CPR: The Skill Parents Must Know

You’re having a casual Saturday morning breakfast with your toddler. Your child is independent with feeding, so you start on the dishes while they finish their breakfast. A minute goes by and you haven’t heard your toddler babble over their banana slices like they usually do. Turning to sneak a peek at your child’s happy face, you drop the dishes in the sink in terror as you notice your child is gagging and isn’t breathing. Do you know how to save your child’s life? 

Why Should I Know CPR?

No parent wants to think about what they would do if their child was unresponsive, so it’s understandable to push these thoughts aside. However, it’s preparedness that helps you not worry! It’s the responsibility of the parent to have the tools and knowledge necessary to protect or save their child.  

If you’re home with your child, you are the first responder in an emergency. While emergency responders are exceptionally fast, it only takes four minutes without oxygen for your child to suffer permanent brain damage, and six minutes before they are dead. First responders are fast, but they may not be fast enough.

If your child isn’t responding, you won’t have time to ask Alexa how to perform CPR, look it up on your phone, or watch a YouTube video. The time to be prepared for an emergency is before the situation occurs. Hopefully, you’ll never have to use such information, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.

What Is CPR?

CPR stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation. It is an emergency procedure performed when the heart stops beating. 

The resuscitator alternates between compressing the chest to pump the heart and providing breath through the mouth for oxygen. Keeping the blood flowing and even small amounts of oxygen can help preserve life until emergency responders arrive on the scene.

Unlike what is often presented in movies, CPR will not restart the heart and revive the individual. An AED (Automated External Defibrillator) is the only way to restart the electrical charge of the heart, so it’s vital to call 911 or acquire an AED during CPR. 

When Might a Child Need CPR?

We usually think of CPR being needed for elderly individuals, or during heart attacks or strokes. But children can need CPR, too. 

CPR is needed when a child is unresponsive. This means that the child’s heartbeat and breathing stop. Some causes for unresponsiveness include:

  • Choking
  • Drowning
  • Electrical shock
  • Excessive bleeding
  • Head trauma or other serious injury
  • Lung disease
  • Poisoning
  • Suffocation

Does My Choking Child Need CPR?

If the choking child is still responsive, they don’t need CPR; they need to have the obstruction removed. A choking child might:

  • Have a weak or no cough
  • Have a high-pitched squeaking noises or no sound
  • Have pale or blue skin color
  • Be unable to cough or cry
  • Have a panicked, confused, or surprised appearance

Although the child is responsive, these symptoms are still life-threatening and you should call 911 immediately. It’s better to have emergency services available if you’re unable to clear the airway. 

How Can I Prevent Choking?

Cut all food into bite-sized pieces. Ensure that no food is circular shaped; foods like hot dogs, grapes, blueberries, etc., should be cut in half or quarters. Sticky food (like peanut butter) should be used sparingly. Provide a drink with meals

Where Do I Learn CPR?

Take time, even today, to gather basic CPR knowledge. You can read informative and infographic articles on the internet or watch YouTube videos. 

But don’t stop there! Sign up for a CPR class that lets you practice on dummies, get feedback from instructors, and feel confident in CPR techniques. There is no substitution for getting certified in CPR. 

The American Red Cross and American Heart Association offer regular in-person classes in your area. You also might be able to find other local certification agencies by searching “CPR classes near me” in a search engine. 

There are online CPR classes, like those from the National CPR Foundation. However, these are not as valuable as in-person classes because you can’t practice on dummies, get feedback from instructors, or ask questions. If you’ve never taken a CPR class before, choose a local class instead. 

How to Keep Your Kids Entertained Without Technology

With yucky winter weather rolling in, it’s natural to spend more time indoors than at other times of the year. Even children who love the outdoors find it hard to play outside when it’s cold, muddy, and dreary.

The easiest way to get loud, stir-crazy kids to settle down is to allow more tech time. But if you’re like most parents, you’ll notice that extra tech time leads to cranky, selfish kids after the tech is put away. 

So how can you keep your kids occupied without tech time? Here are some fun, easy, and creative ideas.

Kids and Tech: The Recommendations

More parents have worked from home than ever before since the COVID-19 pandemic. In many ways, working from home can be a blessing to save money on gas and childcare. But parents can rely too much on technology to be the babysitter while they work from home. This is detrimental to a child’s social, emotional, and academic development. 

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry recommends children aged 18-24 months only use technology to screen chat with relatives or to watch educational shows with a parent or caregiver. Children aged 2 to 5 should have no more than 1 hour per weekday of non-educational screen time and 3 hours on the weekend days.

The AACAP states too much free time can result in:

  • Sleep problems
  • Lower grades in school
  • Reading fewer books
  • Less time with family and friends
  • Not enough outdoor or physical activity
  • Weight problems
  • Mood problems
  • Poor self-image and body-image issues
  • Fear of missing out
  • Less time learning other ways to relax and have fun

Parents must realize that although technology has many benefits, it drastically impacts a child’s overall development and should be used sparingly. Technology is not a substitute for real human interaction and care. 

Ideas for Tech-Free Entertainment

So how can you keep your child busy without giving in to tech requests? Here’s a list to get you started:

  • Arts and Crafts
    • Make and decorate paper airplanes
    • Make and decorate paper dolls and doll houses
    • Color and cut a large cardboard box into a kid-sized house. Connect multiple boxes with duct tape
    • Make homemade playdough
    • Use cardboard and duct tape to make swords, shields, or other objects
    • Make paper or popsicle stick snowflakes
    • Print coloring pages from Google Images of favorite characters
  • Body-moving Activities
      • Play musical chairs
      • Play the “Freeze” game with any song by starting and stopping at irregular intervals
      • Allow a temporary time for the craziest, silliest behavior to “get it all out”
      • Encourage your children to create a talent show
      • Do an indoor Easter egg hunt
      • Jump rope
  • Quiet Activities
    • Listen to an audiobook
    • Read books (find something new and fun at the library!)
    • Keep look-and-find books like “I Spy” on hand
    • Play Mad Libs
    • Paint finger and toenails
  • Other ideas
    • Use painters tape to create a “road” on the floor for cars and trains
    • Make something in the kitchen or bake cookies
    • Play with your pets, teach a new trick, or create a bed for their cage
    • Go on an indoor scavenger hunt
    • Sing karaoke

There are countless ways to keep your child entertained without indulging in screen time, it just takes patience and intentionality. 

Remember, young kids want to connect with people, not screens! Although they can be distracted by screens, they crave real human interaction. Don’t take this small window of time for granted. If you indulge in technology at an early age, don’t be surprised when your children are older and are self-sufficient with a phone in their hand. Think critically about using technology as a babysitter so you can get some alone time or work from home in peace.

If you work from home with children, this is understandably challenging. Remember that you can use technology, it’s just best when it’s limited. Try to save technology for essential times, like during a video meeting or a crunch-time project. 

Bright Start Louisville and Technology

If you work from home, you shouldn’t feel like your job is any less than an in-person job. You still need to be responsible for your work, but it’s understandably hard to care for children and work! An obvious solution to avoiding technology while you work from home is to enroll your child in Bright Start Louisville. 

At Bright Start Louisville, we rarely use technology. Our teachers are fully involved in connecting, playing, and educating children. This allows your child to grow socially, emotionally, and academically, which will benefit them their whole life. While your child is at Bright Start Louisville, you can get all your work done so you can be refreshed and ready to spend quality time with your child.

How Important is Oral Health for Young Kids?

Children are incapable of caring for their teeth, so parents must pay special attention to their child’s oral health.

Don’t believe the lie that “they’re baby teeth, they don’t matter.” Or maybe, “they’re just baby teeth, they’ll fall out anyway.” Caring for baby teeth is essential to your child’s overall oral health and future permanent teeth. 

Why Is Oral Health Important?

Maintaining good oral hygiene has many benefits for your child:

  • Prevents cavities: Cavities are holes in teeth. These must be filled in order to avoid further disease, even in baby teeth.
  • Prevents gum disease: Gum disease is not just for adults! A buildup of plaque causes gum irritation, bleeding, and tooth loss.
  • Promotes good digestion: A buildup of bad bacteria in the mouth can mix with chewed food and travel through the rest of the digestive system.  
  • Promotes overall health: A diseased mouth can lead to diseases elsewhere in the body
  • Saves you money: Children with healthy teeth require fewer dental visits, x-rays, crowns, fillings, or extractions, which saves you lots of money down the road!

When Should I Start Taking Care of My Child’s Teeth?

No matter the age group, once your child has teeth, oral hygienists recommend brushing teeth for two minutes, twice a day, and flossing once daily once the child’s teeth are touching.

Brush infants’ gums twice daily with a clean, damp cloth until their first tooth appears. 

Once the first tooth or teeth come through the gums, start brushing them with a soft toothbrush and a rice-size amount of children’s toothpaste that can be swallowed. This method can be done until the child is three.

After three years old, use a pea-sized amount of toothpaste and begin teaching them to spit the toothpaste out. Gradually help the child become independent with brushing, but your child shouldn’t be fully independent with oral hygiene until 10 years old. 

At 10 years old, most children are independent in brushing and flossing, but it’s still the parent’s responsibility to ensure the child is thorough and consistent. 

How Do I Brush My Baby or Toddler’s Teeth?

Although most children are excited to brush their teeth because the flavored toothpaste is yummy, brushing their teeth can be awkward and uncomfortable until your baby or toddler regards it as normal. 

Here are some tips to help make tooth brushing time easier for everyone:

  • Choose (or let your child pick) a toothbrush and toothpaste that they are excited about. Usually, the novelty of the new toothbrush and toothpaste flavor will help them stay calm.
  • Let them hold a spare toothbrush while you’re brushing with the other
  • Give them a “play” toothbrush that they can chew on and get used to the sensation of the bristles. 
  • Many oral hygienists recommend laying the toddler down on the floor with their arms outstretched. Then the adult sits on the floor next to the toddler’s head and gently puts their legs over the child’s arms. This is a very gentle restraint that is more of a tactile reminder than anything else.
  • Sing a song while you brush your teeth. Maybe it’s a song about oral hygiene, or the ABC’s, or maybe it’s a silly one your child enjoys. Singing the same song every time will help your toddler develop patience with tooth brushing, because they anticipate the end of the song and know tooth brushing is ending, too.

Food and Oral Health

While it’s understandable to think that oral health is mostly related to brushing and flossing, this isn’t the case. In fact, oral health relies heavily on the foods and drinks your child consumes.

Foods such as sweets, breads, cereals, and sugary drinks like sodas, juices, and teas sit on and between the teeth, causing slow destruction of the teeth. 

Brushing twice a day can help with cleaning the teeth from sugar-laden foods and drinks, but it won’t fix the problem completely. Cutting out sugary foods and beverages will not only benefit your child’s oral health, but their overall health, as well.

Raising Socially Responsible Kids

All parents want their children to be well-liked by adults and peers alike. They want them to grow up into socially responsible and respectful adults. But this is especially challenging when culture doesn’t often reward honorable behavior and instead tolerates dysfunction. How can parents fight the uphill battle and win? 

What Does “Socially Responsible” Mean?

Someone is socially responsible when their occupation, hobbies, and relationships are not harmful to society or the environment. For kids, this might mean not vandalizing school property, throwing away their Gatorade bottle after soccer practice instead of littering, and standing up against bullies.

Remember Parents are Role Models

Kids mirror what they see. This is a good reality check for parents. What are you teaching your child, through words, actions, television shows or movies, apps, books, are more? Are you a socially responsible person? Are you celebrating social responsibility, or are you letting things slide?  

These are critical questions to answer before expecting your children to be socially responsible themselves. If you discover ways in which you can improve, the first place to start is by bettering yourself, and becoming the role model your child needs. 

Parents, Model Kindness

By far the most common denominator in any social responsibility situation is kindness. Without kindness, there can be no social responsibility.

Of course, this starts with parents modeling kindness. How can children know what kindness is unless they experience kindness themselves? Children look to their parents to understand kindness. The degree to which you give kindness to your children is the degree to which they will extend kindness to others. 

One way to teach kindness is for your child can ask themselves: would I want someone else to do or say this to me? If the answer is no, they can ask a follow-up question: what would I want someone to do or say to me? The hard part, of course, is doing what you would like to be done to you. 

Parents, Model a Team Mentality

Another aspect of social responsibility is being on a team. Once they make their way to the workforce, they must pull together with other individuals for the good of the company so they can continue being employed. They work alongside strangers for the good of the environment.

As a parent, you can model this team mentality in your own home. Everyone under your roof is on the same team. Celebrate victories, exhort one another to be better, and have one another’s back. This will overflow into other relationships and set a firm foundation for their futures.  

Parents, Include Kids in Household Contributions

Before the Industrial Revolution, most families lived on farms, and everyone–man, woman, and child–contributed to the needs of the household. Everyone had a job to do, and the rest of the family was counting on them to do this job for the betterment of the family. This wasn’t burdensome, but actually very fulfilling for children to feel not only wanted but needed.  

In our society, the expectation for children is to have a fun and carefree childhood. But really, our children thrive when they have some responsibility when they feel wanted and needed in the household. Not only that, but giving kids responsibility early helps them learn socially responsible skills.

Some ways kids can contribute to the needs of the household include:

  • Picking up their toys
  • Keeping their rooms tidy
  • Cleaning up after meals
  • Making meals or snacks
  • Folding or putting away laundry
  • Filling up pet food and water dishes

Parents, Let Them Fix Their Mistakes

No matter how well you teach social responsibility to your kids, they will make mistakes. It’s our natural parenting inclination to sweep in and patch up our kid’s mistake. If they forget their homework, you drive it to school. If they hurt their friend’s feelings, you apologize to them. But this strategy does more harm than good.

Children need to learn how to fix their mistakes. This is a hard thing, but it’s necessary! You won’t be there for every poor choice or harsh word, and if they’ve never fixed a problem on their own, they will crumble. When children fix their mistakes, it will:

  • Help them learn what to do differently next time
  • Be a deterrent from making the same or similar mistake
  • Give them a sense of accomplishment
  • Bring true conflict resolution between peers or teachers

Teaching Social Responsibility at Bright Start Louisville

At Bright Start Louisville, we support you in teaching social responsibility. We always seek to model towards children and expect kindness between children and peers. Our classrooms have a team mentality where we support one another and have each other’s backs. The daily schedule has regular times for clean-up, child helpers, and volunteering. Bright Start Louisville reinforces all the hard work you’re doing at home toward raising socially responsible children.

Try These Math Activities to Boost Your Kid’s Math Skills

LEGOs are one of the most popular toys for a very good reason! They can be collectibles, left in their assembled form and prized on a shelf, or broken down and used in countless ways to bring your imagination to life. 

It’s hard to find a kid (or even an adult!) who doesn’t love tinkering with LEGOs. However, the same can’t be said for math. Many adults admit to struggling with math from a very early age, and many children today do, too. 

Luckily, you can engage your kids and make math fun by using LEGOs for their math homework!

Do LEGOs Help with Math Concepts?

LEGOs are an excellent tool for helping children understand math concepts because they have a hard time visualizing math in their heads. Children (especially young children) need to see how adding one and one makes two. Concrete, visible examples are essential at these early ages.

But instead of gathering ten teddy bears, trains, or baby dolls, LEGOs are the perfect, transportable size. They snap together easily to show how two (or more) numbers combine to make a new number, and break apart for subtraction, division, and fraction practice. 

Both standard and Duplo LEGO blocks can be used for math. Keep in mind the age of your child (regular LEGOs are a choking hazard for children three and under) and their abilities. Small hands are less frustrated with large blocks. You can also tape numbers or use a dry-erase marker on large blocks to practice more advanced math skills like skip counting. Standard LEGOs allow you to do large numbers with less space. 

Here are some creative ways to use LEGOs to enhance your child’s learning, no matter their age. 

Basic Addition and Subtraction with Blocks

These straightforward exercises are easy and fun to complete. Use the blocks to represent the numbers in the equation to show your child how numbers work together. This reinforces counting skills and helps them visualize how numbers work together. 

Introduce Place Value 

Adding and subtracting within the first nine numbers is fairly easy, but once you begin adding and subtracting with tens, hundreds, thousands, and more, things can quickly get tricky. It’s a lot for your child to visualize in their mind. This is why manipulatives (like LEGOs) help them keep track of numbers in their head.

Create a simple place value chart or paper (units, tens, hundreds, etc) like this one. Make multiple stacks of ten blocks for the tens column and have individual blocks for the units column. 

Write out some numbers or equations for your child to practice. For instance, ask them to use the blocks to make the number 13. They should place one stack of ten in the tens column and three blocks in the units column. Or to make the number 54, they should put 5 tens in the tens column and four blocks in the units column. 

Addition and Subtraction with Place Value

Once they master this, they can begin to add and subtract. For example, 13 + 54 would result in 7 unit blocks and 6 tens stacks. 

Where the LEGO magic really helps is when they create a new tens stack. In the equation 15 + 19, they will see that 5 and 9 create 14; there are too many unit blocks and they have enough to create a new tens stack to place them in the tens column. 

The reverse can be done for subtraction. Start with basic subtraction that doesn’t require borrowing, like 44 – 22. Your child takes away two tens stacks and two unit blocks. 

But let’s say the equation is 44 – 26. Your child moves a stack from the tens column to the units column and then takes away 6 blocks from what is now 14. The LEGOs easily break apart so they can come to the right answer. 

Skip Counting with Numbered Blocks

Using Duplo blocks, tape or write with a dry-erase marker the numbers you want your child to practice skip counting. For instance, if you want your child to practice skip counting by 5’s, you would write 5, 10, 15, 20, etc, on individual blocks. Your child then stacks them up in the right order.

Pattern Recognition

Although pattern recognition is generally taught as a pre-K or kindergarten skill, pattern recognition is essential for math at all levels. 

Give your child a pattern to replicate using different colored blocks. For a young child, these can be simple (like red, blue, red, blue, or red, blue, green, red, blue, green). But for older children, you can give them a greater challenge! You can choose a longer string of colors or an inverted color pattern (like red, yellow, blue, yellow, red).

After presenting them with your pattern, ask them to build their own tower to replicate yours. LEGOs makes it easy to do a side-by-side comparison and see if your child succeeded.  

Measuring and Comparing Lengths

Young children are often tested on knowing a greater or lesser number ( < and >). This can be confusing when phrased in these terms, but is much easier understood when the child builds a LEGO tower. It’s easy to see that a tower 9 blocks high is greater than a tower 7 blocks high. LEGOs bring internal visualization to life for more concrete learning.

Math Activities at Bright Start Louisville

Whether for work or play, Bright Start Louisville loves building blocks! Bright Start Louisville provides age-appropriate blocks for children of all ages. Our teachers love using blocks to explain and enhance their math lessons and find that children better grasp math concepts when using LEGOs as manipulatives

5 Tips to Help Your Child Follow Directions

You’re running late for work and needed to leave five minutes ago. Your child still hasn’t found her jacket but she’s found her lost rainboots, sticker collection, and school photo from last year. You’ve repeated directions three times to get her jacket, and you feel on the verge of snapping.

Every parent has experienced this at one time or another. There are dozens of reasons children struggle to follow directions. It’s easy to blame these all on your child (after all, you did repeat yourself three times!). 

However, there is always room for improvement in the way parents direct their children. For instance, do you really have your child’s attention, or are you giving instructions while they’re playing a video game? Are you giving clear directions, or are your directions confusing?

Here are some ways to improve your communication so your child is more likely to follow directions the first time. 

Gain Your Child’s Attention

There’s no point in giving directions if your child isn’t listening. This will only frustrate you and lead to greater tension. 

We live in a world of almost constant distraction. We have so much to look at, listen to, and interact with, it’s no surprise that our children are distracted! So, before you give directions, ensure your child is attentive to you. This usually means eye contact, but can also be a verbal acknowledgment from your child (for instance, if they are in the other room).

Teaching your child to look at the person addressing them takes time and patience but is well worth the effort. Eye contact shows respect for the other person and is considered good manners. Adults look with favor upon a well-mannered child, which will only benefit your child! 

Watch Your Tone

You’re less likely to listen to your boss or other superiors if they are yelling at you, speaking condescendingly, or otherwise appearing annoyed with you. The same is true for your children!

Children will mirror your demeanor, tone, and attitude. Speaking to them with annoyance, frustration, condescension, or other negative emotions will likely come right back at you. 

Choosing to speak kindly, respectfully, and positively, not only increases your chances of first-time obedience but also benefits your relationship and models appropriate social interactions for your children.  

Give Instructions One at a Time

Toddlers and young children can’t follow more than one-step directions. For adults, it’s easy for us to remember “Get your shoes and jacket and get in the car,” but this is a lot of things for a little brain to remember! It’s not until kindergarten that most children can consistently follow through with two or more step directions.

It’s important to have appropriate expectations for your child’s age. If they are younger, give one-step directions (e.g., “Go get your shoes,” and once this has been done, “Go get your jacket”). This will reduce confusion for your child and frustration for you!

If your child is in elementary school but still unable to follow multiple instructions, it may be appropriate to give one-step directions for a season. If your child needs one-step directions, this approach will quickly grow their confidence to achieve two-step (and more) directions. If your child is just being lazy, having to go back and forth will get tiresome after a while and they will decide it’s better to do everything all at once. 

Be Clear and Specific

A parent’s brain is whirling with what’s for dinner, changing the laundry, meeting a work deadline, responding to emails, and much more. These jumbled thoughts can often result in unclear instructions to our children. 

Before giving directions, take a few seconds to gather your thoughts so your instructions can be as clear and specific as possible. Numbering directions on your fingers can also be helpful. For example, “You have soccer practice today, so put your cleats, socks, shin guards, and a snack (numbering on your fingers as you go) in your soccer bag”. Then ask your child to repeat back (with numbering on their fingers) what you asked of them. 

Give Simple Choices

There are times when a parent must decide on behalf of the child and other times when the child can choose. While these can be helpful for the child to express themselves and be independent, be careful not to give complicated choices. For example:

  • Would you like to wear a green or purple dress?
  • Would you like chocolate or vanilla ice cream?
  • Do you want to ride your scooter or bike on our walk?

Giving your child more than two or three choices can feel overwhelming and result in an avoidable meltdown. Keep things simple!

Following Directions at Bright Start Louisville

At Bright Start Louisville, we aspire to train attentive children who follow through on given instructions. Our teachers are clear and kind when giving directions and have age-appropriate expectations and techniques for training children to be attentive listeners.