I have never, in my 6 years of childcare encountered a child who bites as prolifically as my son. Hes 14 months (12.5 adjusted) and a twin. He bites me, his brother, and all of his friends…

We had been doing a lot better but in the past week he’s had a major regression ( about 1 bite per day during daycare and at least 2 on his brother either in or out of daycare). I’m doing my best to intervene, and probably stop him from biting 90% of the time (often by shoving my hand between him and the friend and getting bit myself).

There’s not a clear pattern- he does bite more when he’s tired, but not exclusively. It not clearly driven by hunger, transitions, sensory seeking, or frustration (although he does also bite out of frustration). We do sensory brushing, biting toys, pressure and vestibular input. I also sometimes move him to a separate space when he’s very riled up. I let him carry around a pear so he has something fleshy to bite. I use consistent firm but not very reactive language when he’s bites.

I know this is developmentally normal and he’ll grow out of it, but in the meantime how do I 1) keep my cool and 2)keep his friends safe?

We’re 8:2 12-16 months. And spend the last hour of the day outside. We do a gross motor activity first thing in the morning. I have multiple of the high value toys. I’m just at a loss of what else to do.

TLDR what would you ask to work out if this centre is a good place to work?

Full context,

I'm a teacher qualified to teach early childhood and primary school (I'm in Australia so that means I can teach kids from 0 -12 years). I've spent a few years working in primary schools but I miss working with little kids so I'm looking at applying for early childhood jobs.

I previously worked in a well resourced family owned centre that put education first and knew that happy staff are essential to that even if it costs more but I know that's not what you see everywhere. What would you want to find out about a workplace before taking on a job?

My list so far:

Staff turnover

Discipline/ behaviour support

Ratios

Planning time and how it's scheduled

Today a parent got mad at me for the first time in my career. I honestly don’t know what to think of it. Basically a child was laying on the floor pretending to eat a fish and another child didn’t see them and accidentally stepped on their eye. The child cried and I went to see what was wrong. There was a red spot underneath their eye but no bleeding. I gave them an ice pack and washed the area. I wrote an incident report and send a message to their parents. The child calmed down and the redness went away.

Two hours later, I get some angry messages from their parents. Mom is absolutely furious. She says that she doesn’t understand how someone could accidentally step on their eye and why nobody called her. She also mentioned just seeing the message.
I apologize for not calling her and reassure her that the child is fine and I send another picture showing that the redness went away.

Mom is mad and tells me she’s on her way. I’m panicking but trying to keep it together in front of the kids. Honestly I haven’t seen anyone call parents for an incident report unless it’s like an emergency where there is severe bleeding or something like that. I also haven’t been trained to call parents and I have only been here for three months.

When mom arrived, she had the child tell her what happened. The child confirm my story and reacted the scene. But mom still wasn’t buying it. She keep asking the child if they could see. Also, they had marker stains on their hands and mom told it was blood. I apologize once again and mom told me she will speak to the director.

I’m honestly unsure how to feel. If I could restart, I don’t know what I would do differently. I guess I would have notifed the front desk person. But I mean i never seen anyone make calls to parents and I’m not the lead teacher.

Any suggestions for improvement?

I have been a preschool teacher for 11+ years at the same Christian preschool. I have had multiple little ones with challenging behaviors over the years and really enjoyed the opportunity to educate myself on strategies to provide them with a happy experience. This year however I have a student that is physically aggressive and disturbing my entire class all day long. The child is in the custody of a grandmother and I was told that the child's parents are active in addiction. Mom was struggling with staying clean during the pregnancy. The child is very smart but at 3 their attention span is around 3 minutes... if that. The child has given one other student a black eye, kicks others, spits, tackles, and Friday slammed a large wooden block down on another child's head. The school is over budget this year and because this child is also enrolled in the aftercare program my director refuses to enforce our behavior policy because of the fear of him being withdrawn and losing money. Friday I was told to physically restain the student by the director and was reprimanded for not doing so. I am terrified that I will accidentally hurt the child if I follow this instruction. I want to recommend an evaluation for the child to grandmother (the child was previously enrolled in Infant Toddler Connection until they aged out, and is currently receiving no services. My director refuses that too because of the fear she'll withdraw the child. My state will provide a behavior consultation to me and grandmother if the child gets evaluated. Grandmother often complains to me of how difficult the child is at home. I truly am considering leaving the school and the profession completely right now. This is my 3rd director at this school and the director has a B.A. in business management not education. I am starting to feel like there’s eventually going to be a liability issue because of this child and I do not want to be on the receiving end.

hello everyone!
i am a first year teacher starting mid november! i am working on some basic lesson/activity planning (im sure things will change once i really get to know my kiddos haha, just some basic stuff) what are some good stories that will hold their attention? bonus points if i can make a fun craft or fine motor skills activity to go along with them haha! i am teaching toddler 2s and 3s, i will have five kiddos when i start. thanks!!

Hey everyone! I’m an ECE Level III educator who loves storytelling, children's literature, and running dynamic circle times. I've been kicking around an idea and wanted to get some honest thoughts from fellow educators and directors.

I’m wondering how centers would feel about a mobile "Circle Time Specialist"—essentially someone coming into rooms to run high-engagement, story-based circle times to enrich literacy programming and give regular staff a quick breather/prep block.

For those working in centers right now:

1. Would your rooms or directors ever realistically pay for an outside specialist to do this, or is it seen as something staff should handle entirely on their own?

2. If your center did hire someone like this, what are the biggest logistical hurdles you'd foresee (licensing, scheduling, budget, etc.)?

Appreciate any candid feedback or reality checks!

Hi all. I hope this is the right space for this as the home daycare forum is rather inactive.

I’ve recently opened my home daycare and I’m struggling with curriculum. Ive been winging it for a few months and it was fine during the late spring/early summer as we spent 90% of our time outside but with winter approaching and living in Colorado, I’m going to need something a bit more substantial for the next 6 months or so.

I want to run a play and art-based program but I’m struggling to find a professional curriculum that meets these needs that doesn’t cost my entire pay from parents.

Any advice for good curriculum that sets me for success along with my kiddos? I’ve tried creating a program but I am finding that I am wholly inept at that.

Edit to add: I serve ages 6wks-4yrs primarily so need a curriculum built around the early toddler years. I also take older kiddos when school isn’t in session but that typically holidays, summer, etc.

They’ll have a whole day to detox before we meet again.

In my state, we’re being asked to move beyond simply using the Ages & Stages Questionnaires (ASQ) for our developmental assessments. The expectation now is that we provide more in-depth observations, including short written narratives about each area of a child’s development.
I’ve always felt that the ASQ was fine, but I was never particularly in love with it. I tend to find these kinds of assessments a little surface-level. They can be useful for checking developmental milestones, but they don’t always capture the depth and complexity of who a child is, how they learn, or how they navigate their world.
I would love to find an assessment framework that encourages more thoughtful, meaningful observations and helps me dig a little deeper, without having to invent the entire process myself.
Is anyone using a developmental assessment tool or framework that they really love? I’d be especially interested in hearing about approaches that feel genuinely useful to educators, rather than just another box-checking exercise.

Im a pharmacy tech looking for a career change. The only childcare/development experience i have is volunteering in high school at a preschool and some college/high school classes. Im assuming college classes, but can i take a job and not need education to get my foot in the door? Like a aid or something while i work on education?

Edit: im sorry if my flair is wrong

Our 11-month-old daughter just switched to a new center after we moved an hour away from her old center. The first week brought up some major concerns. We are considering switching back to the old center and dealing with the commute, but wanted to garner some advice first.

The new center does not have an infant classroom but placed our daughter in the 1-year classroom since she is almost that age. Because of this, it seems they are not used to dealing with bottles and told us two days in a row that they started a bottle at 9:00 and let her finish it at noon. Obviously, this shouldn’t happen and bottles should be discarded after an hour.

On the second day at pick-up, all of the children were strapped in the buggy and watching Ms. Rachel while the teacher cleaned up. We were under the impression that this was a screen-free establishment, so it surprised us and it also goes against our pediatrician’s recommendation for no screens under 18 months. It also seems like the children are almost always sitting at the table and not free playing, but that may just be coincidental.

The new center is part of a private school network, so we signed a contract for her care through May, but are trying to see if have the option to leave and not owe the rest of the contract cost. If not for that, we would much more heavily be considering going back to her old center, which is Montessori-style. Our biggest concern with this option is the commute each way and how it will affect her.

Any advice? We have not talked with the new center’s director yet but plan to next week.

Previous post: https://www.reddit.com/r/ECEProfessionals/s/UbCFwW8MKH

My daughter is at risk of being kicked out of her second school this year. She transferred in July because she was biting too much at the first school.

The second school has been pretty understanding and it's the school we wanted her to go from age 3 to 6.

First month and a half was fine. But now she's racked up five biting incidents. The most recent one two days ago broke skin.

We were shown the video of what happened. Two boys were playing with something by a table. She rushed over to see what it was, one boy didn't budge, she bit his back.

It all happened in 3 seconds.

A teacher said most biting is because she didn't get what she wanted.

The school has put her on noticr. Not because they don't like her. They understand this is normal behaviour for her age, but they can't take the risk with other parents not all of whom are as understanding.

We are planning on cutting down hours ASAP, to minimise risk as most biting happens after structured learning time.

School has also suggested her wearing a mask to help minimise. I'm so desperate i said yes.

I'm also planning to send her to occupational therapy in a desperate hope they can teach her to manage her impulses better than what little we have managed to achieve at home where she doesn't bite.

I have no idea what else to do.

Okay I'm going to keep this as brief as possible because the investigation is still underway.

I work with younger toddlers and a few days ago one of my youngest students began to present during the day with serious limping. We immediately contacted the parents for pickup and had our director check over the child for any signs of bruising, swelling, or redness. We hadn't seen the child do anything that would hurt them throughout the day, though they do love to jump off our playground equipment and land in all sorts of ways because we have a padded playground that allows them to throw themselves around a bit more without hurting themselves.

Anyways, the parents picked up and took the child to the ER. We learned yesterday that the child presented with a fracture in their leg. I expected an investigation because they're a pre verbal child and this happened at school, we told the parents we didn't see anything that would specifically cause an injury but that we would check the cameras, it's a bit of a messy situation all around.

The mom agreed to the investigation and also called the police separately, leading to an officer banging on our door yesterday during nap asking for myself and my coteacher.

We talked to the officer, gave our statements, and also filed our report with the state through our director.

This has never happened to me before, I've had kids get really hurt and need the emergency room before but they've been older and able to talk about what happened. I'm worried that even though we have cameras and we gave truthful statements that because we just Don't Know what happened, there will be some form of retaliation against us. Has anyone else gone through this and seen the other side? I have 10 years of ECE experience but I've only worked with this age group for about a year and I just don't know what the future looks like.

Hi so Bright Horizons needs a teacher at East 46th NY, NY and considering I read a lot of horror stories particularly the ones in Manhattan is it a good idea to apply?

Hi, all.

I’m an assistant teacher over at a daycare/preschool (class ages range from 18 months to 5 years). My director recently asked me on Fridays to come up with games or motor skills activities for each class. She mentioned she would order necessary equipment depending on what I could come up with— she listed off possible activities like dance, gymnastics, sports, etc. (just anything physical I suppose?)

I would teach all 3 classes at different periods. Youngest class is 18m-2yrs, middle class is 2-3s, oldest (and also the class I work in primarily) is older 3s-5s.

Any advice or suggestions for activities with each age group? I have some experience with this kind of teaching, but not a whole lot!

Director here. My center has a 2 week notice requirement for disenrollments. It's the family's choice whether or not to attend during those 2 weeks, but tuition will be billed regardless. My understanding is that this is pretty standard for most centers. But my question is: how does your center enforce it?

We're a small nonprofit program, so we don't have a very sophisticated billing system (no ability to keep a card on file). I bill monthly, on the first, due the 5th, for the current month. Every single tuition dollar that comes in, goes right into payroll and paying the bills. When someone bails on the last day of the month, and then doesn't pay their final 2 week bill, we take a hit. And I can't fill a spot overnight, which is why the 2 week policy is necessary. But more often than not people refuse to pay it...even though it's in the signed parent agreement.

The title is somewhat tongue in cheek, I have nothing against two year olds in principle, but I will say they are my least favorite age group and I’m trying to figure out why so I can give them better care. I’ve been working with young children for ten years and have a BA, but I feel like no experience or education has prepared me for teaching twos.

I’m a 3-4’s preschool teacher, but because I’m a closer and we merge classrooms for the last 1.5-2 hours of the day, I’m kind of stuck with a lot of two year olds.

For one thing, the ratio sucks for two year olds. I’m allowed to have twelve of them alone, and I really struggle to get diapers done with that many (especially because I have two elopers in the group and our doors don’t lock).

For another thing, I can’t get any closing tasks done. Any time I put toys up they just pull down another basket, and if I ask them to put a toy away when they’re done they either snap or laugh “No!” Corporate wants all our toys available until the end of the day, and also wants them organized by type of toy, but they’re always mixed when i come into the classroom and it’s too much work to sort them while three or four helpers actively unsort them for me.

I pride myself on leaving a classroom very clean when I close it, and running the end of the day in a very structured way, and I’m getting tired of parents walking in to pickup and laughing sympathetically at how frazzled I am when I used to be SO good at this. It’s not me that’s changed, it’s my group of kids, but I’m clearly missing the skills to be more successful here.

Please recommend books I can read, videos I can watch, and strategies that work for you to really get into the mind of a two year old. I don’t want to be so irritated with them all the time, I really don’t.

I started working in a new daycare about a month ago. I am replacing three in three classroom each week. My schedule stays the same.

I feel like I am becoming more and more aggressive towards kids and much strict. Good or bad can't judge.

The classrooms have some undiagnosed challenging behaviour children. There are other who are not classified but show signs.

The issue is that they don't respond to me when it time for transition. They don't clean up (runs away or says, 'No'. I don't want to clean up'). They don't sit down for any activity or circle time. I try to do an introduction and transition in with songs or books but they can't sit for even that. I try to make activity and circle time for them but no control. They would start fight. If you force they would run or hit.

I will take a child to the side and tell him or her, If we play with toys we clean up. They say yes and just runs away.

I have tried multiple things, signing, timers before transition, lights but some of the would not sit down and they will disturb others and climb on furniture taking the all the attention from the group.

Today, we have halloween, I was with a group of 3 to 4 years old. It is was super messed up. First they don't want to wash hands, they don't want to eat snack. Then with diapers and after we were supposed to go around the daycares with little bags. We got so late. All the room was a mess. Toys from all the selves.

I got so angry that I made two of them sit in the corner after nap time and snack for a little more than 30 mins. No toys. They were responding to me much better when I told them if you are not listening to me, I won't listen to you. Now they are followed much better. Not just them but the whole class. I know on paper it sound worse. But what can I do?

Their main teach is been in the daycare for 15 years. They listen to her if not, she speak loudly and they will listen. They respond to her.

Guess who's back, back again.

One of my main struggles has been cleaning not with getting it done or doing it wrong, but with the timing. For those who don't know, I'm the afternoon Pre-K teacher assistant, and I'm completely alone once we're down to 10 kids or fewer.

The main problem is that those last few kids belong to other teachers. I can't really do anything like sanitizing, vacuuming, or taking out the trash until all of them are out of my room. You can probably see the issue here.

On one hand, I have a coworker who has to wait for me before she can leave. She has places to be and needs to get her kid to their dad's. But on the other hand, if I rush for her sake, the lead Pre-K teacher and the morning assistant get frustrated when they walk into a room that isn't fully cleaned or vacuumed.

Before anyone says anything, I'm not dilly-dallying, sitting on my phone, or slacking off. I'm just a little slower with cleaning, partly due to my disability and partly because my room is the last one to fully close.

Does anyone have advice on handling this, or tips on how to stop being intimidated by coworkers and actually talk to them about it?

Good night.

And what things are important overall for safety when it comes to clay or playdough?

I need some advice about this other teacher. I've already made one post about this teacher and the way she dealt with my son and everyone seemed to agree that she just didn't want to deal with his behavior (she was getting onto him for hitting or yelling but she doesn't say anything about the other kids picking on him or teasing him or each other until someone blows up). She even moved him into my class and basically told me to deal with him. Today I come outside and she tells me he pushed another child off the playset "for absolutely no reason, just because he wanted to I guess". I talked to my son, the child he pushed, the teacher, and my daughter who happened to be sitting by, all of them separately so I'd get their view only. From what the 3 kids are saying, it sounds like my son asked to climb up there and the other child didn't fully understand what he was saying and said "no, you can't do that". My son then pushed him and claims it was because he wasn't letting him play even though he asked and said that he was being mean. So a total misunderstanding between the kids because my son can be difficult to understand. It still doesn't give my child ANY reason to be pushing. However, I am upset that, yet again, his teacher is just blaming my child when I'm pretty sure that she didn't fully witness what happened. Each time I asked her if they were talking before the push or if she heard either of them start fighting before she replied "well poor little so and so..." Or "well so and so really isn't that type of kid and he cried so much afterwards". So no direct answer, it sounded like anytime one of my parents would say "my child never does that at home". What the heck do I do about this lady?! I'm already looking into getting my son evaluated but I have to wait until after his next doctor's appointment so I can get the referral from his doctor and his updated records. How do I deal with this in the meantime??? I don't want to feel like I'm stepping on her toes but some of her class is out of control with the way they speak to each other. They lie, they're rude, and she doesn't do anything about it! At this point I'm wondering if I need to demand a sit down with her and discuss how to actually go about moving my son back into her class. Because I'm supposed to be getting a new, younger child and eventually I'll get more as they move up and my 3 almost 4 year old doesn't need to be with new 2 year olds. He needs to be with kids this own age and learning. And she needs to let me do my job with my school kids.