Childcare Training

Despite the known benefits of outdoor and nature play for young children, early childhood educators and administrators may worry about issues of safety and liability.

The purpose of this 2-hour course is to equip early childhood professionals to view risk in outdoor and nature play as a process of balancing risks and benefits, rather than a barrier to including outdoor and nature play in your program.

Planning effective outdoor and nature play experiences to support young children’s learning requires an intentional approach.

The purpose of this 2-hour course is to help early childhood educators and directors translate the intentional teaching practices they likely already use in other areas to create outdoor and nature play activity plans tailored to the individual needs of the children in each group within the program.

Early childhood educators can make the most of planned outdoor and nature play experiences in terms of children’s learning through the interactions they have with children as they play.

The purpose of this 2-hour course is to offer early childhood professionals actionable strategies for facilitating learning through outdoor and nature play.

Outdoor and nature play can bring early childhood professionals, families, and community partners together in support of young children’s learning.

The purpose of this 2-hour course is to share examples of successful efforts to engage families and communities around outdoor and nature play and prompt early childhood professionals to reflect on opportunities that might work well in their programs.

In early childhood, a child’s social emotional development and mental health are one and the same. That means the strategies early childhood educators use to cultivate positive social emotional development are, by definition, supportive of positive mental health outcomes.

The purpose of this 2-hour course is to give early childhood professionals a review of key milestones and learning goals in the social emotional domain of development and a selection of practical strategies to help children achieve them.

Executive function is the collection of processes in our brain that help us make calm and rational decisions to accomplish tasks and goals. These skills can be developed through interactions with children to support their learning every day to develop these skills.

The purpose of this 2-hour course is to educate early childhood professionals on the benefits of targeting executive function, its component skills, and common patterns of executive function development to support teachers with planning learning experiences to support children’s development of executive function.

A well-designed, naturalized outdoor learning environment can be the ultimate tool for facilitating meaningful, impactful outdoor play and learning experiences for young children.

The purpose of this 2-hour course is to introduce early childhood educators and directors to best practices in outdoor learning environments and offer tips for making incremental improvements to enhance the quality of your program’s existing outdoor spaces.

Early childhood professionals should understand the standards, policies, and guidelines that must be followed based on the type of program they are working in. These regulations may vary for early childhood businesses, and some may have to follow multiple standards. Understanding these regulations, including best practices, keeps children safe and programs in compliance and ensures high-quality educational experiences for children.

After completing this 3-hour course, the learner will be able to explain the importance of understanding standards and policies, describe why we have regulations in the field of early childhood, list resources that provide state and federal guidelines, and explain best practices for implementation and creating systems for compliance.

Many parents work nontraditional hours, meaning their children need access to early care and education programs outside typical operating hours. In the absence of qualified early care and education programs that offer nighttime care, these families may have to make challenging and precarious choices, choosing between maintaining their employment and leaving their children without the appropriate care.

The purpose of this 2-hour course is to support early childhood program owners and directors through the process of incorporating extended hours of care, including overnight care, to support the needs of many families across Texas.