Caregiving

Formal and informal caregiving is and will continue to be important to help all Texans remain active, vibrant parts of their community. We have a variety of materials and resources for child, adult and military family caregivers, including educational resources and in-person programming.

Related Departments: Nutrition

Close up of holding hands

AgriLife Extension Military Program

The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service – Military Program focuses on providing educational programs and resources to assist veterans, service members and their families as they face the many uncertainties of life.
Soldier with family members

Learn About
Caregiving

Programs

We offer numerous free and affordable programs on agriculture and natural resources, family and community health, economic health and youth development. We also offer many volunteer opportunities. Browse the list below.
Program

Balancing Food & Play (grades 3rd-5th) was developed to address children’s health issues by developing lifelong healthy behaviors through nutrition, physical activity, and family engagement.

Program

Promoting Early Education Quality (PEEQ) is dedicated to encouraging the adoption of research- and evidence-based practices at all levels of the early education field.

Courses

Course

Promoting creativity in an early childhood setting is critical for the development of children’s brains. Environments, daily interactions, and experiences are all opportunities to promote creativity in young learners. Creativity can be expressed through the visual arts, music and movement, and dramatic arts.

After completing this 3-hour course, the learner will be able to describe the elements of creativity, explain how environments can encourage creativity, examine how the arts can support development across all domains in early childhood, and discuss the different categories of creative arts with connections to the four developmental domains.

Course

To grow and excel as an early childhood professional, you must reflect on your teaching practices and child observation to make changes and adjustments to your teaching approach. Intentional early childhood professionals engage in reflective practices and create a professional development plan that builds upon their strengths and enhances their teaching.

After completing this 4-hour course, the learner will be able to describe what an intentional early childhood professional is, explain what reflective practices are and how to implement this information effectively to improve their teaching, explain why being intentional and reflective promotes the development and learning in the children they are teaching, and create a professional development plan based upon their strengthens.

Course

Intentionality is one of the hallmarks of a high-quality learning program. This involves not only using a curriculum that aligns with child development and guidelines, but also ensuring instruction is targeted to the needs of each child in your classroom.

This 4-hour course for early learning educators discusses how to use the cycle of curriculum learning to plan whole group, small group, and individual level to appropriately meet the needs of all learners.

All Resources on Caregiving

  • Course

    Promoting creativity in an early childhood setting is critical for the development of children’s brains. Environments, daily interactions, and experiences are all opportunities to promote creativity in young learners. Creativity can be expressed through the visual arts, music and movement, and dramatic arts.

    After completing this 3-hour course, the learner will be able to describe the elements of creativity, explain how environments can encourage creativity, examine how the arts can support development across all domains in early childhood, and discuss the different categories of creative arts with connections to the four developmental domains.

  • Course

    To grow and excel as an early childhood professional, you must reflect on your teaching practices and child observation to make changes and adjustments to your teaching approach. Intentional early childhood professionals engage in reflective practices and create a professional development plan that builds upon their strengths and enhances their teaching.

    After completing this 4-hour course, the learner will be able to describe what an intentional early childhood professional is, explain what reflective practices are and how to implement this information effectively to improve their teaching, explain why being intentional and reflective promotes the development and learning in the children they are teaching, and create a professional development plan based upon their strengthens.

  • Course

    Intentionality is one of the hallmarks of a high-quality learning program. This involves not only using a curriculum that aligns with child development and guidelines, but also ensuring instruction is targeted to the needs of each child in your classroom.

    This 4-hour course for early learning educators discusses how to use the cycle of curriculum learning to plan whole group, small group, and individual level to appropriately meet the needs of all learners.

  • Course

    Engaging families to become involved in their child’s early care and education sets the foundation for that involvement to continue throughout the child’s schooling. Helping families understand the importance of this involvement is critical. Families may not always understand how important they are in the education process, from early care onwards.

    In this two-hour course, the learner will describe strategies for conducting orientations, holding formal meetings with families, discussing ways to support child development at home, encouraging parent involvement, and determining community resources available to help families and their children.

  • Course

    Children are born curious about the world in which they live. In this course, we discuss how to use a variety of dresearch-based learning materials to promote and enhance their natural curiosity, reasoning, and problem-solving in the areas of social studies and nature.

    After completing this 2-hour course, the learner will be able to describe how social studies and using nature support children’s cognitive development. Social studies experiences should reflect the range of the children’s cultural groups. The learner will be able to give activity examples from these two areas.

Have questions? We can help!

As part of our extension mission of Serving Every Texan, we aim to make contacting our experts easy. Find the best fit for your needs:

Localized Information & Resources

Domain Knowledge & Topical Expertise

Media Inquiries & Resource Scheduling