensed for.
• Web links to related information.

Check out the site... for a quick review, just type in your city and look at the listing of providers that appears. Click the link on any provider to find out detailed information about that provider.

This is a nice site.  The information provided has generally been available on the web in the past, but not nearly so accessable and user friendly.  Check it out and see what you think...

In related news, the DHS is also announcing no cost child care referrals for families through the CCR&R website. They are available online at http://www.mnchildcare.org/internetreferral.php.

// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 9:22 PM 0 comments

Are you considering high tech toys for your children for Christmas?  You may want to reconsider...

From laptops for the under-fives to interactive dolls, technology is driving the childhood experiences of the next generation - and nobody knows what the long-term effects will be.

Critics are concerned about a variety of potential dangers, including shorter attention spans brought on by fast-moving objects on screens to the frequency emissions.

Some experts suggest that the alarming rise in autism may be related to screen-based viewing by very young children.

Despite the concerns, toy manufacturers have never had it so good, with a market of time-poor parents who want to give their offspring a head-start in the new childhood brain-race, which can involve an expensive private-school education and after-school tutoring from the age of six.

There's no doubt that the market is growing: Australia is officially in the grip of a "baby bounce", with the national fertility rate on the increase and more babies born last year than in any year since 1993.

But while baby-boomer children had quarter-acre blocks filled with siblings and neighbouring children to play with outside, the new baby-bounce kids are cocooned indoors and in need of constant entertainment.

If you believe the tech-toy hype, early intervention is the key to breeding a smarter child, and the earliest schoolroom for the precocious progeny of pushy parents is the womb. There are now gadgets designed to fast-track the developing mind of in-utero child.

Read the entire article...

In addition, a study recently released proves that there is just as substantial child development happening with building blocks as with some of the new "high tech" learning toys for young children...

Forget all the media products for babies on the market and go for the classic building blocks, suggests a new study linking playing with blocks with improved language acquisition in toddlers.

The Child Health Institute at the University of Washington released results Thursday from a six-month clinical trial showing middle- and lower-income children 1.5 to 2.5 years of age who engage in block play scored significantly higher on an internationally recognized scale measuring toddlers' language development.

The team of researchers, led by pediatrician Dr. Dimitri Christakis, also found on any given day these children were more than 80 per cent less likely to watch television than children in the control group, who did not receive blocks.

Noting "an increasing number of media-based products are making unsubstantiated claims they can make children smarter, more literate, or more musical," the study takes direct aim at companies like Walt Disney's Baby Einstein Co., which markets a line of DVDs for newborns and toddlers.

"It's a critical period in a young child's development, and everybody is trying to optimize that development," Christakis said in an interview.

"Parents are inundated with messages that are totally unsubstantiated and totally ungrounded in cognitive theory. This study tried to demonstrate experimentally that there are particular toys that do help cognitive development. The burden should be on toy manufacturers to prove their claims."

Read the entire article...

// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 3:48 PM 0 comments

Researchers have long known how important it is for mothers to talk to their babies.

Now a new study is showing the importance of dads talking to their toddlers, too. Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have found that the number of words a father uses when a child is 2 might influence the child's vocabulary a year later.

"The fact was, the number of different words the dad used when their child was 24 months of age predicted the child's language score at 36 months of age," said Lynne Vernon-Feagans, co-author of the study. Vernon-Feagans is also the William C. Friday distinguished professor of Child and Family Studies at Chapel Hill's Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute.

Read the rest of the article...

// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 8:12 PM 0 comments

Tomorrow is said to be the largest shopping day of the year. Do you know what gifts to give chilldren?

The right gift for the right age

Birth-18 months
Babies learn about the world from sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. Choose brightly colored noisemakers, activity quilts with different textures, attachments that squeak or jingle, rattles, activity bars and soft balls to drop and retrieve. Babies learn about dexterity and the concept of cause-and-effect. As they grow, they're ready to experiment with nesting cups, activity boxes, stacking rings, large blocks, and a little later with shape-sorters. These toys help develop fine motor skills and teach relationships among objects.

18 months-3 years:
Toddlers delight in running, jumping, climbing and riding. A ride-on toy, low climbing toys, large balls, and outdoor items like a sandbox or wading pool are good choices for developing gross motor skills. Take-apart toys, pop-up toys and simple puzzles gratify toddlers' curiosity about how things work, reinforcing their eye-hand coordination and understanding of spatial orientation and cause and effect. The time-tested classic is a good block set or modeling clay. Tambourines, xylophones, drums and other simple musical instruments are satisfying noisemakers.

Read the rest of the article...

Here are some resources that can help...

• Dr. Toy's Guide; the world's first website to provide information on the best in toys and educational products, offers year-round, award-winning toy and children's product information plus timely articles, useful resources, links and much more. Dr. Toy has released the 100 Best Children's Products for 2006.
• The Parent's Choice Foundation states that, "Good toys are about construction, not destruction. They’re about sparking imaginations, not stifling them. Good toys (and puzzles and games) offer new ways of thinking, new ways of seeing, and new ways of creating. Good toys offer new approaches to learning; imagination, not a battery, is the catalyst. From the magic of science to the worlds of make believe, learning adventures here are propelled by puppets, mind-bending puzzles, and some knock-your-socks-off games." Check out their awards for best books and best toys of 2006.
• The Oppenheim Toy Portfolio was founded in 1989 as the only independent consumer review of children's media. They test and review products for children the year-round. Check out the information on this website by clicking the appropriate age link on the left.
• The Child Toy Guide has good information on how to choose the right toy for a child as well as toy reviews.
• One of my favorite early childhood activity sites, Kids Domain, also has a good listing of what toys to look for this year.
• Finally, don't forget to check out The Toy Guy. He will help you look at a lot of different toys.

I hope you have a relaxing day and enjoy your Thanksgiving and eat lots of good food with your family and friends. Make sure to play a little Thanksgiving Bingo and watch some parades. And if you do go out shopping tomorrow, have fun and hey... let's be careful out there!

// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 7:54 AM 0 comments

Next week is National Family Week.

Make sure to share this information with your families. Below is a press release that has some interesting information...

PreschoolRock.com Encourages Families to Participate in National Family Week

PreschoolRock.com has partnered with Alliance for Children and Families to bring awareness to the importance of family, community and togetherness.

San Francisco, CA, November 14, 2006 --(PR.COM)-- PreschoolRock.com is asking families to spend time together during National Family Week, November 19 – 25. National Family Week: Connections Count is being celebrated by families and organizations in communities nationwide.

National Family Week: Connections Count embraces the premise that children live better lives when their families are strong, and families are strong when they live in communities that connect them to economic opportunities, social networks, and services. These "connections," celebrated during National Family Week, include access to reliable transportation, employment opportunities, education, child care, housing, health care, and support from community networks and institutions.

Read the rest of the press release...

Learn more about National Family Week 2006 at www.nationalfamilyweek.org

PreschoolRock.com provides parenting information, preschool activity and craft ideas, health, fitness and nutrition information, game and book reviews, buying advice and other helpful information for preschool teachers and parents of preschoolers. This is a great site to visit. I'm sure you'll want to bookmark this site for future reference.

// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 6:00 PM 0 comments

• Transitioning to Kindergarten: A Toolkit for Early Childhood Educators: This Toolkit is a new, easy-to-use resource to help educators and child care providers prepare their children for kindergarten. Download it free here.
• New Downloadable Resources for the Get Ready to Read! Skill-building Activities: We have added pages of downloadable word lists and pictures to ensure that you have all the tools you need to use the activity cards in the classroom and at home.
• Get Ready to Read! Online Training Center: If you are conducting a Get Ready to Read! training workshop, you will find the resources that you need here.
• Updated Regional Resources: In the GRTR! Across America section, you’ll find useful Internet and print resources on early literacy and early childhood education.
• A literacy screening tool for children. This tool is designed to screen a child twice during the year before kindergarten. Use the tool first in the fall one year before the child enters kindergarten, and again the next fall before kindergarten begins, to measure the child's progress.
• Online games and activities for children.
• And much, much more...

This is a site that you really need to check out for yourself and spend some time browsing. There is a great deal of information and useful tools provided for free....

// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 4:00 PM 0 comments

Unions strike agreement on organizing child-care providers
By Michael Moore, St. Paul Union Advocate editor

ST. PAUL - Two major unions have reached agreement on plans for organizing child care providers, among the lowest-paid workers in Minnesota.

Organizers from AFSCME and SEIU have spent months fanning out across the state, knocking on doors and encouraging home-based child-care providers to join their unions. In late September an arbitrator issued a jurisdictional ruling that resolved any confusion over which union providers should join.

The arbitrator accepted a proposal that, roughly speaking, divided the state in half. The agreement gives Child Care Providers Together/ AFSCME jurisdiction to organize providers in the northern half of the state and SEIU Kids First jurisdiction to organize in the southern half.

In the east-metro area, SEIU gained jurisdiction in Anoka and Dakota counties. AFSCME gained jurisdiction in Ramsey, Washington and Chisago counties.

"The unions came to a decision together," said Kristin Beckmann, acting director of the SEIU state council. "Now we're working together to do the best by child-care providers and the kids and families they serve."

Both unions hope the agreement will result not only in greater representation for child-care workers, but in increased clout with lawmakers in St. Paul as well.

"With Child Care Providers Together and Kids First joining forces, providers will have a united voice at the capitol," said Eliot Seide, director of AFSCME Council 5. "Our common goal is affordable, quality child care for working families."

The state has not moved toward that goal in recent legislative sessions, providers say. Instead, $140 million in child-care budget cuts have resulted in lower wages and concerns about quality.

Providers in Minnesota earn an average of $2.83 an hour per child. Without greater state investment in the child-care system, that average is unlikely to go up.

"Higher pay for providers will not come at the expense of parents," said Lisa Thompson, a child care provider and president of Ramsey County Child Care Providers Together, which already has struck a partnership with Ramsey County commissioners to lobby together during future legislative sessions. "Parents can't afford to pay more. Instead, the state needs to invest in kids by increasing subsidies for quality early care and education."

Minnesota's waiting list for child care assistance grew to almost 5,000 families before the legislature, led by DFL Sen. John Hottinger, took action last spring. Parents who cannot afford child care risk leaving the workforce to take care of children at home.

"People can't afford to pay $300 per week (for child care)," Thompson said. "In order for quality childcare to be available for everyone, it needs to be in some way, shape or form subsidized by the state. Otherwise, what it does is make quality child care available only for the rich."

Not only would greater state investment help parents keep their jobs, proponents say it would be a proven investment in the state's future, too. In a study conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, every dollar spent on early childhood education yielded $13 in public benefits.

"All the research points to how important the first five years of a child's life are, but our state doesn't start much of its investment in our children until age 5," Thompson said. "A lot of the groundwork is already done by then in terms of brain development."

For information about joining Child Care Providers Together, call 651-287-0581 or visit www.afscmemn.org. For information about joining Kids First, visit www.seiumn.org or call 651.203.0401.

Reprinted from The Union Advocate, the official newspaper of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly. E-mail The Advocate at: advocate@stpaulunions.org

// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 6:05 PM 0 comments

Business leaders buying into the idea of preschool programs' value
Neal St. Anthony, Star Tribune

Business is poised to become an advocate for improved early childhood education, building on a Federal Reserve study that showed a return of 16 percent annually on every dollar invested.

Al Stroucken, the CEO of H.B. Fuller, is in his third year of advocating for more business and public support for effective preschool programs. As he prepares to convene the third annual Minnesota Business Forum on School Readiness, at General Mills on Oct. 27, he's confident that business people and politicians are starting to get the idea.

"We're clearly making a transition from talking about the importance of early childhood education to fixing the problems," Stroucken said this week. "We've had fairly good success in raising the awareness level and making sure that business understands this is a business as well as a societal issue. I think there's a basic understanding from the political parties that this is something that needs to be addressed."

In a nutshell, a business task force headed by Stroucken got underway in 2003 after reviewing a study by Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank researchers. The study found that money invested in early-age education for needy kids returns 16 percent annually to taxpayers in terms of lower special-education costs, crime and social-service expenses.

That's because kids who aren't ready for kindergarten tend to drop out of high school and get in trouble a lot more often than kids who succeed in school, get jobs and pay taxes.

Minnesotans spend about $1.5 billion on day-care and preschool programs. State and federal governments spend about $300 million on Head Start and day-care subsidies for working poor families in the state. But state funding was curbed during the 2003-05 time period because of budget deficits.

It's estimated that a third to half of Minnesota kids aren't ready for kindergarten.

Stroucken, Cargill executive Rob Johnson and other business leaders produced a compelling report in 2004, then formed Minnesota Business for Early Learning, a 200-member organization of executives and organizations focused on the role of business in school-readiness. In response, the Legislature created the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation in 2005. The foundation is researching the most cost-effective early learning
programs for the families who need it most but can't afford it. The board includes CEOs from Cargill, Best Buy, Blue Cross and Blue Shield and leaders of the Twin Cities United Way and the Minnesota Business Partnership.

The Legislature restored some funding to early learning and family-education programs for the working poor this year. The day-care and early learning lobby will be after more in the upcoming session. There may be some business lobbying.

The United Way, chaired this year by Stroucken, is shifting and increasing funding to early learning to the tune of about $60 million. More information on the Oct. 27 conference, expected to include representatives of the gubernatorial candidates, is at www.mnbel.org.

// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 6:11 PM 0 comments

For the Minnesota readers here some websites that can help you out...

• Simple instructions on how to hold a voter registration drive (PDF)
• A pre-event flyer that you can post and copy to send home with your staff and parents, promoting the voter registration day
• A flyer [color, black & white] that can be handed out to remind your parents and providers that their vote does make a difference!
• Fact sheets ("The fundamentals of Voting and Voter Registration") and "Voter's Bill of Rights" that can also be distributed during the event or on their own
• A poster/flyer [color, black & white] reminding everyone to Vote on November 7th (general election) which you can hang in a prominent location in your facility.

// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 4:15 PM 0 comments