To establish and maintain a safe, healthy learning environment
My teaching practices support and maintain a safe, healthy learning environment for the infants and toddlers in my Family Daycare in the following ways: I keep infants, mobile infants and toddlers’ safe by supervising them at all times to prevent accidents ahead of time. I cautiously observe each child’s development in order to make safety-related changes to materials and equipment. Young infants are always placed on their backs to sleep in an empty crib. I supply mobile infants with sturdy equipment that they can safely climb on, crawl over and pull themselves up on. Using a “small object tester”, I always measure the size of small toys to make sure the children will not be able to swallow them. To keep the children healthy, I post and follow the NYS OCFS regulations for hand washing for both the children and adults, mouthed toys are sterilized at the end of each day, and nutritious meals and snacks that incorporate lots of fresh fruit and vegetables are served every day as well. I keep an open door policy for parents and encourage nursing mothers to drop in and feed their babies. I put together my learning environment for the infants and toddlers by incorporating free play in a well thought-out environment, varying toys, materials and my interaction with the children to meet the developmental needs and interests of each individual child. I keep a daily schedule to maintain order and use daily routines such as feeding, diapering, etc as a time to build relationship with each child.
Menu:
I design the menu to my program, for which I try my best to provide a balanced and nutritious meal every day. With the help provided by the food program/network I am enrolled, it makes it easier to plan the right meals for the children and serve the right portions according to their age. The biggest strength of the menu is that it includes servings from all the food groups: