Agrilife Extension Resources

Starting a new home-based child care business involves making a number of decisions including the type of home-based child care to operate and how to incorporate best practices.

Health and safety of children in care is the #1 priority for all early childhood professionals. Home-based child care has specific requirements that must be addressed to ensure health and safety practices are properly integrated into a home-based child care.

This 2-hour course is for prospective home-based child care business owners and will introduce some of the health and safety standards, best practices, and ways to properly implement these in your home-based child care.

Maintaining the health of young children – and setting them up with lifelong healthy habits – are critical elements of a quality early childhood program. This course provides an overview of the Texas Healthy Building Blocks recognition program for early care and education settings that have demonstrated a commitment to promoting early childhood health. It is aligned with the guidelines of the Texas Healthy Building Blocks recognition program.

Abusive head trauma is the leading cause of death in cases of child abuse in the United States. This 2-hour course will help you better understand the dangers of abusive head trauma and how to take steps to protect the children in your care from this type of abuse.

Infants’ experiences early in life literally influence the physical structures of the brain, opening the way for patterns of thought and behavior for the rest of a child’s life. This 1-hour course addresses critical topics related to caring for the youngest and most vulnerable population of children, infants and toddlers.

This course covers handling, storing, and disposing of hazardous materials. Knowing the risks associated with poisoning, taking steps to minimize them, and having a plan are critical to upholding the commitment to providing a safe environment.

Protecting the well-being of children should be the first priority of any child care program, and one that cannot be taken lightly. Injuries cannot always be prevented; however, providing a safe environment along with careful supervision greatly decreases the likelihood of a child becoming injured while in your care.

This course covers emergency preparedness plans and is designed to help you understand the process of becoming prepared for emergencies that might affect your program. This fulfills one of the fundamental tasks of any child care provider – to create a safe and healthy environment for the children in your care.

This course is designed to help you, as child care providers and directors, implement current, research-based best practices in your child care environments. During this course, you will learn why regular activity is crucial for children of all ages and how to match and modify activities for children.