What's In This Newsletter?

• State Reopening: What does this mean for child care? 
• Heat, Ventilation, COVID, and Smoke - Things to Consider this Summer
• Vroom resources! 
• July Featured Classes: FREE Training Opportunities! For more information and a flyer to share, click here. Online versions of these live trainings are COMING SOON: Building Confidence in the COVID-19 Vaccine with Q/A session and Brain Building Basics with Vroom 
• Building Resilient Children 
• Breastfeeding Benefits to Mom and Baby 
• Fun  Summer Activities! 
• Emergency Child Care Voucher  Program 

Heat, Ventilation, COVID-19, and Smoke - things to consider this summer

Now that we are officially into the summer months, some new issues come to the forefront. We will briefly address these issues and provide you with some resources.

Dealing with Hot Temperatures
The record-setting temperatures this past week were very difficult. Because children are more susceptible to health effects from temperature extremes, it is recommended that children not be taken outside when the heat index is at or above 90°F. The heat index takes into account both the temperature and the humidity or moisture in the air.

• Heat index chart - https://www.c-uphd.org/documents/wellness/weatherwatch.pdf

• Washington Smoke Blogspot: https://wasmoke.blogspot.com/
• Washington State Department of Ecology: https://enviwa.ecology.wa.gov/home/map

• EPA - https://www.epa.gov/coronavirus/covid-19-wildfires-and-indoor-air-quality
• DOH - https://www.doh.wa.gov/Portals/1/Documents/1600/coronavirus/WFSCOVID_Recommendations.pdf

Make sure you are following the child care rules and staying informed.
Always follow your relevant WAC guidance (WAC 110-300-0147). Make sure you are signed up to receive Health Alerts from Snohomish Health District. You can sign up by going to www.snohd.org/notifyme.
 

JULY FEATURED CLASSES:  Free Training Opportunities!  

COVID-19 Vaccine Training for Child Care Providers 

Building Resilience for Adults who work with Children and Youth 

Building Resilient Children 

“It is easier to build strong children then to repair broken men.” -Frederick Douglass

 
Do you know how important you are?  You are incredibly important in the lives of the children in your care. As you know, many young children spend most of their waking hours with you. And with summer here, school age children are spending more time in your care. Along with their parents, you are these children’s world. 
 
Obviously, having such an impactful role in children’s lives is a privilege but also a huge responsibility. Young children are in the process of forming their self-concept. How they are viewed by others is how they will come to view themselves. If you speak kindly and with respect to them, they will learn that they are worthy of respect and kindness. If you think that they are wonderful and can grow up to become anything that they want to become, then they will come to believe the same thing about themselves. What you say and do makes a huge difference as a little person grows and develops. If you are mindful and wise about how you treat a child, you will not create an arrogant person. Contrary to this, you will be helping create a masterpiece of a human being, and a resilient human being.
 
Here are some other ideas on building resilient children:
 
Do have routines and schedules so that children know what to expect.  This will make them feel safe and secure.

Do  listen and watch and try to determine what children are trying to communicate to you.  Some will be able to express their feelings but others will be harder to read.

Do praise children. Give praise for good choices, success or partial success at completing a task or learning something new, being kind to others and so on.  This does not make children conceited or stuck up.

Do  set limits and expectations. Children thrive when they know how things are and they feel safe when you are loving but steady and firm.

Do follow their cues. Try to observe how individual children communicate.  Use age-appropriate words. In play, follow their lead.

Do  look for triggers and try to avoid them. Some children get overly upset or angry by particular events or situations. The obvious difficult times for young children are when they are tired or hungry. If a child has experienced trauma, they may need your help with certain images or experiences.

Do respond rather than react. Children act out at times, especially in stressful situations.  Try to pause and think of the reason behind the behavior.    Sometimes you can help a child and avoid a meltdown.

Do  communicate and collaborate with the children’s parents. Additionally, encourage parents to build their own resilience and engage in self-care; they will thereby role model resilience to their child. 

Do ask for help. The Early Achievers coaches have access to behavior health specialists and you can request a consult about a particular child.
 
Lastly, one of the most important things you can do is to take care of yourself emotionally, spiritually, physically, socially and mentally.  One way you can do this is to review the 7 types of self-care that have been in written about in previous newsletters.  Also important, is to build your own resilience. You can do this by taking the class Building Resilience for Adults who work with Children and Youth in our course catalog.  
 
I will end with a favorite quote by Brook Hampton:
 

“Speak to children as if they are the wisest, kindest, most beautiful and magical humans on earth, for what they believe is what they will become.”

Fun Summer Activities!