Parent Handbook

LITTLE HELPERS CHRISTIAN ACADEMY

"WHERE EVERY CHILD IS UNIQUELY CREATED BY GOD IN HIS OR HER OWN WAY."

Licensed Childcare Center

Parent HANDBOOK

Mission Statement

LHCA works to create, develop, and empower professional learning environments with educators, parents, students, and administrators to guarantee every student is provided the best opportunity to operate at their best academically, with respect, critical thinking, and independence.

Meet our Leader! Academy's Owner and Executive Director

Danniece Speights

Ms. Speights recently graduated with her BA in Early Childhood Leadership from University of Arizona Global Studies. Ms. Speights holds an Associate Degree in Early Childhood Administration and General Studies from College of Dupage. Ms. Speights also holds 12 certificates through Gateways to Opportunity Illinois Professional Development System and is a Gateways to Opportunity Registery Trainer for the State of Illinois.

Ms. Speights is a highly committed professional eager to provide children with outstanding learning experience, educate parents, teachers, and leaders on the value of early childhood education and making a difference in the lives of young children and their families, while effectively and efficiently performing responsible licensing, monitoring investigative and enforcement functions in the day care licensing program as formulated by the State of Illinois.

Ms. Speights is a mother of one, and she understands the importance of a safe and nurturing environment, along with a fun learning experience through a quality educational program. She invites you to come in and take a tour, meet her incredible faculty and see her academy’s programs in action.

“As a Owner and Executive Director my job is to be a leader who is respectful. I will respect the children, families, and teachers who are under my supervision. I will also behave and act in a sense of trust and loyalty that my employees are able to trust me to be a great role model. I will also continue to be kind especially working with the families and their children but also treating them as individuals. I find joy and happiness in making sure that everyone is well-taking care of and happy."

“My purpose as a leader is to provide high-quality care for the children in my assigned centers, their families, and employees. Also, to provide each childcare provider with the correct resources and tools to be a successfully licensed childcare center operating in the state of Illinois. I am committed to providing care, education, and resources to the people I meet.”

Understanding the Wellness Policy:

The following is our wellness policy. School districts are required to incorporate wellness policies to meet the needs of every school or daycare center under its jurisdiction. At the bare minimum, we are required to include policies for foods and beverages made available to students in classroom parties, snacks brought by parents, and other incentivized foods.

We have taken easy steps for our wellness policy implementation including the following:

1. Securing and maintaining administrative commitment and support

2. Establishing a health team,

3. Hiring a health coordinator.

4. Developing and executing a plan.

5. Focusing on the children.

6. Addressing health-enhancing and health-risking behaviors.

Nutrition Environment

· Children will wash their hands before every meal and snack

· Foods are served family style and will be encouraged to serve themselves.

· Healthy foods and habits will be promoted through posters and activities.

Drinks

· Drinking water will be available and accessible independently.

· Juice is never served to infants under 12 months old.

· Milk will be unflavored most of the time and sugary drinks are not allowed.

Meals

· Food will be prepared to reduce fat, calories, sugar, and sodium.

· Food with high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated fats are not allowed.

Physical Activity

· Accessibility to outdoor and indoor play equipment.

· Inactivity will be limited as much as possible.

Education

· Children will be offered teacher-directed nutrition and physical activity education twice a week.

· Parents will receive nutrition and physical education materials every quarter.

· Teachers will be trained on nutrition and physical activity as a major part of the continuing education.

In summary, it is equally important for students to establish a healthy lifestyle as it is for them to learn math, science, social studies, and literacy!

LHCA Discipline Policy: Working with Children’s Challenging Behavior

Experts who work with small kids hope to be met with provoking behavior occasionally. During the initial five years of life, children are simply starting to figure out how to deal with their own serious feelings and adjust to the behavioral assumptions for society. As guardians know, this is an extended interaction. It is additionally a focal part of children's social and enthusiastic improvement that can be directed utilizing techniques dependent on examination into early mental health.

In an early consideration and schooling setting, we characterize testing behavior as any behavior that:

1. Meddles with children's learning, improvement, and accomplishment at play.

2. Is hurtful to the youngster, different children, or grown-ups.

3. Puts a kid at high danger for later friendly issues or school disappointment.

It very well may be immediate (for example hitting, pushing, gnawing, kicking) or backhanded (for example prodding, overlooking guidelines or directions, barring others, verbally abusing, annihilating articles, having hissy fits).

LHCA staff considers attempting to be children's difficult behavior as a fundamental part of our work. The word discipline has, as its root signifying, "guidance" or "preparing." This significance, as opposed to discipline, is the establishment for our way to deal with directing children's behavior. We acknowledge that little youngsters will now and again show their feelings or attempt to accomplish their objectives in useless or juvenile manners. That is basically important for being exceptionally youthful. Quite a bit of children's most important learning, particularly in a social scene, happens over the span of behavioral critical thinking. The methodologies we use shift by age bunch, however, share the accompanying components practically speaking:

Adults exemplify positive behavior. We show that we can acknowledge, control and express sentiments in immediate and non-forceful manners; we let children realize that we are not scared of their exceptional feelings and won't rebuff, compromise, or pull out from them.

Instructors plan the actual climate to limit struggle. We give products of toys and materials for gatherings of children, characterize study hall and open-air regions plainly to consider both dynamic and calm play, and endeavor to keep a properly quiet degree of incitement.

Educators keep up with age-suitable assumptions for children's behavior. We endeavor to limit preposterous pausing and change times, and cutoff the length of huge gathering and educator coordinated movement times as indicated by children's formative levels. We give children huge squares of continuous time during which to settle on their own action decisions.

Educators set up basic principles, or assumptions, for the study hall local area. More seasoned preschool children partake in this interaction right off the bat in the school year. At the point when issues emerge, grown-ups and children can reference the "Be protected, be thoughtful, be aware" rules as updates concerning what sorts of behavior work with life in a social scene.

Grown-ups intently notice and manage children's exercises and social connections. With our high proportions of grown-ups to children and our accentuation on mindful perception, we can regularly mediate to direct children before circumstances heighten.

Adults assist children with expressing their sentiments, dissatisfactions, and concerns. The staff will assist children with depicting issues, produce potential arrangements, and thoroughly consider legitimate results of their activities. Indeed, even infants will hear their parental figures portraying activities, issues, arrangements, and legitimate results. The grown-up job is to be a partner in sure critical thinking. We need children to esteem collaboration and cooperation. We assist them with learning serene, useful ways to deal with associating with peers.

Children whose behavior jeopardizes others will be regulated away from different children. This isn't equivalent to the act of utilizing a "break" or “timeout” for a child. A grown-up will help the kid move away from a gathering circumstance. The kid will then, at that point mull over the issue out loud with the staff part and some other concerned gatherings. A grown-up will remain nearby any youngster who is genuinely crazy and requirement’s private chance to recover.

Discipline, i.e., direction, will consistently be positive, useful, and quick when behavior is unseemly. No youngster will be embarrassed, disgraced, scared, or exposed to actual discipline or verbal or actual maltreatment by any staff part, understudy, or volunteer working in The Speights Daycare programs. Everyone from The Speights Daycare proficient staff comprehends and follows our disciplinary methodology just as the principles on direction and the board in our Illinois State Licensing Regulations. We work seriously with our understudy parental figures, so they likewise comprehend and utilize this direction approach.

***When a pattern of behavior persists that endangers self, others or property, or significantly disrupts the program, we will work with a child's family to find solutions, up to and including referral for outside services or exclusion from the program

Anti-Bullying Policy

Our community is dedicated to creating a safe and caring environment for all our students. We will treat each other with respect and will not tolerate bullying whatsoever.

Bullying is constituted as all the following:

· Hurting someone physically by hitting, kicking, tripping, or pushing

· Stealing or damaging another person’s things

· Ganging up on someone

· Teasing someone in a hurtful way

· Using put-downs (i.e., insulting or making fun of someone)

· Name calling

· Spreading rumors or untruths about someone

· Leaving someone out on purpose, or trying to get other kids not to play with someone

· Using any electronic communication device (texting, cell phones, social networks, etc.) to insult, threaten, or post untrue information or embarrassing photos about another student – i.e. cyber bullying.

Students will prevent bullying by treating everyone with respect, refusing to engage in or ignore bullying, refusing to laugh at bullying, and reporting bullying to an administrator or adult.

Staff will prevent bullying and help children fit in at school by:

· Supervising the students

· Remaining cognizant of the signs and symptoms of bullying

· Responding as fast as possible for bullying situations.

· Delivering immediate consequences and zero-tolerances retaliation for students who “snitched” on bully.

The consequences of bullying includes intervention, warning, and redirection, notification of parents, resolution with the target of bullying, referral to staff support, suspension, or expulsion.

Emergency Procedures

Emergency procedures are incorporated to ensure students are safe in the event of an emergency such as an earthquake, evacuation, bomb threat, or intruder threat on the premises. In the instance of an emergency, children are dismissed and need to go home early to which parents are notified immediately. If a child’s parents or legal guardians are unable to be contacted or cannot pick up their child, the daycare will retain responsibility of the child until the parent, or an authorized individual picks up the child.

If evacuation is required, the students will be safely transported to a new location. To prepare for these unfortunate situations, children perform the following emergency drills at least once a month:

· Fire/evacuation drill

· Earthquake drill

· Lockdown drill

· Tornado Drill

· Intruder Drill

Registration

We welcome all new families to LHCA. Please stop in our office to receive a registration packet or download it online from our website.

The requirements for intake include the following:

1. Verification of Age:

· Copy of Birth Records

· State by local county recorder to certify date of birth

· Baptismal Certificate

· Passport

· Other: Affidavit of the parent, guardian, custodian, or other means of proving the child’s age.

2. Proof of Residence:

· Grant Deed or Property Tax Statement

· Current Rental/Lease Agreement with Property Management Company or Real Estate Agency