Family child care is a growing and important profession. Today, more than half of all children under six years of age have mothers who work outside the home, and many of these children go to family child care homes.

As a child care provider, you offer children and families an important service. You provide a secure environment where children can learn to trust other adults and children. You plan activities each day that help children solve problems, express their ideas, and learn about the real world--all crucial skills in preparing for school and for life. Together, you and parents promote the healthy development of each child. You make it possible for parents to attend to their jobs without having to worry about their children's care.

It is a challenging task to provide a high-quality program for children of different ages in your home.  The Creative Curriculum™ can help by showing you how to:

• Organize the home environment for child care
• Establish a regular daily schedule
• Collect appropriate materials
• Guide children's behavior and learning
• Involve parents
• Plan appropriate activities with mixed-age groups in dramatic play, blocks, toys, art, sand and water, books, cooking, music and movement, and outdoor play
• ensure safety
• equip your home

How A Curriculum Can Help Define Your Family Child Care Program

 What is a "curriculum" and what can it offer you? A curriculum is a plan for your program. It helps you understand how children grow and provides practical ideas for organizing your home and planning activities that will help children develop. It is a framework for what actually happens in a planned environment when children interact with materials, with other children, and with adults. An appropriate curriculum will make your job as a family child care provider easier and more rewarding.

Curriculum goals tell you where you are heading. Someone once said, "If you don't know where you are going, how will you know when you get there?" Stating goals for children helps you know where you are going and whether you are accomplishing your objectives.

Our Goals for Children

• help children learn about themselves and the world around them
• help children feel good about themselves and capable as learners

We identify specific goals for each area of development:

• Socially: to feel secure and comfortable, trust their environment, make friends, and feel part of the group
• Emotionally: to experience pride and self-confidence, develop independence and self-control, and have a positive attitude toward life
• Cognitively: to become confident learners by trying out their own ideas and experiencing success and by acquiring thinking skills such as the ability to solve problems, ask questions, and use words to describe their ideas, observations, and feelings
• Physically: to increase their large and small muscles and feel confident about what their bodies can do

Teaching young children requires spontaneity--the ability to see and use everyday opportunities to help children solve problems, explore new materials, and find answers to questions. It also requires continuous thinking and decision making on your part:

• Should I intervene or should I step back and let the child try to solve the problem?
• What questions can I ask to help a child think creatively?
• Is the child ready for these materials, or will they prove frustrating? What else could I offer?
• Is my space arrangement working or do I need to modify it?

A good curriculum for children must be "developmentally appropriate." This means that the quality of care will be related to how well the provider understands the different developmental stages of childhood--what is generally appropriate for a particular age group and how individual children may differ within each stage. What you plan for the children in your care and how you respond to a given situation or unanticipated problem will depend on your knowledge of each child's development and their interests, abilities, needs, and background.

To plan appropriately, you want answers to questions such as:

• What can I expect of a child at each stage of development?
• How does a child learn at each stage of development?
• What do I know about each child that will help me individualize my care?
• What activities and learning materials are appropriate for each child?
• How can I adapt my home and materials for children with disabilities?
• What is my role in children's play?
• What role will each child's parents play in my program?

Creative Curriculum™ is taught in a series of 13 two hour workshops.

• Introduction to Creative Curriculum™
  • Objectives:
    1. To introduce curriculum, it's importance in early care, and how to implement it.
    2. To discuss the factors that characterize a high-quality program
    3. To share views on the rewards and challenges of being an early care professional.
    4. To define an appropriate curriculum.
       
        
• Child Development as a Foundation for a High-Quality Program
  • Objectives:
    1. To gain an understanding of how children think and learn at each stage of development.
    2. To learn how to look at drawings and responses to questions to determine how children think about and make sense of the world.
    3. To discuss typical characteristics of infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and school-age children.
    4. To consider the importance of understanding child development in planning a developmentally appropriate program.
       
        
• Setting the Stage
  • Objectives:
    1. To assist in establishing an appropriate and interesting home environment and in managing their daily program.
    2. To consider how environment can affect behavior.
    3. To discuss appropriate toys and materials for each age group.
    4. To share ideas for selecting, displaying, and storing materials.
    5. To discuss scheduling and daily routines in an early care setting.
        
• Dramatic Play
  • Objectives:
    1. To develop appreciation for the importance of dramatic play and to learn ways of encouraging imaginative play in family child care.
    2. To discuss how dramatic play supports development.
    3. To explore a variety of props and materials that can enhance dramatic play.
    4. To discuss the use of prop boxes.
    5. To review ways of sharing dramatic play with parents.
        
• Blocks
  • Objectives:
    1. To emphasize the importance of block play for children of all ages.
    2. To discuss what children learn from block play.
    3. To identify how children learn math concepts and problem solving techniques with blocks.
    4. To review ways of involving parents.
        
• Toys
  • Objectives:
    1. To demonstrate how to select and use toys that support development in infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and school-age children.
    2. To evaluate the characteristics of good and bad toys.
    3. To identify ways to support children’s growth and development through the use of various toys.
    4. To examine and use homemade toys.
    5. To discuss ways to convey the value of appropriate toys to parents.
        
• Art
  • Objectives:
    1. To encourage providers to use all kinds of art media to promote children's creativity and self-esteem.
    2. To examine the developmental stages of children’s art
    3. To learn what constitutes a developmentally inappropriate art activity.
    4. To learn about and discuss different art activities.
    5. To discuss ways of talking with children about attitudes using art.
    6. To discuss barriers to providing successful art activities and ways of sharing art with parents.
        
• Books
  • Objectives:
    1. To inspire an interest in high-quality children's books and identify effective ways to use books in a family child care setting.
    2. To discuss the value of sharing books with children
    3. To develop the criteria for selecting good books.
    4. To learn new ways to present and use books.
    5. To discuss proper story reading techniques and enhanced storytelling.
    6. To learn about flannel board stories and homemade books.
    7. To discuss ways of sharing books with parents.
        
• Sand and Water
  • Objectives:
    1. To encourage family child care providers to include sand and water activities in their programs.
    2. To explore the properties of sand and water and experience the benefits of adding props
    3. To exchange ideas for including and implementing sand and water activities into early care programs.
    4. To discuss barriers to successful sand and water play.
    5. To learn developmental advantages of sand and water play.
    6. To discuss method of involving parents.
        
• Cooking
  • Objectives:
    1. To show how cooking experiences can be incorporated easily into a program that involves children of all ages.
    2. To discuss the meaning of food.
    3. To share ways of extended learning through cooking activities.
    4. To discuss various recipes and resources.
    5. To discuss ideas for involving parents in cooking activities.
        
• Music and Movement
  • Objectives:
    1. To introduce participants to a variety of creative ways to include music and movement activities in their daily program.
    2. To show how music and movement support child development.
    3. To present successful ways of involving children in music and movement activities.
    4. To learn how to implement the use of instruments in early care programs.
    5. To discuss ways of involving parents in music and movement activities.
        
• Outdoor Play
  • Objectives:
    1. To show how outdoor environment offers a wide range of learning opportunities for children.
    2. To explore participants’ own attitudes toward the use of outdoor environment.
    3. To identify barriers and solutions to outdoor play.
    4. To explore learning opportunities of outdoor play.
    5. To look at methods of using outdoor play creatively.
    6. To discuss the value of outdoor play for all areas of development.
    7. To discuss methods of involving parents in outdoor play.
        
• Building Partnerships with Parents
  • Objectives:
    1. To provide a form for parents and providers to share concerns and identify strategies for working together in a partnership.
    2. To examine challenges in establishing an effective parent-provider partnership.
    3. To consider case studies of parent-provider interactions.
    4. To share ideas for communicating with parents and involving them with participant’s program and curriculum.

If you would like more information about Creative Curriculum classes, would like to set up a training, or for help in finding educational opportunities in your area... Contact Me