Summer 2010
Northwest-Shoals Community College
Child Development Program
Summer 2010 Seminar
“Children’s Health: A Focus on Current Issues”
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Northwest-Shoals Community College Shoals Campus
Bevill Center
8:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon
(Registration begins at 7:30)
Child care providers, teachers, parents, and others working with children are constantly confronted today with issues concerning children’s health. Abuse, neglect, safety, and good nutrition are just a few of our everyday concerns when working with children and families. This summer’s seminar will provide a wealth of information and training on child health and safety including child abuse, neglect, and outdoor safety issues relating to safe outdoor environments. This is a training that will get you ready to begin a new year with the information you will need to protect the children in your care. You will be given valuable information and resources to help you prepare a safe and healthy environment.
Keynote
: “Results of Child Abuse through a Personal Perspective”: Ms. Melissa
Owens of CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) will begin the morning’s training with this ‘eye opening’ keynote. This will be followed by a mother’s testimony of the abuse she and her children experienced at the hands of an abuser providing those attending with a very personal perspective of the effects of child sexual abuse.
The mission of our area’s CASA (CASA of Florence/Lauderdale County), based solely on the interest of children, is to ensure that every abused/neglected child has a competent, caring and trained volunteers appointed for all judicial

dependency proceedings thus enabling the child to be placed in a safe, permanent home as quickly as possible. CASA volunteers are people who perform an extraordinary work for children. They serve as independent advocates appointed by a juvenile court judge to speak for abused or neglected children’s best interests.
Session 1 : Kelley Parris-Barnes, MSM, Director of the Alabama Department of
Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention will provide valuable and up-to-date information on the signs of abuse and neglect and provide information on what to do and where to seek help.
Session 2 : Regina Gresham, Certified Playground Consultant, will provide information on playground safety and what to look for in equipment, ground cover, etc. She will also provide information on how to create and maintain a safe outdoor playground environment. This session is one that has been requested by area program directors and teachers. In the past it has been difficult to locate a playground consultant that wasn’t affiliated with a company that sells equipment but Ms. Gresham will provide objective information that will prove to be very helpful.
In addition to the training sessions exhibits of area and state agencies relating to children’s health issues will be available to provide information and answer questions or address concerns.
Four hours of training credits or .4 C.E.U.’s (if requested) will be awarded at the close of the seminar in the areas of Health, Safety and Universal Precautions.
Registration brochures will be mailed. For more information contact Sue Gibbs at 256-331-5351 or gibbs@nwscc.edu
.
Homecare Provider Trainings Summer 2010
“Let’s Go GREEN: Teaching Children to Become Eco-Friendly”
MAKE-AND-TAKE Training
BYOS
(Bring Your Own Scissors)
Trainer: Dianne W. Pace
A home environment is the perfect setting for children to learn eco-friendly concepts like saving water, saving energy, or reducing waste. Plus, there are lots of FUN activities to demonstrate these concepts. This summer plan to

attend a home care provider training in your training area as listed below. Bring your ideas to share! (2 hours of training credits in the areas of health/safety, the child care professional and the family).
Franklin/Winston Counties
July 19
Winston county DHR Office
Double Springs
6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Colbert/Lauderdale/Lawrence Counties
July 26
Lawrence County DHR Office
Moulton
6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Infant/Pediatric CPR/First Aid
American Heart Association Training and Certification
July 31
8:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon
A.W. Todd Center
Russellville
Hip Hop Jack was Hip Hop FUN!!
Singing, Dancing and Learning for our Children
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Alabama’s Kids and Kin Program is a program for relative child care providers in
Alabama and was designed to support and assist people who take care of their relative’s children. Unlicensed Relative Care Providers in Alabama must follow the following guidelines:

Must be a least 19 years old
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Must provide child care for a grandchild, niece, nephew, or sibling who is not over 12 years of age

Ca nnot be the child’s legal guardian or foster parent
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Cannot be a licensed child care provider
Activities and Benefits provided through Alabama’s Kids and Kin Program are:

Educational Workshops in child development, first aid and CPR, nutrition, discipline, child health issues, stress and time management, money management and more.
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Occasional events for providers and children together
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Quarterly newsletter
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Opportunity to earn supplies and equipment for the home
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Opportunity to meet and gain support from other relative child care providers
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Referrals to community resources
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Provider Recognition Day
Even though we do not benefit from the services in our area of the state, the program does serve our neighboring counties of Madison, Morgan and
Limestone counties. Relative providers in our area can attend trainings offered in these counties and the Family Guidance Center web site has a map of where the trainings are located.
If you are currently a relative provider and need information on this program’s trainings, dates of trainings, resources, etc. you may contact:
Jessica Zimmermann
Kids and Kin Program
Family Guidance Center of Alabama
(256)724-2554 jzimmermann@familyguidancecenter.org
(Insert fall schedule)
(Insert same info as always on back of newsletter – contact info, web page, etc.)

END OF YEAR SURVEY
Please take a few moments to fill out the END OF YEAR Survey insert. The survey is ready to mail with address on opposite side of survey. Simply fold, staple or tape, add a postage stamp, and return at your earliest convenience.
We value your input and plan our trainings based on your needs. Thank you!
Summer Outdoor Activities to ENJOY!
Summer is a great time for children and teachers to enjoy outdoor activities that can’t be enjoyed during the cold winter months. Children love these fun events and they also allow a great opportunity to involve parents in the program.
Suggestions for outdoor summer FUN in July, August and September

Water Day: Plan a day with sprinklers set up in the outdoor play area.
Children will enjoy wearing swim suits and playing in the sprinklers with no threat of drowning. Be careful of slippery spots where children might fall and provide plenty of space for running in and out of water. Follow up with an outdoor picnic including watermelon and lemonade.
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Play in the Sand Day: Using a large tarp, make a sand area on the outdoor play ground. Provide children with buckets, shovels and other objects to play in sand. Also provide wet and dry sand areas. Children enjoy creating 3 dimensional sand sculptures, making “sand pies”, or simply take pleasure in the feel of the sand’s texture and experiencing filling up objects with sand and pouring sand from one object to another.
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Art Show: Plan an outdoor art show. Allow children to select their original and creative art work to hang on playground fence or hang on easels. Set up tables on the playground to accommodate clay or play dough sculptures. Invite parents and other family members to attend the
“showing” and provide guests with light refreshments such as cookies and lemonade. The children take great pride in this summer activity and the parents LOVE it!

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Watermelon Day: Ask parents and grandparents to contribute watermelons to the children for Watermelon Day. Encourage parents to send red and yellow meat watermelons for variety. Provide each child with a name labeled small zip loc bag for collecting seed as they eat. Slice watermelon (hand held size works best) and serve to children on the playground reminding them to save their seeds. When watermelon eaten and tummies full, return indoors and allow each child to place their seed on a paper towel to dry overnight while counting seeds to see how many they have. (Use this to teach math skills). The following day, allow children to cut a paper plate in half, decorate like a watermelon slice with crayons, markers or paints and paste their seeds on the slice. Children enjoy this activity and it also makes attractive summertime decoration for the classroom. Older children may want to write about watermelons on the back of their slice. I like watermelon because…..
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ICE CREAM TRUCK: Invite the local ice cream truck to visit the center.
Children LOVE to buy a special treat from the “ice cream man/woman” and enjoy eating it on the playground!
“I scream, you scream, we all scream for ICE CREAM!”