Young children experience and understand the world through sound, movement, touch, sight, taste, smell, and awareness of their own bodies. Because each child processes sensory information differently, ordinary classroom experiences—such as bright lights, loud transitions, messy materials, crow... How Can Child Care Providers Understand and Support Sensory Needs in Young Children?
Young children enter early learning programs with tremendous potential, but their attention, impulse control, and flexible-thinking skills are still developing. Child care providers can strengthen these abilities through short, playful experiences that ask children to listen, remember directions, wa... How can child care programs build focus and self-control in young children?
Early childhood professionals know that children learn with their whole bodies. Playful fine- and gross-motor activities help children strengthen coordination, balance, muscle control, independence, concentration, and confidence. This article offers classroom-ready, low-cost ideas for building #fine... What fun, practical activities help build fine and gross motor skills in early childhood classrooms?
Tantrums are a normal part of early development, but they can interrupt routines, overwhelm staff, and concern families when adults are unsure how to respond. Young children often have tantrums when strong emotions, unmet needs, limited language, sensory overload, fatigue, or changes in routine exce... How can child care providers understand and respond to tantrums?
Friendship skills are teachable, observable, and essential for helping young children cooperate, manage emotions, resolve disagreements, and feel that they belong. Child care providers can support #preschoolers by modeling friendly language, teaching simple ways to enter play, guiding turn-taking, a... How can child care providers help children build friendship skills?
Investing in early educators matters because the experience, stability, and skill of staff shape nearly every part of a child care program—from daily classroom interactions and family relationships to long-term outcomes for #children. When programs #invest in competitive compensation, meaningf... Why does investing in early educators matter?
Young children enter preschool as natural investigators, eager to touch, test, build, compare, and discover how things work. Simple #STEM experiences can turn that curiosity into meaningful learning without requiring expensive equipment or complicated lesson plans. Using everyday materials, #teacher... How can I use simple STEM activities to spark curiosity in preschoolers?
Everyday routines and play are filled with opportunities to strengthen children’s understanding of numbers, quantities, patterns, comparisons, and relationships. Child care providers can build early number sense by counting children during transitions, comparing block towers, sorting classroom... How can everyday play build number sense in young children?
Understanding developmental milestones from birth to age five helps child care leaders and providers recognize children’s growth, plan purposeful learning experiences, and respond early when additional support may be needed. Because children develop at different rates, milestones should be use... What Should Child Care Providers Expect: Developmental Milestones From Birth to Five?
Building strong readers before kindergarten is both an art and a science. Young children develop early literacy through warm conversations, songs, rhymes, storytelling, shared reading, dramatic play, drawing, and frequent opportunities to notice and use print. This article gives child care providers... How can child care programs build strong readers before kindergarten?