Giraffes Room

Before entering the classroom, please wash your child’s hands with soap and running water in the bathroom next to the MDO entrance. Hopefully, this will help our Gentle Giraffes and our teachers stay healthy all year! Your cooperation in helping to prevent the spread of germs is greatly appreciated!

Separation Anxiety:
It is very common for children at this age to have separation anxiety, especially during the first few weeks of Mom’s Day Out. We find that the best way to calm a child is for mom or dad to say a quick goodbye and let your child know you will be back after lunch to pick him or her up. Many children cry as mom or dad is leaving but will quickly calm down after your departure. Please be assured that we will make certain your child is loved and helped through this transition. We will contact you if your child cannot be calmed. If you must peek . . . please be discreet!

Potty Training:
MDO requires that all children enrolled in our 3 and 4-year-old programs must be potty- trained (no Pull-Ups). In the unlikely event of an accident, we ask that you keep a Ziploc bag with a change of clothes in your child’s backpack. If your child has three accidents during the course of the year, s/he will be asked to leave the program until s/he is totally potty trained. Dressing your child in “potty friendly” clothing that they can manipulate on their own will help in their success.

Illness:

Please keep your child home if they are sick. We really can’t stress enough the importance of following the MDO guidelines and policies that are posted on the counter. If your child exhibits any of these symptoms, we will call you to pick up your child early. If your child is on antibiotics for a communicable illness, he or she must have been on the medication for at least 24 hours before returning to class. If your child becomes ill during class or is running a fever we will call you. Please be sure the phone number you write on the sign-in sheet is a number where you can be reached.

Discipline:

In the Giraffe Room, we strive for a safe and nurturing environment for everyone. This means providing the children with engaging activities, anticipating behavioral issues before they arise and using positive reinforcement. There may be times–however infrequent–when other methods must be used. During these times we will be using a time-out chair or ‘Think Spot’. After first receiving a warning, a child that continues to misbehave will be removed from the activity and escorted to the ‘Think Spot’ chair that is away from the class. He or she will remain in the chair for a period of time equivalent to his/her age (in our classroom, this would be approximately 3 minutes). Afterward, the teacher would then briefly engage the child in conversation that may include asking the child if s/he knows why they were in the time-out chair, reminding the child of the posted classroom rules and/or guiding the child to a more appropriate response in the future.

At no time will any form of physical discipline, screaming or belittling be used. Please note that behaviors that are considered more severe may result in an automatic time- out, with no warning being issued. Most likely, this is for behaviors that involve hurting someone else and will allow the teachers time to soothe the injured child. Most children are already familiar with the time-out method and understand this consequence. Mom’s Day Out does not allow biting, hitting or demonstrating extremely wild behavior. If one child injures another child repeatedly, this aggressiveness will be evaluated by the Director and the child may be asked to leave the program. Children this age have a natural desire to please others and we do not anticipate many behavior issues in our classroom going beyond the warning stage. We plan to have a lot of fun in the Giraffe Room this year and know that the children will not want the consequence of being removed from the excitement!