For the 2012 Holiday Calendar, please see here.

Infant Toddler Family Day Care homes do not use mesh cribs.  Drop-side cribs are not to be used due to recalls by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

In addition, all cribs purchased prior to June 28, 2011 must be replaced no later than December 31, 2012.

For more information, visit our Safety Center.

• Upcoming Classes
• Q&A
• Resources
• Save the Date for the upcoming International Dinner

FRIENDS – A Poem (Written by Louise Binder Scott)

I have two friends, (hold up two fingers on left hand)

And they have me (hold up one finger on right hand)

Two friends and me, (bend each from left to right)

That’s one, two, three. (hold up while saying “1, 2, 3″)

Friends Forever Fruit Salad  

Have the children work in pairs to create this wonderful “Friends Forever Fruit Salad”.

Need:  1 banana, 10 grapes, 1 apple, 1 orange (peeled), and a dull knife (to be used with adult supervision).

Slice the banana, apple, and orange into small bite-size pieces.  Cut each grape in half.  The friends should decide who is going to do what job.  For example, the first child can cut the apple and orange while the second child cuts the banana and the grapes.  Enjoy a picnic together!

A Message on Fostering Tolerance and Respect

Children are born without biases about other people of any race, culture, gender, or disability.  We sometimes wonder if we can raise children free of prejudice by just leaving well enough alone and making sure not to pass on negative attitudes.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t work this way; society’s messages are too pervasive.  As parents and early child care educators, we need to take positive action if children are to grow up comfortable with who they are and respectful of others.

We are committed to helping children grow up confident of their own identify, respectful of other people, and aware of the rich diversity of their community and world.  We can do this only by working closely with our families, hearing their perspectives, and finding out more about the cultural background that each child brings to the program.  Parents are even more important than teachers in children’s development of attitudes.  Our early child care educators want to want to work with our families to create a program that helps to counter society’s messages of bias and reflects the cultural background of all the children and families.

The December issue of The Twig is now available

In this season of giving, Infant Toddler Family Day Care (ITFDC) needs your help in raising funds for our great programs that benefit children and early child care educators (ECCE’s) —also known as child care providers. Your support today will have a critical impact on our children.  For more than 28 years, our programs have been providing the support needed to ensure that children receive high quality child care and enter school ready to learn.  This is our annual appeal and we hope you will be able to support our programs.

Donations to our 501(c)3 non-profit organization will benefit the following programs:

1)    An emergency fund to build a “community of caring” for our early child care educators to: 

• Pay fees for substitute care when unable to provide child care due to an emergency
• Provide financial help for health emergencies (many ECCE’s have no health insurance)

Recently, one of our ECCE’s experienced the sudden death of her mother in Pakistan.  The loss of her mother was, of course, traumatic and she had to make arrangements for the costly trip to Pakistan and for substitutes for her day care children.  The cost of substitutes came to over $1400.  Her substitute has been very understanding and has agreed to take payments.  We are very fortunate to have our emergency fund and have, therefore, been able to help with a portion of the expenses for the substitute care.  This is an example of how your donation can benefit our program.

2)    Placement fee assistance ($350) for families in need of financial aides for child care:

• In this troubling economy many families struggle to pay for child care, so we provide placement fee assistance for families in need.

3)    Scholarships for professional development for early child care educators to pay for:

• College tuition and books
• National professional accreditation costs
• ITFDC conferences and training workshops

4)    General operating support for services for early child care educators include:

• Monthly home visits to support and coach early child care educators
• Liability insurance for early child care educators
• Marketing services for early child care educators (website, parent information sessions, Facebook, early child care educator profiles ECCE web pages, and more)
• Our workforce development program helps ECCE’s open and maintain their child care business:   

1.  
   1. We pay for  ECCE background checks
   2. We pay for  ECCE CPR/First Aid trainings
   3. We pay  half the fee for ECCE Medication Administration trainings
   4. We pay a stipend to mentors to coach new early child care educators
   5. We provide home evaluations, help completing paperwork and all training for new ECCE’s free of charge

Please complete the attached form and return it with your contribution made payable to Infant Toddler Family Day Care or visit the DONATE TODAY page.  Online credit card donations are accepted at http://www.razoo.com/story/Itfdc. Donations via check may be sent to Infant Toddler Family Day Care, 11166 Fairfax Boulevard, Suite 206, Fairfax, Virginia 22030.

Your donations are tax deductible.  Infant Toddler Family Day Care is a qualified charitable organization under Section 501 (c) 3 of the Internal Revenue Code.

On behalf of the entire staff I want to wish everyone in the Infant Toddler family a Happy Holiday and a Healthy New Year.

Warm regards,

Wynne E. Busman

Executive Director

Please visit the 2011 ITFDC Early Child Care Education Conference page for al the latest pictures!

Have a wonderful holiday!