Our new Wilton daycare, located at 59 Danbury Road, is set to welcome children through our doors on Monday, March 5th. To begin, we are licensed for 50 children and plan to expand over time.

Once school starts, families interested in enrolling their children in either our infant and toddler programs or our Wilton preschool program are invited to schedule a time to tour the facility. Interested parents may also set up a time to meet with our wonderful Wilton daycare director, Christine Bartell, who previously worked at our Stamford daycare as Assistant Director.

The Wilton daycare hours of operation are Monday through Friday, 7:30am-6pm. The new Wilton daycare will offer early drop off at 7am for those who need to get to work a little earlier. If you’re interested in enrolling your child at our new day care in Wilton CT, there’s still space available! Contact us today at (203) 517-0168.

We are so excited about this new chapter for our CT early learning center, and we hope you are too!

The end of 2011 saw very unfortunate circumstances involving the rare but dangerous bacteria known as Cronobacter sakazakii causing infections among infants in the US. These occurrences prompted several retailers to recall a few brands of formula, though it wasn’t determined that the formulas were the cause of the bacteria.

According to foodsafety.gov, those most at risk of contracting foodborne illnesses are babies and younger kids, women who are pregnant, those with illnesses affecting their immune systems and seniors.

Powdered Baby Formula: What Do I Need to Know?

The formulas recalled by major retailers after the outbreak of Cronobacter were powdered formulas, prompting many parents to question whether this type of formula is safe for their babies. Unfortunately, based on information obtained from cdc.gov, it is possible for these formulas to become contaminated with germ-causing bacteria while being manufactured; while safety measures are taken in the manufacturing plants, it is nearly impossible to keep all germs at bay. It is also possible for the powdered formula to become tainted after it is brought into the home and opened. One of the major risk factors of powdered baby formula is that it’s not sterile.

There are, however, a few options for parents who wish to continue feeding their infant’s formula while also protecting them from possible illness.

Protecting Your Infant: Formula Safety Measures

If your baby is fed formula, you have the option of switching to liquid formula which, unlike powdered formula, is sterile.

If liquid formula is not an option, you can continue to feed your child the powdered form and follow a few basic safety measures, as outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Be sure to pass these measures along to your CT infant child care center as well.

• Keep hands sanitized prior to preparing the meal (or any meal for that matter!)
• Clean baby’s bottles with hot water and soap
• Keep formula containers closed and make sure lids and spoons are clean (when putting lids or scoops down, make sure they are on a sterile surface)
• Use formula immediately after preparing and throw away what your baby doesn’t finish (or store in refrigerator for less than 24 hours)

If your infant is fed while at their CT daycare center, be sure to supply the CT infant child care center staff with an unopened container of formula as well as a sterilized bottle from home. Be sure to take this bottle home each day and return a clean bottle to your CT daycare center at your next visit.

Staying Informed: Helpful Resources

For information on best food safety practices and the latest news and guidelines, bookmark these helpful resources.

• Foodsafety.gov
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

At our Stamford daycare, we understand that many parents have a lot of questions regarding naps, so we thought we would post some helpful responses on the topic.

How much sleep should my child be getting?

On average, your young child should be getting 12 hours of sleep per day. This doesn’t have to come all at once. For example, if your child sleeps 10 hours per night, they should take either a 2 hour nap during the day or two 1 hour naps. As your child gets into their grade school years and beyond, they won’t require quite as much sleep, but for children between the ages of 2-4, they should be averaging about 12 hours. To help determine the appropriate amount of sleep for your child, please visit the sleep chart at babycenter.com.

What should I do if my child won’t nap?

Now those of you with 3 & 4 year olds may have noticed that as your child has gotten older, they have begun to fight nap time. And why wouldn’t they? Your little one is so inquisitive about the world around them that they don’t want to miss a minute of it! If you’re encountering difficulty getting your child to take a nap, try having a regularly scheduled “quiet time.” Your child can look at books or color quietly. This won’t rejuvenate them in the same way that a nap would, but it does help to take some time out and relax. And who knows? Your child may not think that they are tired, but once they slow down and rest for a minute, don’t be surprised if they end up drifting off to sleep after all.

What time of day should my child be napping?

Often times you’ll notice that if a child’s regularly scheduled nap is off by even a half an hour, they’ll quickly turn into pumpkins! Children value routine, particularly when it comes to something so vital as sleep. If your child attends a CT early learning center such as our Stamford daycare or soon our new Wilton daycare, Connecticut state requirements indicate that if your child is in attendance for at least 5 hours the CT early learning center is required to provide the child with a nap. Talk with your CT early learning center to find out what time your child gets their nap while they are there, and try to stick to this same timeframe when your child is home with you on the weekends and holidays.

Remember, all children are special and unique – this is the case when it comes to their sleep patterns, too. If you’re child’s sleep requirements are not exactly the same as other children at their CT early learning center, this is not necessarily something to be alarmed about. If you have more questions about healthy sleeping patterns for your child, schedule an appointment with their pediatrician.

At both our Stamford daycare and our soon-to-open Wilton daycare, we offer a program called Generation Healthy which teaches your young ones proper fitness and healthy eating & hygiene habits. The foundation for a healthy lifestyle is being built at their early childhood learning center in CT, but here are a few ways to reinforce these CT early learning programs at home to get everyone you love involved!

Family Game Night
While video games are not always the best educational tool for young children, the variety of sports and fitness games offered on the motion detecting gaming systems such as the Wii and Xbox Kinect provide a super fun and very exciting way to get every member of your family moving. Mondays may be bowling night while Wednesdays are volleyball and Fridays are tennis. Even the games centered on improving your dance swag can get you working up a sweat while busting a move. The best part is that these games are not too challenging for little ones yet still provide a great work out for the adults. It’s family game night taken to a whole new level!

After Dinner Stroll
You may not think that a simple walk after dinner can do that much to strengthen your fitness regime, but it really can, and it also promotes full body wellness.

Here are just a few benefits of regular post-dinner walks:

• Aids in digestion
• Reduces the risk of diabetes
• Lowers blood pressure

In addition to the health benefits mentioned above, a nice family stroll is also quality time spent with your loved ones. You can discuss how everybody’s day was, ask your child what they did at their early childhood learning center in CT, plan fun activities for the weekend and basically just take some time out of your hectic schedule to do something relaxing together as a family.

Fast, Healthy Meals
A lot of people are under the impression that healthy meals take longer and are more involved. Additionally, most parents believe that getting their children to eat healthy meals will be a struggle. Believe it or not, there IS such a thing as fast, nutritious meals that taste good and are kid-friendly!

If you don’t believe me – sometimes you just have to try it first hand – here are a few excellent resources that can help you plan quick, healthy meals that the whole family will enjoy.

• Meal Makeover Moms
• Eating Well
• The American Heart Association
• Healthy Child, Healthy World

Continue the healthy eating habits by packing nutritious lunches for your child to take with them to their early childhood learning center in CT. While you’re at it, pack yourself a healthy lunch to take to work!

If you have other recipes or fun fitness activities that have worked with your family, please share them in the comments!

As many of our CT early learning center parents with 2 and 3 year olds are aware, your tiny one’s tantrums usually begin in the toddler stage. Often times, aggressive behaviors continue among preschool aged tots and can take a slightly different tone than when they were toddlers. These behaviors may be frustrating for parents and CT early learning center caregivers, but most of the time they are nothing to be alarmed about. That being said, however, there are a few ways to tackle these issues to help to minimize your child’s aggressive behaviors and teach them healthy problem solving skills that will aid them as they continue to grow and develop, both intellectually and emotionally.

Preschool Aggression: Is it Normal?

At this stage in your child’s early development, your preschooler’s aggression may take the form of sharing disputes with other little ones, throwing tantrums and rough housing with other kids. This display of aggressive behavior may be because it is their first time in a CT early learning center environment, and they just aren’t used to being surrounded by so many other children. Usually the biting and hitting that is common among toddlers begins to subside at this age. A lot of the time, this is due to your child’s increased ability to express their feelings using their words. At your CT early learning center, they should regularly be helping your child to learn positive expression, aiding your child in discovering their identity on an interpersonal level.

Here are a few techniques that you can employ to help combat aggressive behaviors among preschoolers.

Practice Problem Solving

Continue to reinforce positive communication when dealing with conflict. Teach your child to use an “I” message. When something or someone has upset them, they can address their unhappiness by filling in this message: “I feel BLANK when you do BLANK. Next time, please BLANK.” You can practice these problem solving skills by playing out different scenarios with your preschooler and asking them to name the emotion that it makes them feel. For example, “Cindy, how would you feel if I took your toy away from you without asking nicely first?” or “How does it make you feel when I make your favorite food for dinner?” You can draw corresponding emoticon faces for each scenario and ask them to point out which face most closely resembles how they would feel. This is a great practice for learning how to connect words with emotions as well as understanding facial expressions. If you find that this is something you would like your child to work on outside of home as well, share the activities that have been effective with your CT early learning center.

Avoid Aggressive TV Programs

There are a few decent educational programs on television for children today. A lot of what’s directed at children, however, can be violent and inappropriate. Use the parental controls on your television to set limits to the programs that your child is exposed to. Because you can’t control the advertisements that are played during commercial breaks, you should limit the amount of television your child watches as a whole. Parent-child interaction is always preferable over television, so after watching an educational program, talk about it with your child just as you would discuss a book you just read. If the program involved a conflict among two characters, ask your child how they would have felt and reacted in the same situation.

Make Sure All Caregivers are on the Same Page

All children appreciate consistency. Your little ones will have an easier time learning the rules if everybody who takes care of them is on the same page regarding how to handle these situations and sticks to the plan each and every time. There are quite a few effective strategies for handling discipline situations – together as a family and with your CT early learning center, you can choose a strategy that best fits your parenting style and the needs of your child. One example of an effective strategy is a redirection approach. When a child becomes overwhelmed in a particular situation, our CT early learning center caregivers will carefully shift the child’s focus from the current situation to a different activity, allowing them time to cool down.

There are certainly further tips and strategies for combatting aggressive behaviors among toddlers and preschoolers. If you have questions or concerns, discuss them with your child’s CT early learning center.

This year, the staff and children at our Stamford daycare participated in a fundraising event to raise money for the nonprofit organization Person-to-Person in Darien, CT. The mission of Person-to-Person is to support the community through volunteer-based outreach including providing goods, resources and services (including emergency-related care) that may help to enrich the lives of those less fortunate.

Together, the Stamford daycare staff and children raised $1000 toward this wonderful organization! With this money, we bought tons of new toys and boardgames which we donated to the Person-to-Person Holiday Toy Store.

With the holiday season nearing its end, we hope that this is an experience that our Stamford daycare children will always remember. Even the tiniest hands can make a difference! Together, we will continue to spread joy and a helping hand to our community for years to come. With the opening of our new Wilton daycare location in 2012, we are overjoyed at the opportunity to expand our community support even further.

From our Stamford daycare (and soon-to-be Wilton daycare) family to yours, we wish you a happy, healthy New Year.

In this two-part blog series, I will address how to respond to the aggressive behavior of toddlers & preschoolers. This first installment focuses on toddlers.

Toddler Aggression: Is It Normal?

Starting at around 2 years old, children pick up certain aggressive behaviors as a regular part of their development. Biting and hitting behaviors, though not OK, are normal at the toddler stage as children are beginning to interact more often with other kids, particularly if enrolled in a CT daycare center or other CT early learning programs for the first time– this is a time when they should be learning about manners and sharing, but it doesn’t mean that they’re going to like it when another young one trots up to them in the playground and tries to play with their favorite toy.

Be Consistent

Once these behaviors are noticed, however, it’s very important to take immediate and appropriate disciplinary action. The actions you take now in addressing these behaviors must remain consistent in order for your child to understand what it is they’re doing wrong and what the consequences will be if they do it again. Just as young children need a stable routine, they likewise need to learn that their parents and CT daycare center teachers are going to respond in the exact same way every time they do something they aren’t supposed to. This helps them to learn which behaviors are acceptable and which aren’t.

For this reason, it’s important for both parents and CT daycare center staff to discuss what actions to take in these circumstances. This way, your child is getting a consistent message: “Do this, and this will happen – each and every time.” On a similar note, be sure that both Mom and Dad are approaching these situations in the same way, with the same plan in action for dealing with misbehaviors.

Act Now

Try to act upon the first instance of aggressive behavior. Don’t wait it out to see how the other child or child’s parent is going to respond. Take your child aside and explain to them what it is that they did wrong. An effective and positive technique that we employ at our Stamford daycare is a redirection approach – when a child becomes aggressive in a particular situation, our teachers redirect the child’s focus on a different activity, removing them from the situation and giving them the space they need to calm down. Once again, if you prefer a different method for discipline, be sure to make the teachers and staff at your CT daycare center aware so that they can employ the same technique when caring for your child.

Choose Your Words Carefully

An important note for parents when taking disciplinary action: never tell your child that he or she is “bad.” This early on, children are just beginning to develop a sense of self and acquiring self-esteem. Thinking that they are “bad” or “naughty” will only hurt this image. Explain that they aren’t bad but what they have done is not appropriate behavior for good little boys or girls. Keep your own emotions in check. Despite how frustrated or embarrassed you might be, keep your voice calm and controlled. After all, you are the role model they look up to – your behaviors will be a reflection on their own.

Time for Reflection

After you’ve taken your child out of the situation for a short time and explained to them why what they did was wrong and what the consequences are, ask them to explain it back to you. Getting your little one to talk about what happened helps to teach them to effectively express their emotions. Once they have calmed down, ask them why they were upset in the first place. Be sure you tell them that everybody gets upset from time to time, but there is an appropriate way to react to these emotions, such as using their words in a kind and polite way.

“Good Job, Johnny!”

It’s easy for your child’s misbehaviors to catch your attention, but it’s just as important for you to take notice of your little one’s kind, patient, well-mannered behaviors as well. Going back to your child’s developing sense of self, your little one feels so good about themselves when they see your proud reaction to something good they’ve done. If you receive a great report from their CT daycare center, be sure to tell your little one about it and tell them how happy it makes you. Praise goes a long way when you’re a toddler. At the end of each day, give your little one a hug, and tell them what they did that day that made you proud – this might even become the part of your child’s day that they look forward to the most, and yours, too!

As parents, we’re making discoveries too. We’re discovering new aspects of our children’s personalities every day. As they grow and change, we’ll see them differentiate between items and exhibit preferences —the favorite toy, the only blanket they’ll fall asleep with. It’s a fascinating process – and one we can use to guide our answers when people ask us for gift suggestions for our children.

Make Gift Giving Easy
There are many reasons why people ask parents and CT early learning center staff and teachers to give them gift suggestions. Friends and family members who don’t have kids in their life often have no idea what might be an appropriate Christmas or Hanukkah gift might be. They need some guidance! People also ask for suggestions to avoid giving duplicate gifts, to help them streamline their holiday shopping process, and to find out if there’s something the family really wants or needs. Easy to follow gift suggestions are welcome.

Make things simple by suggesting types or categories of items that your child would enjoy, rather than specific items. Early childhood education experts recommend that children are exposed to a wide range of positive learning experiences throughout the day, both at their CT early learning center as well as at home.

Here are some types of toys and gifts that provide positive learning experiences for your child:

Experiences
Children thrive and grow when they can enjoy a wide range of experiences with their family and friends. Tickets to a children’s museum, an afternoon spent ice skating, a family outing to see all the holiday lights followed up with cookies and hot chocolate: all of these gifts appeal because they involve spending time with the people we love. If there’s somewhere you know your child loves to go or especially wants to do, from feeding the ducks at the park to seeing a specific movie, consider asking for an outing as a gift.

Creative Toys
Creative toys engage the imagination, encourage self-expression, and are lots of fun. Age appropriate art materials, craft supplies, building toys such as blocks and Legos™ help develop fine motor skills while fostering creativity. Also a great idea? Toys that encourage pretending, such as dress up clothing, play kitchens, toy workshops, dolls and action figures. These encourage the imagination.

Active Toys
Active toys are those that get your child up and moving. All kinds of age appropriate sports equipment fits in this category: balls, tossing games, jump ropes and climbing toys are all great gift ideas. Look for games that incorporate elements of physical play, such as pre-schooler board games that direct players to get up and dance! Interactive video games also encourage movement – and many, many little ones want to participate after they see older siblings (or parents!) play the Wii or xBox.

Books
Early childhood education experts agree: children need books! From soft, cloth baby books to classic tales to be read aloud at bedtime, there’s a book for every child at every age. While it’s likely that story time is incorporated in the daily activities at their CT early learning center, it’s important to continue this activity at home. Reading builds strong families, and there’s absolutely no such thing as too much story time!

Our Wilton daycare is scheduled to open in early spring of 2012 and is licensed for 125 children to start, allowing for 75 children in our infant and toddler early learning programs and 50 children in our preschool program.

The Wilton daycare facility will offer 12,500 square feet and provide both an outdoor and indoor play area so that the children have plenty of space to stretch both their bodies and their minds, regardless of weather conditions.

Our new Wilton daycare and preschool learning center is located at 59 Danbury Road – only 8 miles from our current Stamford daycare location! With this expansion, we’re hoping to strengthen relationships with the local community which is so important to us at our CT early learning center. The surrounding area includes many major corporate offices. In fact, the Wilton Corporate Office Park is located right across the street. The carefully chosen location of our new Wilton daycare offers a convenient, safe and reliable daycare facility that working Wilton parents can trust.

The Wilton daycare hours of operation are the same as at our Stamford daycare: Monday through Friday, 7:30am-6pm. Extended hours are available. For more information on our new location, please contact us at (203) 517-0168. Additionally, you can schedule a time to meet with Christine Bartell who will be the director of the new Wilton daycare facility.

We look forward to welcoming you to our expanding family!

This is a time to give thanks, and at our Stamford daycare, we have a lot to be thankful for. We couldn’t’ be more grateful that you and your children have become a part of our Stamford daycare family.

The author and journalist Mignon McLaughlin once wrote, “Only where children gather is there any chance of fun.” I speak for every member of our staff when I say that at our Stamford daycare, we have so much fun every single day because we are surrounded by the very best children.

Thank you to all our parents for trusting us with the most precious people in your lives. Thank you to all your children who come in each morning with a smile from ear-to-ear and carry it with them throughout the whole day – for as much as your children learn from us, we are grateful to be able to learn twice as much from them.

Happy Thanksgiving!

From,
Christine & the entire Building Blocks Early Learning Center team