When creating your program space, it is important to ensure that the environment  meets the needs of each individual who attends the program. After being in school all day, in which children are one of many, some school age children need a place to escape the pressures of being apart of a large group. Staff can certainly encourage use of this private space for children to relax and 'chill out'.

Space for privacy can be a small area or table, where one or two children can play at one time, separated from the rest of the group.  If space is an issue, combine this area with the "soft space" and limit its use to one or two children. 

The space for privacy needs to be accessible to all and protected from intrusion by other children and most importantly, easily supervised.  

Children should be allowed to bring self-selected materials into this private space, whether a book to read or homework to complete.  Staff should set up activities suitable for individual or small group use in this area.

ESTABLISHING BEHAVIOR EXPECTATIONS 

After addressing children's basic needs and planning the physical space, activities, schedule and social groupings, your after-school program should develop an understanding of expectations for appropriate behavior and communicate these expectations to the children who participate in your program. 

Dale Borman Fink, author of Discipline in School-Age Care: Control the Climate, Not the Children, recommends the following strategies:

• Be concise and positive. Rules stated simply are easier to learn and remember. Rules stated positively set a better climate.
• Put rules in writing and post them prominently. Print the rules and post them in a place where staff and children can refer to them easily. Children who do not read will need to have them explained orally.
• Ask families to assist in clarifying important rules. Some programs send home a copy of the rules. Other programs go a step further and turn a list of important rules into a contract between the child and the program. They send two copies home and ask the families to read it over and discuss it with the children. The children then sign a copy and return it to the program, keeping the other copy for themselves and their families.
• Ensure that discussion of rules in a large group is only the beginning. Some children "tune out" during large group discussions and will miss everything you say. Everyone has different learning styles. Find opportunities to explain the rules in small groups or even individually for children who don't concentrate well in a group.
• Clarify expectations immediately before specific activities. 
• Provide individual guidance for individual children. As a means to focus on prevention rather than treatment, devise strategies to help individual children avoid misbehaving. Prevention is less costly than treatment in time, energy and morale.

SCREEN FREE WEEK

Screen free week is an excellent opportunity to promote active behaviors to reduce obesity.  

  
The National WIC Association is proud to be an official endorser of Screen-Free Week (April 18-24), the annual celebration where children, families, schools, and communities turn off screens and turn on life. Please visit www.screenfree.org to learn how you can get involved and join in the fun.   

We all know that children spend far too much time with screens: an astonishing average of 32 hours a week for preschoolers and even more for older children. Excessive screen time is harmful for children-it's linked to poor school performance, childhood obesity, attention problem, and the erosion of creative play.

Screen-Free Week (formerly TV-Turnoff) is a wonderful way to help children lead healthier, happier lives by reducing dependence on entertainment screen media-including television, video games, computers, and hand-held devices. By encouraging children and families to unplug, Screen-Free Week provides time for them to play, connect with nature, read, daydream, create, explore, and spend more time with family and friends. 

Trainer:  Miriam Kerness, Infant/Toddler Regional Coordinator, CCCW

Description: Understand your responsibility as a mandated reporter and learn how, when and why to report.  Shaken Baby Syndrome, a form of child abuse, will also be discussed.