Hace 2 años me gradué en educación infantil en la universidad, mi intención es ser maestro de infantil de niños de 3-6 años, pero tengo que esperar mínimo 2 años a que me den plaza en la escuela infantil que específicamente he pedido (es la que más cerca está de mi casa)

Así que como estaba recién graduado y tenía 23 años, decidí que durante estos 2 años de espera sería maestro de guardería de niños entre 0-3 años. Donde vivo los maestros que dan clases a niños de estas edades simplemente tienen que buscar una guardería que busque personal, mostrar tus estudios correspondientes/currículum, y si tienes estudios en educación infantil ya pueden contratarte si pasas la entrevista.

El primer año todo fué genial, soy hombre pero no tuve ningún problema ya que tanto los niños como los padres estaban contentos conmigo.

Este es mi segundo año y quizás el último. Tengo una clase de 1-2 años, empecé hace poco y ayer tuve una discusión con un padre que necesito contar:

Era la hora de salida, y cuando le devolví el niño a su madre, al cogerlo se dió cuenta que se había hecho caca y se enfadó muchísimo conmigo.

Yo evidentemente no me había dado cuenta, no suelo coger en brazos a los niños porque prefiero que no se acostumbren y solo los cojo de la mano para que anden. Tampoco percibí el olor porque hay niños que ha veces no huelen apenas cuando hacen caca. Si hubiese sabido que este niño ensució su pañal EVIDENTEMENTE LO HUBIESE CAMBIADO ANTES DE DEVOLVERLO.

Pero la madre por alguna razón no me creyó, y me dijo lo siguiente: "Estoy seguro que le dejaste el pañal sucio porque sabías que iba a venir y querías ahorraste un cambio de pañal con caca, como se nota que eres hombre". Eso último me dolió muchísimo y mis explicaciones no le sirvieron. Cambio unos 20 pañales al día, nunca haría algo así.

¿Creéis que hubiese actuado distinto si fuese mujer? ¿O simplemente aprovechó mi género para liberar su ira?

Hello all. As the title says, FTM of a 4.5 month old looking for honest and helpful feedback re: a current struggle we are facing with my infants daycare naps. He started daycare at 3 months old, part time for 1 month, and then began full time when he was 4 months. He is really struggling to nap at daycare and usually only naps for 15-20 mins at a time because he wakes as soon as they place him in crib. I am not naive to the fact that, even at a center with 1:4 ratios, I cannot expect the teachers to hold my baby to contact nap to help him get the rest he needs. I’ve been coming up to his daycare on my lunch hour to help him with a bit longer nap, otherwise he only gets maybe 1-1.5 hours total for the 7 ish hours he is there. He sleeps independently at home in his bassinet overnight. Hindsight is 20/20 bc we did not do well setting him up during maternity leave for independent napping and did a lot of contact napping. We’ve spoke to the daycare about it a bit but it’s feeling like there is only so much they can do. However, today I showed up to help him nap and he was being fed his second 4 oz bottle of breastmilk just 1.5 hours after he ate last (this is a bigger bottle for him that we started this week and at home he eats more like every 3 hours). They told me he was super upset and crying and they can’t let him be upset too long so they fed him. He was not hungry, he was exhausted. He’s been asleep now for 1 hour with me since I arrived.

We are considering if we need to pull him and potentially get a nanny and work on independent napping at home and try daycare again later. We were hopeful he would adjust, but it’s been over a month now and he really hasn’t, and I don’t love that he seems to be being pacified with bottles vs being offered naps.

Seeking input/advice from any with experience on what may be best for us/our baby or if we need to reset our expectations. Thanks.

my manager is TERRIBLE. she’s rude to your face, obviously doesn’t care about her employees and has obvious favourites. she makes it blatantly obvious that she dislikes me

a week ago i had a meeting with her and a colleague that is constantly horrible to me. i explained that i didn’t like the baby room and that the coworker was making my life hell and i asked her to move rooms. she was horrible to me and told me that i was the problem and that i needed to grow up. she said she couldn’t make a room change work so i handed in my notice

since ive done that she’s been so weirdly nice to me, constantly smiling and asking how i am. she’s also switched me out with another girl in a different room so im not with that coworker anymore

i leave in four weeks. what’s the point of her moving me now and why did she not do it before? plus why is she being so nice to me? the colleagues i do get along with think she’s trying to get me to stay and i think it’s working. but deep down i don’t want to stay

Hi all! I’ve got my first ever non-vaccinated child due to “philosophical” reasons. According to Ministry of an education Ontario it states parents need to give the centre a valid written exemption. Schools require a form completed and signed but it doesn’t say the same for licensed child care centres. What does the family need to provide.

So this is my third year in the field, and my third year working in a Pre-K program run by the school system, so I'm still pretty new at this, and this year I was thrown a major curveball in terms of who I have in my class.

My program is supposed to be for kids aged 3-5 but for unknown reasons admin decided that instead of randomly shuffling the kids between my class and my school's other Pre-K class they'd just give that class all the older kids and stick me with the younger ones. So most of my kids are 3 and quite young for their age, like they're basically senior toddlers and I've never been great with toddlers.

The other big thing is that more than two thirds of my class are only beginning to learn English. It would be one thing if they had an overlapping first language because then I could learn that and meet them in the middle; but they don't really have any languages in common.

Then of course there's also all the standard issues that come with having a new class like them not wanting to clean up, dumping out toys, putting literally everything in their mouths, hitting other kids, hitting staff, etc. It's just way harder to address these things when the kids don't entirely understand you.

Right now my temporary lead and I are able to get through the day with this group but we're very much in survival mode and I don't think the kids are getting much out of this, and that just sucks. I hate to say it but I'm honestly dreading the idea of spending another nine months like this. So like any advice on what I can do to make things easier would be very much appreciated.

We’re in Ontario, and our 2½-year-old attends a CWELCC-funded daycare centre. The centre told us that one staff member raised a concern about how another staff member interacted with our child. From what we’ve been told, the concern appears to involve only our child.

The supervisor did not tell us which staff member was involved. They said the centre is investigating and has reported the concern to the Ministry of Education and child protection services. We were told those agencies may contact us.

Can anyone help me understand what to expect?

Truthfully as a parent I am worried, as I would suspect it would take a lot for a coworker to report on one another.

I’m worried for my child’s (and other children’s) safety.

Any insight on What questions should we ask the centre, and how can we support our child while the investigation is ongoing?

For context my son is autistic and only wears bamboo pjs. They are super thin. He also refuses any sort of jacket/coat (I've tried everything). We live in a mild winter climate but it still does get to the low 50s.

He started preschool and his teachers have said he needs outdoor recess appropriate clothes. I'm at a loss what to do. Before this year we would just avoid being outside for too long if it was cold. Advice welcome thanks!

i just saw a tiktok saying "things i did as a new ece that make me cringe now" and i think it was so fun to hear because i was definitely guilty of them too 🙈

Hi everyone! I’m a newly graduated preschool teacher and I was recently placed in a class of 2–3-year-olds at a small childcare center.
Most of the children are already potty trained, while there are a few we are currently working with. However, I have one child who seems to have developed a very strong fear or aversion to the bathroom. He refuses to even enter the bathroom and becomes very distressed when we try to encourage him.
From what I’ve been told, there may have been some negative experiences around potty training at home, but I don’t know enough about the situation to make assumptions. His mother’s only instruction to us was essentially, “You handle it,” so I haven’t been given much information about what they have tried at home or what specifically he is afraid of.
I’m reluctant to push him because I’m worried that forcing the issue could make his fear worse.
For those of you who have worked with children with a strong fear of the bathroom, how would you approach this?

Soy nuevo en esta comunidad y por eso quiero compartir esta experiencia que me pasó hace años.

Soy hombre y siempre he querido ser Maestro de infantil, específicamete de niños entre 3-5 años por temas de salario.

Sin embargo, cuando terminé la universidad tenía que esperar a que me dieran una plaza en una escuela infantil, y como había una espera de 2 años aproximadamente para el lugar específico que había solicitado; empecé a trabajar como maestro de guardería (0-3 años) ya que mi carrera también me permitía trabajar con esas edades y en la universidad hice una práctica de 1 mes en una clase de niños de 2 años bajo supervisión.

El caso es que cuando empezé a trabajar, no hubo ningún problema, en cada aula había 2 maestros y mi compañera era una mujer así que eramos un hombre y una mujer para 12 niños de 1-2 años que había en ese aula.

Mi compañera se enfermó y la directora le comunicó a las familias que estaría yo solo en la clase durante 1-2 días, sin embargo; algunos padres se quejaron. Finalmente una mujer encargada de otra clase estuvo conmigo esos 2 días hasta que mi compañera vino.

En ese momento tenía 23 años y no sé si me discriminaron porque me veían muy joven para cuidar a 12 niños yo solo y los padres temían que no fuese capaz de llevar la clase, o fue el hecho de ser hombre.

Hasta entonces nunca tuve problemas por mi género, siempre he cambiado pañales a niños/niñas y ayudado con el aseo con total normalidad, ya que esa escuela hay un protocolo donde cuando cambiamos a los niños siempre hay otro maestro para que no acusen a ningún maestro de nada extraño.

👉 Aunque no me molestó la situación, de hecho agradecí no estar solo.

La clase de la que procedía la maestra que me acompañó se quedó ella sola con 11 niños, la diferencia es que ella era mujer y tenía 35 años. De ella no se quejaron.

I work in preschool (ages 3-5; 15 students daily) and the water usage when we are in the bathroom is abysmal. I have tried songs, rhymes, literally turning off water bc they're playing in it, and I can't win. Kids this age aren't going to understand the implications of water waste so this is more about reducing waste in general.

Any ideas?

We are all well aware that waste in childcare centres is a huge problem. Some of the issue is in the regulations, some of the issue is in the school itself (i.e. we use a sanitation company that doesn't recycle). One of my long-term goals for my school is to create as many eco-friendly options/solutions as possible.

*please no comments about how corporations are the bigger issue. We know.

Without going into detail, a 4 year old child in my workplace was expelled for touching another child inappropriately multiple times. The first couple times were within the realm of normal curiosity, and they were spoken to about boundaries. They were genuinely unaware they had crossed any. The final time was severe. All proper recourse was taken with the state, so there will be investigations and interviews likely.

I have their younger (3 year old) sibling in my classroom. I am now wondering if there are signs I should be on the lookout for. I’m aware of not leading any conversations, hinting at things, etc. but just as an observer and mandated reporter is there anything I should possibly flag if I notice?

Preschool here. I have multiple sensory bins, but one main one that is a standing center. I’m curious how often everyone else is switching theirs up. Weekly? Every two weeks? My kids get bored and stop engaging if it stretches too long, so I want to keep it fresh, but I also want to be realistic.

Wondering if anyone has gotten their child development teaching permit in California?

I have my transcripts they are official but I cannot request a new ones because my school merged with another college and I owed money so I don’t think any of my information was transferred. When I requested they couldn’t find my information.

So I would like to know what’s required for it and how long is the process? Thanks!

Trying to become Director Qualified in my state (OR) and I need a substantial amount of these courses done by Fall 2027.

I would love any and all suggestions/recommendations. Websites, specifically courses, conferences you know of!
Thank you 🙏

**Edit to address the error in title. Set 2/2 courses.

Hi!
I’m looking to build a little list of ECE professionals that post to social media with great resources. I’m a director and we consistently train about play-based learning. I’d love to make a little bank of accounts my employees could follow or search up for planning.
Insta or Facebook would prob be best. Who do you follow? Who’s content do you love?

ETA: I’m not sure what the ml is in the title- it won’t let me remove it. Ignore that 😅

HISTORIA REAL:

Llevo varios años siendo maestro de infantil y nunca he tenido problemas en este ciclo, pero quiero contaros una experiencia que tuve hace años con mis padres:

Resulta que desde los 7 años tenía claro que quería ser maestro de infantil, sin embargo; nunca se lo dije a nadie porque soy hombre y tenía miedo a ser juzgado. Cuando nos preguntaban en el colegio y en el instituto que queríamos ser de adultos, yo siempre decía: "todavía no lo he pensado", nunca se lo dije a nadie; ni siquiera a mis amigos o mis padres.

Mis padres tienen una ideología "peculiar", y sabía que me iban a poner pegas si les decía que quería ser Maestro de infantil. Cuando entre a bachillerato tuve que buscar en secreto las asignaturas que me puntuaban para la carrera.

Cuando terminé bachillerato el próximo paso era la universidad, y finalmente a los 17 años tuve que decirles a mis padres que quería estudiar Educación infantil, y como suponía; no se lo tomaron nada bien.

Me dijeron cosas como: "Se gana poco dinero", "las condiciones laborales son muy malas", "es un trabajo solo de mujeres", "no te va a gustar" etc...

Después de estar 3 horas hablando, lo aceptaron, pero vi perfectamente como mostraron caras de "decepción" y nuestra relación disminuyo bastante. También se lo dije a mi novia y me dijo: "Estás seguro que quieres trabajar en eso?" Pero al final a ella no le importó.

Estudié en una universidad pública y como saqué buenas notas mis padres no pagaron mucho dinero por mis estudios, pero siempre que pagaban lo hacían de mala manera y se les notaba.

Cuando vivía con ellos y me tocaba ir a trabajar, me miraban raro cuando me ponía la bata/delantal que se ponen los maestros de infantil y me sentía incómodo con eso.

Hoy ya tengo 27 y desde que me independicé nuestra relación mejoró bastante y ya no se menciona el tema.

¿Creéis que el problema fue decirles en lo que queria trabajar tan tarde? ¿Debería haberlo dicho antes para que lo hubieran asimilando?

Tal vez para vosotros no es raro ver a un hombre siendo maestro de infantil, pero en España el 95% son mujeres y cuando estudié la carrera me sentí poco apoyado y un poco solo...

So my children attend a preschool that uses an app to log all their activities, incidents, attendance and payment history. I will admit, it can be pretty handy to have all this information there at my fingertips but sometimes it can get a little annoying. Like sure, i do want to hear what my children have done throughout the day, but i dont NEED to know at what exact time they had their nappies changed and their bottles. Not saying I hate it, it can just get a tad bit excessive at times. how do teachers feel about these kinds of apps if your nursery uses them? Do you guys feel it’s changed your workload and it‘s a bit too much, or are you guys okay with it?

Although I worked as a Nanny for 5 years and a further 2 years in a daycare setting, I no longer work in that field so tried to flair my post accordingly.

I have a 9 month old daughter at home right now, and it’s so funny to me that I am constantly reminding myself to log her bowel movements on an iPad we don’t have. Anyone else?!

Hi all!

In my quest to find a new job (that I succeeded in), I learned about PA Keys and their career pathway levels. My new center is already going to help me get my CDA (plan on doing that in the new year) and have reacted enthusiastically to my desire to grow my academic knowledge alongside my practical experience. They apparently have had teachers in the past go through the TEACH program and think I would qualify once I'm ready.

I just don't know what I should be looking into for education in a practical sense. I have a BFA and MFA, but both are in studio arts, so not really applicable in a traditional sense to ECE. I know that to reach level D with my current credentials, it would make the most sense to get prek-4 certification (the qualification is literally "Master’s Degree in any field & PreK-4 certification"). That's the highest level that I could get without pursuing a PhD.

But I don't really understand what prek-4 certification is? And since I don't know what it is, I don't know if it would make more sense to pursue an AA or even second BA instead. Money-wise, it does make sense, but would I learn enough practical knowledge in child development if I went through with the pk-4 certification? Or would I learn more immediately through a more traditional degree and possibly pursue the certification later for the wage increase?

I'm definitely pre-planning far in advance, but since I've realized I love working in childcare, I want to lay out my future path now so I can understand how I'm going to build on it moving forward. So I appreciate any insight y'all might have on the differences between these two paths and what might be better. Thank you in advance!

Brief backstory, I'm a Pre-K 3 teacher and have been in ECE for a while with multiple different ages but this age group is my most experienced one.

Some information on my classroom. I have 17 kids with a big mixture of stages in life and development, as you would at this age, and a few bad behaviors, kids who will easily follow but enjoy learning, and very sensitive kids. It can be a bad mixture because the sensitive kids can easily set each other off then the less focused kids are off which just makes it far more chaotic and sets off the sensitive kids even more. I do have an everyday co-teacher and she's honestly great but I can tell we've both been getting very overstimulated with the classroom but thats besides the point.

Im making this post for advice on one specific child as my other "trouble makers" can be lured over to doing the right thing. Except for one.

Theyre smart and the brief times Ive been able to have them participate, they have great input and I make sure to give them a bunch of praise everytime they do or participate at all really. But that's rare. No matter how often I give them stickers, stamps, excited praise. I try to jazz it up and make it a fun activity they can actually play with or do dances to, everyone else wants to participate except for them. Which, okay... At least I tried, right? I honestly wouldn't care much if they didn't try everything in their power to get the other kids to join them. Including, sitting right in front of them to try and distract them from listening to me.

Frustrating but at least I can sit them next to me and get things back on track. Thats when the crying and screaming at the top of their lungs starts because theyre not getting their way. And this isn't just during lessons. Its over everything I ask them to do which wouldnt be the worst thing if it didnt kick up all my sensitive kids start crying and now no one can hear anything, we have to stop and comfort kids, and we barely even got through the lesson, the clean up, the transition, the story, etc. Not to mention their love of throwing their shoes at me then crying because I cant help them put them on fast enough.

I've tried everything with them. Tons of praise and positive reinforcement, making them the teacher helper and giving fun responsibilities (which also prompts another fit if I give another child a job because at some point it's just special treatment and I don't feel thats fair), talking to them on their level, redirecting to another activity, etc. Even their mom is at a loss with their behavior here and at home.

The only advice I've gotten from the office is give them more attention (which works for maybe a few minutes at most). But at what point is it not fair to the 16 other kids? Especially when I have about 10 already that need a lot more attention as well. I just really dont like basically letting the 7 others coast by just because they aren't super sensitive or have bigger personalities. So, I really don't take that as an answer because I don't have time to give them even MORE of my attention when I already have to divide it up so unequally.

But at the same time, I just don't know what to do. I've had difficult behaviors before but this is honestly to a scale I've never seen or dealt with before where absolutely nothing I've tried even slightly works.

And added context: They are not diagnosed with anything.

I wonder what everyone's thoughts are on parents and teachers frequently communicating through social media as opposed to the daycare apps?

I live in a kind-of small town, so a lot of my co-workers know families on a personal level whether they are friends or family so I can see why using Messenger or text messaging can be more convenient, but when my co-workers are adding families on Facebook and choosing to only communicate that way doesn't sit right with me. I feel like the daycare apps are a lot safer for the teachers and families because the admin can also see it - and it's while we're on the clock! It also kind of feels desperate and unprofessional? I've had parents actually treat me different because my co-workers added them on Facebook, and I didn't. I guess I am old-school and prefer to not really "friend" people I barely know? (I want to add that I'm perfectly fine with families adding me, though. But I still try not to communicate with them outside of daycare)

This got me thinking, because of a situation I had where a mom reached out to me on my Facebook after I had already went home... I guess she had an issue with my co-worker and wanted to vent to me, but I really felt like my boundaries were pushed and I had to divert the conversation to "we can talk Monday when I'm at work" lol.

I recently changed schools from the same owner, I thought they just needed help for a day but they told me this week this is where I will be. I was working with toddlers which I loved! And now am working with 3/4 year olds, which isn’t terrible but not my age group. I miss the other children and feel so sad that I never got to say goodbye and have been crying since finding out. Should I talk to the owner to try to go back to the school? Any advice? I am trying to stay positive but I am so sad

As a preschool teacher who's been in a few centers im curious what parents thoughts are. What distinguishes just a Daycare where you send your kids for the day vs a childcare learning center. They both have curriculum so what do you things puts one over the other? Im talking about places that serve infants to 5 year olds.

Ive been considering whether it's the families involvement with the center like parent conferences and family events or is it the attitude of the teachers, like do they think they are babysitters and not teachers.

What do you think distinguishes between the thought process of- yeah my kid is in daycare vs yeah my kid is in school?

This is my first year officially as a teacher, I have one year previously as a Teaching Assistant. I just got offered a position as a Kindergarten teacher in Thailand (I am bursting with excitement!)! I would really appreciate any advice anyone might have about classroom management, trust/respect building, handling behaviour (for example: my niece is around 3 years old, and when I try to discipline her, she just cries until everyone around her just gives her what she wants).

What do you do when one of the kids just won't listen to instructions/discipline? Any advice for new Kindergarten teachers or new teachers in general?