Child Care Health Newsletter
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Mission
To keep children safe and to lead in the promotion of healthy early childhood development through collaborative population-based interventions that support and educate the child care community.
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Stress Management for Child Care Providers
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Our newest class,
Stress Management for Child Care Providers
, which will be available November 6th, explores some of the stressors specific to child care workers. The class provides suggestions as to how to manage these stressors and offers direction on when to seek professional help with reducing stress levels. You’ll get an explanation of the impacts of personal stress, job stress, burnout, and secondary trauma. Because unmanaged stress can become chronic stress and contribute to high turnover in child care staff, it’s important to understand and address the stressors that we all experience.
According to the National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education, low staff turnover is a key indicator of quality child care. One of the most effective ways to decrease staff turnover is to reduce stress through various measures. Child care workers experience stress due to many factors such as low wages, children with challenging behaviors, lack of training, under-staffing, conflict with parents and co-workers…the list goes on and on. Child care workers also experience personal stressors common in American culture such as relationship issues, financial struggles, anxiety and worry about the future, etc.
If you’d like to get a jump start on understanding your own experience of stress, you can complete the
Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) found here (PDF)
. The PSS was developed by Sheldon Cohen, it helps individuals understand the ways in which various circumstances have influenced their stress levels over the past 30 days.
The SHD Child Care Health Outreach team hopes the stress management class will empower students to have more control over their own stress levels by building coping skills and integrating self-care as a way of living. After you take the class, be sure to let our Behavioral Health Specialist know what you think. You can email her directly at
adeas@snohd.org or write your comments into the class evaluation form.
Want to learn more about managing your stress?
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Tips for Transition Times Throughout the Day
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Many small transitions occur throughout the child care day. Transition times are those moments when children are being guided from one activity or area to the next. These transition times can often be chaotic, leading to stress for both children and caregivers. The risks of injuries are higher during these times.
Look at your daily schedule and identify all the different transitions during the day. Is there any way to reduce the number of transitions? When transitions cannot be eliminated, think about ways to help the children transition between activities.
Here are a few tips to help make transition times go smoothly:
- Give children plenty of advance notice that transitions are going to happen, reminding them verbally and visually, if possible.
- Let children know what will be happening next.
- Make transitions fun and interactive. For example, have them sing a song, repeat a clapping pattern, or follow a series of body movements such as standing on one leg, raising arms over their heads, etc.
- Use specific music or phrases to cue the children to specific transition times, such as playing a clean up song before outside time.
- Make sure that you have scheduled enough time for each activity so that children can finish what they are doing. This will minimize frustration.
- Have a plan for those children who finish activities sooner than others. For example, have some children go to the rug and look at books while others are finishing their art project.
- Have all materials ready and make sure adults are available to support children as they transition.
Download the information sheet
by clicking the
blue
button on the left to get even more ideas and information.
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Fall foods conjure up images of pumpkin pie smothered in whipped cream and sweet potatoes swimming in a sugary syrup topped with browned marshmallows. Although these are classic and welcome foods for times of celebration, an abundance of fall harvest foods are much more suitable for everyday meals. The wide variety of winter squash, colorful carrots and beets and various shades of red, green and yellow apples are a few tasty examples of the collection of fruits and vegetables that ripen in September and October.
In addition, Fall weather brings chilly mornings and rainy afternoons. The smell of baked goods makes us feel all warm and cozy inside and out! Why not put the two together and whip up a batch of easy to make
pumpkin oat muffins
(recipe link below) the kids will enjoy for breakfast or as an afternoon snack?! This recipe uses whole wheat flour and oats which makes this a whole grain food. It also uses canned pumpkin, although you can substitute baked squash or mashed sweet potatoes to get the same texture and pumpkin pie spice flavor.
Check out all the recipes from our September STARS training at the
Our Saviors Lutheran Child Care in Arlington
:
Recipes, Fall Fare Cooking Class
on our Child Care Health Outreach website. This resource includes the following fall recipes:
- Nectarine/Banana Smoothie
- Kale Chips
- Quick Cooking Brown Rice and Tofu Stir Fry
- Fall Vegetable Platter with Homemade Ranch
- Fall Fruit Platter with Homemade Pumpkin Spice with Yogurt Dip
- Spaghetti Squash “Mac and Cheese”
- White Bean and Butternut Squash Casserole
- Pumpkin/Oat Muffins
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Wondering how to make your child care mealtimes more pleasant and see an increase in foods eaten?
Our nutrition consultant is scheduling visits now
to provide some basic guidance for serving family style and establishing practical and healthy mealtime practices. While they last she will bring a “family style starter kit” including a child sized pitcher and serving utensils.
For more information or to schedule a visit, contact Katy Levenhagen, CCHOP Nutrition consultant,
klevenhagen@snohd.org
; 425-339- 5407
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Stress Management for Child Care Providers
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The class identifies stressors child care providers experience and suggests ways to manage these stressors. In this course, you will learn about the impacts of personal stress, job stress, burnout, and secondary trauma and how to combat these stressors with coping skills and self-care practices. Available November 6th.
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Find a full list of our 2018 classes
here.
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Contact Information
Snohomish Health District
3020 Rucker Ave., Ste. 104
Everett, WA 98201
Program Phone: 425.252.5415
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Connect with the
Child Care Health Outreach Program
The Child Care Health Outreach Program staff are available to consult with you on these and other health and safety topics by phone, by email, or at your child care.
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Connect with Snohomish Health District
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