Catherine Pruissen - childcare.net

One of the greatest parts of my job is interacting with our visitors and customers.  The feedback you provide on childcare.net is always positive and tells me we're doing a great job.

In the last two days I've had the priviledge of chatted with two visitors who purchased our Child Care Business Forms and Child Care Start Up Packages. Both ladies did nothing but praise the quality of the forms and the details they provide that not only meet state requirements, but actually include more valuable information than one visitor received in forms provided by a state-sponsored child care courses.

The purpose of Accident/Illness/Injury Report Forms is to ensure an accurate tracking and appropriate follow-up of all injury related incidents and illnesses which occur in child care.

Parental notification of illness or injury is required by all licensing offices. Often a Licensing Officer follows-up all reportable incidents to ensure appropriate action was taken to identify strategies to prevent future occurences.

I read an email the other day and was really taken aback by the author's view of how parents select daycare. It seems she, a home daycare owner, feels that parents flock (in packs and herds no less) to daycare facilities that have well-groomed, fancy exteriors and the latest equipment, even though, she also assumes, these daycares are plagued by the same problems other centres face.

She also said in effect, that parents simply go where the Jones' go rather than make their own decisions. Having dealt with parents for over 25 years in the field, I can tell you most often this is simply not the case.

Looking for one of the best ways to keep the lines of communication open with your child and to ensure your child is happier not to mention all-round healthier?   Try having more family dinners together.

Family dinners, where everyone sits around the table and eats together on average 5 times per week, have proven to have nothing but positive affects on children.  Over the course of the dinner parents build stronger bonds with their child.  They communicate about school, teachers and classroom struggles.  They learn more about the child's friends and activities.  They build strong relationships that families who have relatively few family dinners get the chance to do.

A recent post in our Child Care Community Portal asked whether or not unregulated dayhome operators need to comply with the rules governing regulated care as it pertains to the number of children allowed and the ages of these children.

While it may be tempting to think the rules do not apply to independent home child care providers, you might want to think again.  I've personally know of cases where the government did step in when complaints were lodged and the providers were clearly caring for too many children at one time.  The result: the cargivers were given 24 hours to comply with the rules or be forced to shut down.     

You know you've got a great book when it continues to require new print runs, cover re-designs, and is acclaimed as an "International Best Seller" by its publisher.  Such is the case with Start and Run a Home Daycare. 

Not only is Start and Run a Home Daycare in a brand new print run for 2007 (meaning it continues to sell out), it remains a hot seller on childcare.net.  The reason is obvious - it has helped thousands and thousands and thousands of people across North America and the international community start a professional home child care business in a way that sets them up for success. 

Whether you are just starting your child care business and looking to purchase low-cost toys and equipment, or you simply want to upgrade your child's toy supply,  yard sales, flea markets and family fairs are the perfect way to do so. 

But just how safe are the used toys you are buying?  The following five tips will help you ensure your child(ren) will get a lot of enjoyment out of your purchases and that through your due diligence no one become injured in the process.

Welcome to my personal childcare.net blog!

Through this medium I hope to answer email questions we receive from our visitors so that everyone will benefit from the information, add commentary when I feel it is necessary, and just generally provide our visitors with more current information and resources.  This blog will also serve as our new Child Care Tip of the Week page.

I receive a lot of messages from parents regarding their concern over the care their child is receiving. Sometimes these concerns require immediate intervention such as cases of abuse and neglect. Other times parents are looking for guidance on whether or not their concerns are founded. Parents are certainly not alone in their worries. Most have feelings of guilt and concern when they have to leave their child. But when do these worries become cause for concern?