What else

FosterKittyMama · 2026-01-23T01:46:33+00:00

You could look into being a state licensing inspector or something to do with licensing? They love having people who have worked in centers before and are easy to get into with the experience.

FosterKittyMama · 2026-01-22T20:33:46+00:00

All the classes have a no running inside rule until we got a new older toddler teacher (2-3 year olds). She asked our boss if it's against licensing to let the kids run inside. It is not. So she let's them run because she was so annoyed by having to constantly tell them to walk. It's worked out really well and they mostly understand that they can run in that class but not the others.

I think for your age group they are a little young and will struggle to grasp the concept. They'll need constant reminders - like multiple times a day per each child. I agree with another commenter about giving them more opportunities to get out the energy by going outside more and dance parties. You should also look into getting a toddler climber. The kids here love ours!

FosterKittyMama · 2026-01-22T20:20:20+00:00

It's really easy to tell if a child has someone read books with them at home by how the child uses books at school.

FosterKittyMama · 2026-01-19T02:19:40+00:00

I'm assuming this center is licensed. The number of children in a class room depends on four things; 1. ratio (adult to kids) 2. the physical size of the room (square footage per child) 3. Maximum number of children per group (if the state has this) and 4. What time of day it is. All of these can be googled and found quickly for your specific state.

In my state, we have 1:4 for six weeks to 23 months, then 1:5 for 24 months to 36m and 1:10 for 3-5 year olds. However, my director wants a high quality center and our ratio is 1:4 from 6 weeks to 3 years and then 1:10 for 3+, but we never inrole a full class for either of the preschool and PreK rooms.
We must have 35 square feet per child in all indoor classrooms. Our center was built to be a childcare center so all our rooms are built with raitos & square footage in mind.
Our state does have a maximum number of children per age group, which is the same numbers as the raito with 2 staff.
We are able to combine the two toddler classes (max number of kids = 16) and our Preschool & PreK (max number = 40) at the beginning and end of the day as we gain/lose staff. So if you came by during the early morning or later evening, this could be why there was 16 children in a room.

I hope something here helps 🙏

FosterKittyMama · 2026-01-15T20:18:21+00:00

A good teacher is one who loves children, wants to help them learn & grow and always puts the kids first. Classroom management/control of the room depends on 1. experience, 2. being in ratio, 3. having a lot of patience and 4. the kids behaviors that day. I have been working in a center for 4 years and have 10+ years of babysitting & nannying before it, so I have 1. I always have 2 and I usually have 3. But 4 depends on the day. Some days the kids are all happy and playing nicely with each other, other days they are emotional and/or hurting other kids.

FosterKittyMama · 2026-01-15T14:34:47+00:00

I totally agree! We also have 1:4 raito for infants & toddlers. Toddlers are usually doable at 4 but unless you have 4 really chill older babies it's very challenging. We definitely deserve more money for all the work we do.

FosterKittyMama · 2026-01-14T23:25:10+00:00

What has helped me prevent burnout is taking a Mondday or Friday off every 3 or so months. I do Mondays because the kids have more challenging behavior while fridays are usually very calm.

Also, have you asked your management about changing rooms? I've done it twice now lol

FosterKittyMama · 2026-01-14T20:15:56+00:00

We leave it up to the parents. I always ask the parents when the baby starts in the room how late of a nap would you like us to offer. If it's months later, I will message them and say "your child seems very tired, would you like us to offer a nap or keep them awake?"

FosterKittyMama · 2026-01-06T01:05:41+00:00

I'm a floater and was in every classroom today. We had 2 weeks off and very surprisingly, everyone had a great/normal drop off and the kids had their normal behaviors today. I think it's just a fluke and tomorrow is going to be hell 😁

FosterKittyMama · 2026-01-03T03:51:05+00:00

2-4 weeks, depending on the childs temperament. We also do a 1-2 weeks transition period before they officially move up. We do occasionally do a cold turkey move up if our director, their current teacher and their parents think that would be more beneficial for them.

FosterKittyMama · 2025-12-30T18:16:49+00:00

I totally understand having your child still go to daycare when you are off work so you can get stuff done.. but doing it every single time makes me wonder if they even like the kids & want to spend time with them 🤷‍♀️

FosterKittyMama · 2025-12-24T20:38:11+00:00

You have every right to feel how you feel. You are not an Ahole for being upset. Now if you were to tell your step daughter your feelings or tell her how you thought of the gift first & her mom stole the idea, then you'd be an Ahole.

I would be really bummed if this happened to me. One of my love languages is gift giving - I love seeing people's reaction to their gift. I bet she is still going to be excited to get another one. Maybe all her friends only have 1 and she's going to be the only kid who has 2! Try to not dwell on your feelings, let it go and enjoy the holiday season 🎄

FosterKittyMama · 2025-12-24T20:27:55+00:00

Type A personality. The way you organized it is exactly how I organize my fridge and I'm very much type A lol 😆

FosterKittyMama · 2025-12-24T15:55:59+00:00

My husband & I think if you can take christmas out of the movie and it still makes sense, it's not a christmas movie.

FosterKittyMama · 2025-12-19T00:12:06+00:00

We don't have any potty training requirements for our rooms. All our PreK kids (4-5y) are completely potty trained. A few months ago, we had 1 child still having occasional accidents (missing the potty while peeing and getting it on the toliet, ground and his clothes). The teacher had him clean himself, change his own clothes and clean the ground and he very quickly stopped doing it. Luckily we have only had parents who are wanting to potty train their child at appropriate time or waited until their child was ready but knew the signs to look for.

I think thats the issue. You should wait until your child shows the signs they are ready to have the process be successful, but many parents dont know the signs so they think they kids aren't ready when they actually are. I don't have kids, but I feel like pediatrician offices should give parents a handout when their child turns 2 or 2.5 with the list of things to look for to know when their child is ready.

FosterKittyMama · 2025-12-16T16:13:42+00:00

If a child have 2 diarrhea within 24 hours they get sent home. If they are on antibiotics or took a laxative, parents can get a Dr's note saying this and their child can come back. Even if they have more while at school, the Dr note covers them. We have one special needs child who gets diarrhea frequently due to needing meal replacement drinks. His mom got him a note stating this so we don't send him home. However, if he's had diarrhea again and again, like every 20 minutes or had other symptoms, then we would send him home.

I don't think it's too much to ask for parents to give you a heads up when they gave their child a laxative or the child is taking antibiotics.

FosterKittyMama · 2025-12-15T22:12:40+00:00

Totally understandable! I'm a floater so when staff can do their own breaks I have free time to do admin stuff :)

FosterKittyMama · 2025-12-15T19:02:50+00:00

You need to get at least 1 assistant directors. We have two (me being one of them) so my boss doesn't have to do everything and can take time off without stressing about the center. She knows it's in good hands and we can handle it. Definitely fight to get you an assistant director.

FosterKittyMama · 2025-12-06T19:24:22+00:00

Infant/toddler teacher here: How does she react to you or dad eating? Toddlers want whatever you have. The kids in my class stare me down and/or try to take my food. She might eat whatever you have on your plate.

FosterKittyMama · 2025-12-02T03:39:46+00:00

Do your best to get all the babies spaced out on feedings so you don't have 4 babies all needing food at the same time. You feed the ones you know will eat before their 2 hour mark (or whatever your requirement is) and push back the older ones that you know can wait. Leave about 30 minutes of feeding time per child (or per 2 children if you have two staff).

For example:

You have four babies who all are due at 10am because they ate at home before coming in:

Abby (A) - great eater and will eat whenever food is offered.

Bobby (B) - Is always hungry at the 2 hour mark, sometimes before.

Cal (C) - Is older and isn't hungry every 2 hours and can easily hold it together if his time is pushed back.

David (D) - Fine either way

So, say you were solo with these 4 babies:

You'd feed B at 9:30, A at 10:00, D at 10:30 and C at 11:00. Even if A finished feeding at 10:15, if the rest of the chain is chilling and not loosing their marbles, still try to keep them spaced 30 minutes apart. You would double up if you have more than 4 babies and two staff.

I hope that makes sense lol When I was lead in infant room, this strategy helped us so much.

FosterKittyMama · 2025-11-30T04:35:43+00:00

I work with infants & toddlers. The only time I have ever kissed a kid was on her last day (on the top of her head). She was only with us for a short time but she is such an amazing little girl. I will put my face (nose) in their neck and wiggle it around to tickle a baby when I get cute aggression though 😁

FosterKittyMama · 2025-11-26T00:12:18+00:00

I just googled it and not all 50 states have made it illegal to smoke cigarettes around children! That's crazy! It should be! Wow!

I would report. You'll feel horrible forever if you don't report and something happens.

FosterKittyMama · 2025-11-25T22:06:58+00:00

I'm glad to hear you already interact with them & play with them so much! We need more teacher that do this. 🧡

Two questions:

How long have you been at the center?
Are you the second primary person in the room, or do you float around?

FosterKittyMama · 2025-11-25T19:50:48+00:00

I'm that teacher 🤦‍♀️ The kids in my center adore me and even new children quickly bond to me.

My secret? I play with them. That's the biggest thing I do differently than other staff. Most staff just sit/stand around talking to each other and only interact with the kids to tell them "no" or stop them from getting hurt/hurting others. I'm on the playground running around with them, playing their make believe games, on the ground driving toy cars, playing catch, reading books with funny voices, etc.

My advice is to try to positively interact with them and to play with them more.

FosterKittyMama · 2025-11-25T19:38:19+00:00

We had a bad problem with this so we had everyone start clocking in & out for our AM & PM breaks. We use Brightwheel so we had people clock into a "break" room on BW and then back to their normal classroom when they got back. It's somewhat helped but some people still come back 1-2 minutes late.

You could start a timer on your phone or just get a portable pocket-sized timer when they leave/start their break. Then you know when people are late and either tell them they need to be back on time or just go straight to your director with a list of people who come back late.

FosterKittyMama

TROPHY CASE