#1 - Ask Your Children to Commit to Walking Safely Across the Street
 | | "Moment of Silence" PSA Teens Distracted by Mobile Devices While Walking |
#2 - 10 Ways to Get Ready 4 Kindergarten
We elect a governor, state senators and assembly members this fall. Check out candidates' positions on issues that matter to you and your children, like child care and after school! You can register to vote at the Westchester County Board of Elections, open 9:00am to 5:00pm M-F at 25 Quarropas Street in White Plains.
For more info, contact Kathy Halas, Executive Director, at [email protected]. To download a registration form, click here:
Register To Vote
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Fun Days in August!
Celebrate August and have some summer fun with these special weeks and days -
- Find 5 things each day for you and your children to smile about.
- August 21st is Senior Citizen's Day. Invite your children's grandparents for a visit or maybe the nice neighbor next door.
Click the website below to learn more:
Holiday Insights
Block Play:
Important Learning and Fun
for All Ages
"Block play is a great way to build skills that we ordinarily think of as academic or school-related." -
Karen Stephens, Director of Illinois State University Child Care Center and ISU instructor
So what happens when children work with blocks?
- Cognitive Development - Children are making a plan and seeing if it will work. They are being creative and problem solving. They increase their ability to focus when they stay with a project until it is completed. They are exploring how things go together or don't. They are learning about "cause and effect" an important science concept, when blocks fall over and when they don't. They learn math concepts - measurement, weight, and shapes.
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Social/Emotional Development - In working with others, children are learning about cooperation, teamwork, listening and other communication skills.
- Small Motor Development - Children are practicing fine motor skills when placing blocks and building a structure.
- Large Motor Development - Children learn to control their elbows, knees, and feet while they work and to keep the "building" from falling down.
- Literacy - Children can look at books about construction projects and get ideas about what to build. They develop their drawing and planning skills by drawing what they want to build. They practice language by making signs (or asking adults to). They can write or tell a story about what they built.
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Health Tip - Medication Safety
Children are curious by nature, and it makes sense that they would be even more curious when it comes to medication. Many medications look and taste like candy. While it's important to encourage our kids to explore and discover new things, when it come to medication, we want to be careful to keep them safe. Here are a few tips to show you how.
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The Hard Facts
Medications are the leading cause of child poisoning. In 2011, 67, 700 children were seen in emergency room medicine poisoning. That's one child every eight hours. Almost all of these visits are because the child got into medicines during a moment alone.
Top Tips
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Put all medicines, including your own, up and away and out of sight.
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Consider places where kids get into medicine.
- Consider products you might not think about as medicines.
- Use the dosing device that comes with the medicine.
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Put the toll-free Poison Help Number into your home and cell phone:
1-800-222-1222.
From http://www.safekids.org/
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2014 Paying for Child Care - Parents Speak Up
We know child care is very expensive. One of the Council's responsibilities is to speak up for child care funding and policies that make it easier for parents to obtain safe, quality care for their children.
Last year, the results of our 1st Parent Child Care Survey helped us to secure $900,000 of new child care subsidy funding.
Now we are getting ready to advocate on your behalf for the 2015 Westchester County budget, so we need to hear from you today.
Please complete our 2nd Parent Child Care Survey now. You can complete it on-line. Just go to
Or click here: Parent Survey for a hard copy to fax to us at 914-761-0389.
Your information will be confidential. Every parent who completes a survey can be entered into a drawing for a gift card.
Please contact Nicole Masucci, Director of Family and Employer Services at [email protected] or (914) 761-3456 ext. 139 if you have any questions.
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IS YOUR CHILD CARE AS GREAT AS YOUR CHILD... Keep Informed
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Child Care Regulations Corner - Transportation
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All programs and providers regulated by the NYS Office of Children and Family Services must follow transportation regulations.
- Must have written consent from parents for any transportation they provide to or arrange for children
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Ensure that a child is never left unattended in any motor vehicle or other form of transportation
- See to it that each child boards or leaves a vehicle from the curb side of the street
- Must secure all children in child safety seats properly installed per manufacturers recommendations, or with safety belts, as appropriate for the age of the child in accordance with the requirements of the Vehicle and Traffic Law
- Ensure that drivers and vehicles meet all Department of Motor Vehicles and Department of Transportation requirements. This includes having current registration and inspection stickers and using operators who are at least 18 years of age and hold a valid driver's license for the class of vehicle they are operating.
Additional Regulations for Child Care Centers:
- When transportation is provided by the child care center, the driver of the vehicle may not be included in the staff/child ratio except when the only children being transported are enrolled in kindergarten or a higher grade.
Additional Regulations for Family Child Care Providers (as of April 2014):
- Parents must be informed of and agree to a transportation plan
- Parents whose children receive transportation services must receive, at the time of enrollment of their children, a copy of the program's transportation plan. If the plan is amended, parents must receive a copy of the amended plan prior to its start date.
- No caregiver, employee, household member or volunteer transporting children shall operate a motor vehicle while using a mobile phone, or other electronic communication device, including hands-free devices. All communications made or received by the driver while the motor vehicle is in use for the transportation of children must be made from a legally permitted parked position off the road.
- Daily transportation schedules must be openly displayed.
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Peekskill Community Baby Shower
The Community Baby Shower is held to provide education, information, and gifts to pregnant women and families in our community.
This fun and FREE event will be held at The Kiley Center, 709 Main Street, Peekskill NY, 10566.
Pregnant women and new families with infants up to 6 months old are invited to attend. Exhibitors from local organizations will be present to provide helpful information and giveaways to pregnant women and new moms. Dozens of raffle and door prizes will be given away throughout the day, including diapers, clothing, and strollers, donated by The Council and other local agencies and businesses.
Click the link below for more information:
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White Plains Wellness Week
September 14th
White Plains will be promoting wellness all week, beginning with a celebration on Sunday, September 14th from 1 to 4 pm. The Kick-Off on Court Street in downtown White Plains next to the Galleria, will feature music, dance, food, children's activities, info and community resources.
Workshops and activities will continue all week on all 8 dimensions of wellness: emotional, health, physical, financial, occupational, spiritual, social and
environmental.
Look for the Child Care Council - we'll be there with info on finding safe, quality child care and after school programs.
For more information on White Plains Wellness Week, go to
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Are you interested in helping prevent struggling readers?
Help our future leaders become successful readers.
Click the website below for more information:
Reading Rockets
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Need Back to School Shots?
Westchester
County
Department of Health is holding free clinics.
Click below to read more:
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Keep Your Children Safe
Graco Children's Products is recalling several car seat models due to a faulty buckle. The buckle can get stuck in the latched position, making it hard to remove your child from the seat, increasing the risk of injury in an emergency.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Admin. (NHTSA) urges parents and caregivers to consider using an alternative car seat until the buckle is fixed.
For more info about the recalls or for any other car seat, you can look up car seat recalls over the past 10 years, call the NHTSA hotline at 1-888-327-4236 or visit their website:
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Be sure to register your car seat so you are notified in the event of a recall.
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National Info on Child Care
This is not just a family issue. With scientific breakthroughs
in understanding brain development, it is clear that the
early years are a unique period of development and that
early experiences form the foundation for future success. READ MORE...
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Finding the Best Child Care or After School Program for Your Child
Our Referral Department is ready to help you learn about all your child care options and available financial resources.
Our FREE services include:
- Consultations with trained child care counselors Mon-Fri from 9am to 5pm
- Online child care search, available 24/7/365
- Guidelines for choosing a quality child care program
- A checklist to bring along when visiting child care programs
- Profiles of full/part-time regulated child care programs
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ATTENTION AMAZON SHOPPERS!!!
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If you shop at Amazon, the Council could receive up to 2% of your shopping proceeds.
Just click this link to sign up today:
Log in with your Amazon Account and then you are prompted to select your charity. Pick the Council by entering "Child Care Council of Westchester" and then click search. You'll then see the Council and the "Select" button next to it. That's it!
(Note: each time you shop you have to use the link below but your charity information will be saved after it has been set up.)
Please share on Facebook once you have signed up.
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