Family Newsletter
May 2020
Looking for Child Care?
We offer referrals to early education programs
We provide resources that meet your identified needs
We help navigate the process
Contact a Family Engagement Specialist at 800-886-3952
www.casyonline.org/help-finding-childcare/
CASY is the Child Care Resource and Referral agency serving your community.
We promote quality child care and early learning experiences for all children.
Identifying Quality Care
Quality comes first in your search for child care, preschool, pre-K and school-age care. You want your child to have a safe, warm and brain-building environment. Thankfully, programs like Indiana’s Paths to QUALITY™ system can help you connect with quality care.
Sometimes it’s hard to know what to look for.
Click here to find information on the factors that ensure safety and quality. As you look for a great program, be sure to ask about them about each of these areas.
Upcoming Family Webinars
Child's First Teacher: May 14th, 10-10:30am
Challenging Behaviors: May 21st, 2-2:30pm
Effective Positive Guidance: May 28th, 2-2:30pm
During our June webinars, we are going to dive into developmental milestones. Stay tuned for more information
Supporting Children’s Mental Health During COVID-19
Many parents around the world have been adjusting to a new way of living since the COVID-19 pandemic started. Many families are now together all day with no school and parents working from home. With such significant disruptions to their lives, children can have a difficult time understanding and processing why all of these major changes are happening.
Through all of this, it is important to keep a close eye on your child’s mental health. After all, this is a lot for a child to process! Read more here.
Self-Care for Parents
Any time you travel on an airplane, the flight attendants announce that if the oxygen masks drop down, you should first put on your own mask, and ‘then assist small children.’ This is good parenting advice for life in general. Yes, our children have many needs that need to be met, and even more desires they would like you to fulfill. But in order to have the energy to care for them, you need to make sure that you’re also taking care of yourself! Take a few whiffs of parenting oxygen now and then, and it will help to rejuvenate you.
Click here for some tips for what to do when you’re “running on empty.”
10 Ways Parents Can Bring Social-Emotional Learning Home
Cloth Face Coverings for Children During COVID-19
Tips for Coping with a New Baby During COVID-19
Parenting in a Pandemic: Tips to Keep the Calm at Home
Fear, uncertainty, and being holed up at home to slow the spread of COVID-19 can make it tough for families to keep a sense of calm. But it's important to help children feel safe, keep healthy routines, manage their behavior and build resilience.
Click here for some tips from the American Academy (AAP) to help your family through the outbreak.
Co-Parenting Through COVID-19: Putting Your Children First
Parenting is challenging enough when both parents live in the same home. When they live apart, as after a separation or divorce, things can get even harder. Parents may disagree on such basic issues as sleep, nutrition, and discipline with added layers of negative emotions like anger, frustration, and sadness. All of these can interfere with effective communication and problem-solving.
While a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic can add to the stress of co-parenting, it can also help parents overcome their issues and work together to safeguard the children they both love. Read more here.
Help Your Child Get Organized
Most kids generate a little chaos and disorganization. Yours might flit from one thing to the next — forgetting books at school, leaving towels on the floor, and failing to finish projects once started.
You'd like them to be more organized and to stay focused on tasks, such as homework. Is it possible?
Yes! A few kids seem naturally organized, but for the rest, organization is a skill learned over time. With help and some practice, kids can develop an effective approach to getting stuff done.
And you're the perfect person to teach your child, even if you don't feel all that organized yourself! Click here to read more!
Turn Any Walk into a Nature Walk
Exploring Shadows
10 Ideas to Get You and Your Child Exploring Outdoors
At-Home Exercises for Kids
With most families stuck at home during the COVID-19 crisis, ensuring that kids get their daily exercise in can be quite the challenge. While at-home exercises have become increasingly popular for adults to keep active, not a lot of attention has been given towards getting the kids moving at home as well.
Click here to find a collection of fun and easy-to-follow exercise videos designed just for preschoolers and school-age children. Ranging from low to high intensity, each one will challenge your kiddo in unique ways to get moving in creative ways and let out their energy while building strength and stamina.
Teaching Children How to Follow Directions
Teaching children how to follow directions can be a frustrating endeavor. One reason is that we rarely break directions into a simple step-by-step process. Often, we rattle off directions to our children and expect them to immediately get with the program.
In education, teachers are taught how to scaffold lessons to ensure student success. Scaffolding is a process where teachers break down information into digestible chunks. They model how to think about information, or they demonstrate how to solve a problem. Then, teachers support students through the process. Teachers are available to reteach parts of the lesson as needed, positive correction is provided and questions are encouraged. As students demonstrate mastery, the teacher pulls back accordingly and the students become independent problem-solvers of similar problems.
Click here to learn more about scaffolding in parenting.
Gardening with Young Children
Do you have fond memories of growing things as a child—planting marigolds in a cup for mother’s day or spending time with grandpa digging carrots in the garden?
Don’t miss the chance to pass these experiences on to your children! Whether you have the space to dig up a garden bed in your yard or just utilize a sunny window sill, May is a perfect time of year to start growing things.
This article offers some practical advice on how to get started.
Stay Connected
Email: admin@casyonline.org
Website: http://casyonline.org/
Location: 1101 South 13th Street, Terre Haute, IN, USA
Phone: 800-886-3952
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CASY.Inc
Twitter: @CASYTerreHaute