Delanium

My co-teacher is an immigrant and has a name that's quite unusual for America, but honestly not difficult to pronounce once you know it. A lot of other teachers act like it's a word out of some incomprehensible ancient language and have given her an English-word name that frankly would be hardly for children to pronounce (it has a combined FL sound and an R).

I call my co-teacher by her name. Because, you know, basic respect and she prefers it. But I'm the first co-teacher she's had who has called her by her actual name, so this last month or so is the first time that the kids are all hearing her name regularly.

This week, one of our 18 months old has started saying her real name. It's not

Have a 13 month old in my toddler class who's good about naps but needs a little prompting to sleep. I was sitting with him rubbing his back when he grabbed my wrist, and brought my hand to his head and held it there. When he let go I rubbed his head for a moment that went back to rubbing his back. He grabbed my wrist again, brought my hand to his head, and then started guiding my hand to rub along his eyebrows.

I got the message, he was asleep within a couple minutes.

Talked to parents at pickup and they confirmed that they stroke his eyebrows to get him to sleep LOL

**If I have a competent co-teacher handling the rest of the room.

And yeah, it's gross, but whatever, nothing gross fazes me anymore. It's no grosser than runny noses or bloody knees or a baby that has become more yogurt than child.

Diaper changing is the only time where I know I will give every single child a few minutes of one-on-one attention, where I can talk to them directly, they get direct attention from me, and they know that they're going to be cared for and kept safe by me. I can sing to them, talk to them, play a little game with them, and it's actually just for them. If they can talk, we can sometimes have a little conversation.

It's time when I can make sure that they're en

Hey all!! Quick thing that's half kinda wholesome, half seeking advice.

I've got 1 year old twins in my toddler class, boy and girl. The boy is big, very outgoing and sweet and confident. The girl is smaller and much more reserved - she's happy and doesn't have any problems being in class, she's just a quieter and more 'introverted' kid. She doesn't like to play as much with other kids, and she only plays energetically with her brother.

The wholesome bit: her brother protects her if other kids get too rough with her. We have a couple kids who get over-excited, and one particular kid with some biting and hitting behaviors we're working on. He'll get between them, say "not nice," etc. I thin

I'm in a 1 year old room with a roughly 2hr 15 min quiet time. Every toddler in both rooms conk out pretty quick and sleep for almost the entire time, but I have one toddler in my room who only sleeps about 45 minutes, and once she's up she's up and wants to play.

I've been trying to find things to entertain her - her parents brought in this cool soft mystery box toy, and that tided her over on Tuesday, but she was bored of it by Wednesday. Today I went to the storage and found some two-piece puzzles that tided her over pretty well.

The issue is that once she's bored she tries to get up and wake up her friends, and being a 1 year old she has no concept of her own loudness and will giggle,

I've just been moved to the 1 year old room after working with pre-schoolers. I love it, it's great. Except one thing. The outfits.

The adorable little romper whose legs I have to painstakingly maneuver off because it has no buttons. On the flipside, the onesie with 20 buttons.

But it really came to a head yesterday. The baby with lace-up shoes that I had to take off (and lace back up after) because I couldn't take her pants off over them. I had to take the pants completely off because they were skinny jeans. And underneath the skinny jeans a onesie with 10 buttons. Help. Get me out of here. Why do her parents hate me?

Parents, I beg you, just send your kid in simple onesies or loose pan

My center has been afflicted. The curse is upon us. Hand foot and mouth. It's in the infant rooms, it's in the 2's rooms, it's in the preschool rooms, but nobody has been hit as hard as the toddler rooms. We had 3 tots marked absent, 17 tots between the two rooms when I arrived at 9am, and we were down to 9 by pickup time.

That's all par for the course. A parent misses a single red spot on their kid's hand, the kid gets a fever while at school, whatever. We made a lot of parent calls today, and I sanitized that room from top to bottom before going home to bathe in boiling water.

What I cannot get over, what I cannot fathom, is the parent who dropped off their baby with a fever and incredib

Opening this for anyone in case any lurking parents have tips that have worked as well.

I'm being moved into the toddler room (~12 - 24 months) at my center and yesterday had my first full day in there. It was all good except for one very bitey toddler who I was warned about going in. She's about 22 months. I haven't really dealt with biting as a behavioral problem before, so I'm generally not super sure how to go about correcting the behavior. I've dealt with plenty of hitting, shoving, kicking, etc., but never biting.

This little girl is also incredibly smart. I only have the one full day with her, but I think she's well past her cognitive and speech milestones. She remembered my name a

Location: North Carolina

Hey all. I always lurk here and know y'all love tree law, and I actually finally have a real legal question.

I've recently purchased a home with surrounding woods. One side of my house is ~15 feet from the treeline. When I purchased I believed that land belonged to my neighbors, but it turned out there is a ~100 foot wide stretch of woods that belongs to a third party. This small patch is full of dead trees overrun with kudzu, and is not being cared for at all. The third party refuses to sell or do anything with it - whatever, that's his property and his choices. But I was concerned about the dead trees.

I was right. The other week one of the dead trees fell (pe

Before Monday hits us all, just wanted to share something really sweet from Friday.

I teach our 4/5 year old class, and close at the end of the day. Any kids from the 3/4 year old class move over to me at the end of the day, usually around five of them by that point. But I know all of them due to room covering, shared activities, etc.

Friday afternoon, parents of some of the younger kids are picking up and asking about when their kids will permanently be moved up to my room. I mention how excited I am to have 'new friends' in my room, and one of the kids who'll be moving up says:

"Well, Miss [name] you already have one friend sitting in this chair right here!"

Just the sweetest darn th

Hey all, I've been in childcare a long time but am pretty new to classrooms, and I was thrown into a 4/5 year old room with a LOT of difficult behaviors (I was warned ahead of time lol). Most of these kids are going to kindergarten at the end of August, and most of them I've kind of figured out how to work with, but there's one boy I'll have through the next year that I'm really struggling with and want to get some advice for.

When he's asked to clean up, stop a dangerous behavior, join an activity, etc he just kinda shuts down. He'll say "no", stand in place, and get teary eyed, sometimes even actually cry. It doesn't matter how small or gentle the request, he will immediately shut down.