Childhood Health and Safety Resources

Children’s learning outcomes begin on a foundation of good health. All parents want what is best for their children, but many are unaware of basic guidelines and practices that foster good health and safety. To help teachers and their students’ parents become better informed, the resources below can provide a starting point for learning more about appropriate developmental health and safety for children of various ages. Please share them with your co-workers and families to help them navigate the difficult terrain of childrearing. The buttons below reflect the topical division of the information to make it easier to find the information you want. Don’t miss our other Online Resources pages that cover areas such as Teaching and Instruction, Curriculum, Montessori, Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), the Prepared Environment, and Educational Technology.

We continue to add resources as we find and review them, so be sure and check the pages often. To see new sites as we add them, visit the ClassrooMechanics Facebook page or better yet, sign up for our newsletter where we feature the new web resources along with other content and information of use to your Montessori practice.

HealthyChildren.org is a website full of resources that is aimed at parents, but is useful for anyone working with children. Backed by more than 67,000 pediatricians committed to the attainment of optimal physical, mental, and social health and well-being for all kids, its contents include general information related to child health, guidance on parenting issues, and more. Best of all, you can rest assured that the information and recommendations come from the nation’s leading child health experts and is backed up by scientific research.

Zero to Three advances the proven power of nurturing relationships by transforming the science of early childhood into helpful resources, practical tools and responsive policies for millions of parents, professionals and policymakers. The organization provides people working with children the resources needed to build healthy relationships with infants and toddlers, grow skills as a professional, and become an advocate for change. They support parents with information to help them connect more positively, deeply and continuously with their babies; professionals with knowledge and tools that help them support healthy early development; and policymakers in advancing comprehensive and coherent policies which support and strengthen families, caregivers and infant toddler professionals. Visit the site to see how it can assist you in caring for our society’s youngest members.

Let Grow is creating a new path for parents and schools –a path back to letting kids have some adventures, develop more independence and grow resilience. Let Grow believes kids are smart, strong and at least as capable as their parents were at their age. Unfortunately, treating today’s kids as physically and emotionally fragile is bad for their future. With an unpredictable and rapidly changing economy ahead, kids need to be flexible, creative problem-solvers. They can’t solve their problems if adults are always right there, solving them first! Always helping kids isn’t always helping them. It’s time to start trusting kids and help to foster their independence so they can learn to make their own way in the world.

Understood aims to give parents of children, ages 3–20, who struggle with learning and attention issues a direct path to the support they need most to make them feel more confident and capable, less frustrated and alone. The organization wants to empower them to understand their children’s issues and relate to their experiences. With this knowledge, parents can make effective choices that propel their children from simply coping to truly thriving.To achieve this goal, Understood provides a variety of resources, including: 1) well-researched, practical information that’s easy to apply to everyday life, 2) daily access to expert advice that’s free of charge, clearly communicated and never influenced by commercial interests, 3) a secure community where parents can trade tips and experiences with other parents like them, 4) help in recognizing and developing children’s strengths and addressing their challenges, 5) resources and tips to help parents work constructively with schools, professionals and others in their community.

The Aid to Life Initiative is a project of several Montessori organizations across the globe and is founded on the idea that children develop optimally when they are brought up in an environment that supports their natural development, with an adult who understands how to connect them to positive activity and then allows them enough time to grow and develop according to their own pace and rhythm. The website aims to give parents or caregivers clear, simple, straightforward advice in a format that is easy to understand and apply. There is a variety of information about the universal needs of children at various stages of development and strategies for supporting it through activities or practical suggestions or items that support it. Currently, the website addresses the child between birth and three but its aim eventually is to address the needs of the child and the role of the parent with children all the way through to adolescence. Best of all, since content has a basis in Montessori theory and practice you can feel good about sharing it widely with new parents or with your infant toddler staff.

NAEYC Early Learning Technology Resources – Guidance on applying the principles of development and learning when considering if, how, and when to use technolgy and new media with young children. . The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is a professional membership organization that works to promote high-quality early learning for all young children, birth through age 8, by connecting early childhood practice, policy, and research.

The purpose of kids-in-mind.com is to provide parents and other adults with objective and complete information about movie content so that they can decide, based on their own value system, whether they should watch a movie with or without their kids. To accomplish this they provide detailed information about a film’s content (caution, spoiler alerts), but they make no judgments about what is good or bad and do not “condemn,” “critique” or “criticize” movies. They don’t “praise” or “recommend” movies either nor do they advance any “beliefs”. They are not affiliated with any political party, any cultural or religious group, or any ideology. The only thing they advocate is responsible, engaged parenting.