November 14, 2024
November is a time for gratitude and remembering our roots. This time of year, the Better Kid Care (BKC) team remembers Dr. Jim Van Horn, our program's founder. We give thanks for the more than 30-year legacy that we now stand on.
November 12, 2024
Early relational experiences between children and caregivers that are safe, stable, and nurturing relationships (SSNRs) lay the foundation for healthy development. Learn what safe, stable, and nurturing relationships look like in the early childhood setting.
October 17, 2024
Learn the difference between fine and gross motor skills and find ideas for supporting motor skill development in the classroom and outdoors. Explore several BKC courses that support gross and fine motor skill development.
October 15, 2024
Winter can be a tough season for many families. Learn about factors that make it hard for families to afford food, how food insecurity can affect children in your care, and how child care providers can help families.
September 26, 2024
Anyone who works in the early childhood space encounters days that are thoroughly exhausting or rewarding—and probably many days that are both! When you are feeling worn down or burnt out it can be extremely beneficial to remind yourself just how important your work is.
September 24, 2024
Learn about green thinking and the benefits for children and caregivers. Find ideas for greening or naturalizing outdoor environments for children.
August 29, 2024
Get off on the right foot by proactively setting up your environment and supporting children's development while prioritizing your own well-being.
August 27, 2024
Do you ever wonder if we look at how teachers respond in our courses? We do. To be honest, we can’t look at all the responses, but we do periodically audit the responses and we learn from what we see.
June 11, 2024
As a child care provider, you play a major role in the health and development of the children in your care. One essential need of young children is adequate food and proper nutrition. If you participate in the Child and Adult Care Feeding Program (CACFP), you already know that a specific meal pattern is required for reimbursement. If you prepare the meals on-site, it may be easy to get caught in a menu rut. However, with a little creativity, mealtime can be an important opportunity to expose children to new and exciting foods. Read on for some quick tips to consider.
May 16, 2024
The Brown v. Board of Education ruling permeated most sectors of American life, from education to housing to economics, but the legacy of the ruling is complex. As educators reflect on this 70th anniversary, it seems clear that we are still striving to realize the core promise of the Brown ruling: educational equity.
May 13, 2024
Early childhood education (ECE) professionals need to take care of themselves to support and care for children. Mindfulness is a path that can help educators recognize patterns of thought or behavior that may negatively affect caring for oneself. When one feels overwhelmed or stressed, it can be difficult to focus attention. It may be challenging to support children in the learning setting. Nurturing self-care practices can be a powerful way to build resiliency, manage stress, and become a more effective educator.
April 30, 2024
Get a jump on your summer staff training with BKC On Demand!
April 11, 2024
For more than 50 years, people have been celebrating Earth Day on April 22nd. This is an opportunity for advocacy groups to bring attention to issues and attributes of our planet and all that nature provides, and how people can protect and enhance those experiences.
April 3, 2024
Problem-solving is a social-emotional learning (SEL) skill children need for lifelong success. Effective problem-solving skills support children's ability to self-regulate, focus on tasks, think flexibly and creatively, work with others, and generate multiple ways to solve problems. When young children develop and build these skills, it positively impacts their interactions with others, grows their capacity to manage challenges, and boosts a sense of competence.
March 14, 2024
Food is about so much more than nutrition. Walk into any child care setting at mealtime and you will see that food has everything to do with learning and community. Learning includes where the food comes from, what nutritional benefit it provides, how to prepare it, and how it engages the senses of sight, touch, smell, and taste. Mealtime is when relationships are strengthened, and community is created around shared food experiences.
March 11, 2024
Better Kid Care is proud to announce that our online courses are now fully optimized for mobile devices and tablets. We understand the dynamic nature of teaching, and we want to empower you to learn at your own pace anytime, anywhere.
February 15, 2024
The rules of netiquette change for communication when you text, post, or email as a professional. Ensure your written messages have a professional tone that demonstrates an awareness of proper and polite digital communication.
February 12, 2024
"Kindness and caring are prosocial behaviors that build positive interpersonal connections and can uplift both the giver and receiver" (Fryburg, 2021, p. 89).
January 25, 2024
Winter's for the birds! No, really! Winter is for the birds... and for all the humans (adults and children) who are interested in birds and in helping them thrive.
January 18, 2024
A positive work community helps to create conditions where people want to work together. Sometimes, the simplest actions can help make work environments better.
December 18, 2023
Working in an early childhood program is an extremely important and often rewarding pursuit. However, it can also be stressful, demanding, and at times, overwhelming. As such, it is important that all employees in early childhood programs can support one another and work together to build a positive program climate, not only for children and families but for staff as well.
November 20, 2023
Managing emotions and showing empathy are important life skills to develop and cultivate. Mindfulness can support social-emotional (SEL) skill development for educators by enhancing their ability to focus attention and become more self-aware and aware of others.
September 21, 2023
"Leaves are falling, leaves are falling, to the ground, to the ground. Red, orange, yellow, red, orange yellow, green and brown, green and brown." That’s the song my children would sing on the way home from preschool almost daily in the fall. Autumn leaves are amazing! Splashes of color; rich, rustling sounds; crinkly textures of raised veins and curling edges. Of course they captivate children! They probably captivate everyone.
August 22, 2023
In March, Better Kid Care launched the course "Find Fun and Meet Standards with Emergent Curriculum." It has been fun for our author team to hear from educators around the globe about what is emerging in their minds as they have worked through the course.
June 21, 2023
The right mindset and helpful tools can help to recharge and support optimal problem-solving practices with young children. Author and educator Ann Gadzikowski shares, "our work as teachers and caregivers for children requires us to find light and joy in broken places" and that "the actual process of solving problems is where we find that light and joy" (Gadzikowski, 2022, p. 1). The wonderful thing about problem-solving is that it includes space to connect unlimited curiosity, meaningful learning, and continued hopefulness.
June 21, 2023
Coercive patterns occur when a child engages in an undesirable behavior, a caregiver responds in an overly harsh manner, and the child responds by escalating their undesirable behavior. This cycle does little to address the behavior or prevent the behavior from occurring again in the future, and instead reinforces the undesirable behavior.
June 7, 2023
Webinar recording, handouts, and slides from the presentation on May 31, 2023.
May 23, 2023
Outdoor exploration and play are excellent ways to promote physical activity among the children in your care all year round. As we move toward summer and the weather warms up, it's a great time to think about specific activities that you can incorporate into your daily routine.
May 19, 2023
According to Dr. George J. Thompson (Thompson & Jenkins, 2013), author of Verbal Judo: The Gentle Art of Persuasion, there are five universal truths of human interaction:
April 13, 2023
"The social and emotional domains have a central position in the developmental process. Educators' culturally sensitive and responsive relationships with young children make effective, positive behavioral guidance possible" (NAEYC, 2022, p. 116).
