When you or any of your family members is injured or becomes seriously ill, you go to the hospital. A hospital is a place where people go to get healed and saved. The last thing you would expect is how a hospital can also be a reason for your sickness.

Hospitals are a breeding ground for infections and many of these infections are becoming resistant to antibiotics. This is true even in good hospitals. This is why you should never be complacent. You have to be alert when you bring your kids and family to the hospital.

Learn how to keep yourself and your family protected from hospital-acquired infections by following these tips.

Take time to do some research about the hospital

Emergencies are inevitable and when they happen, people usually don’t have the luxury to select the hospital they prefer. They’d proceed to whichever is the nearest. 

However, if time permits, it’s best to be familiar with the hospitals that have excellent practices in terms of cleanliness and sanitation. Use the internet to check nearby hospitals’ track records and hospital ratings.

If there’s a need to be admitted, check if your insurance policy will cover the cost for a private room. This will help reduce the risk of acquiring infections from other patients. 

Follow regular and proper handwashing

Frequent hand washing remains one of the best ways to reduce the risk of infection. This is a very simple step and yet it is also often overlooked. Make it a habit to wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Rub them thoroughly with soap and rinse well to get rid of germs and sickness-causing bacteria. Make your child and the rest of the family do the same. 

Keep your hands off of your face

Hospitals do their best to maintain cleanliness and sanitation. However, germs and viruses are still present everywhere. From simple flu to chronic ones like pneumonia and other communicable diseases, patients come in and out of the hospital to get treatment for various illnesses. Some of those germs will inevitably be spread so be mindful of the surfaces you touch. 

Keep your surroundings clean

In cases when you or any of your family members need to be confined in the hospital for treatment, be sure to keep your room and your surroundings clean. Disinfect the doorknobs, bed rails, and other things that may harbor bacteria. Also, don’t hesitate to request for room cleaning services if you feel the need for it. 

Keep wounds covered

Open wounds are prone to bacterial exposure that could further result in infections. Therefore, make sure that wounds are properly covered to avoid infection and decrease exposure to germs. 

Some hospitals have also adopted new techniques in keeping wounds covered for weeks without the need to open it. Waterproof dressings as well as skin glue are being used, instead of the traditional staples so that cover can stay on for one to three weeks.

Take antibiotics as prescribed and needed

If your doctor prescribes antibiotics, be sure to take them according to the prescription. Stick to your doctor’s instructions in terms of dosage and schedule. Don’t take more than is required or stop simply because you feel better. Otherwise, it will increase your resistance to other infections.

Be mindful of the objects and surfaces you touch

Whether you’re getting treatment in the hospital for yourself or a family member, always be mindful of the surfaces and objects you lay your hands on. If there’s anything that says don’t touch, then don’t touch. A lot of areas and spots around the hospital harbor bacteria and viruses which you can easily acquire if you’re not careful.

Make sure your child and the rest of your family follow the same precaution. Don’t take a chance on catching other illnesses because you keep touching stuff.

People get sick. It’s a reality of life. However, there are things we can do to reduce the risk of sickness and infections. Follow these tips and take the necessary precautions to keep yourself and your loved ones protected against hospital acquired infections.

For more helpful parenting resources or if you’re looking for a good quality early childhood education, please feel free to visit Young Scholars Academy.

Good health is just as important for kids as it is for adults. Sadly, a lot of kids today are obese or overweight not only because they develop a bad habit of binging on unhealthy snacks but because they are living a sedentary lifestyle.

Parents should begin teaching their children healthy living and healthy eating habits as early as possible. Not only will this help keep sickness and diseases at bay. It will also ensure their overall wellbeing. 

To create healthy habits early on, follow these simple rules for raising healthy kids!

Teach proper handwashing

One of the reasons why illness-causing germs are so easily passed from one person to another is because we fail to develop the habit of frequent handwashing.

Viruses and germs get into our bodies because we touch our mouth, eyes and nose. Be sure to teach your child how to keep their hands clean by frequent proper handwashing. 

When they wash their hands, emphasize the use of soap and thorough scrubbing. Also, make sure they wash for at least 20 seconds to scrub off dirt.

Instill this habit not only before and after meals but after each time they play outside, play with their toys or handle “germ reservoirs” such as door handles.

Ensure complete, balanced meals

To strengthen your child’s immune system, it’s important that they get the nutrients they need for a strong and healthy body. Make sure your child’s meals include fruits and vegetables so that they have a regular intake of essential vitamins and minerals. 

We know it’s not always easy to feed children with vegetables and fruits. Especially ones that are new and unfamiliar to them. They might reject these foods because of the unfamiliarity.

Try introducing new foods slowly. Even getting them to try only one new thing per week still means more than 50 new foods per year.

Try mixing new foods with familiar favorites or preparing them in ways you already know your kids are bound to like.

Encourage an active lifestyle

The television, video games, and the internet can eat up a huge chunk of the time your child might otherwise spend being active. While there’s nothing wrong with enjoying these simple pleasures, it’s important for parents to pay close attention to how much time their children are spending on the screens. Too much screen time can be detrimental to their growth and development. 

Make it a point to replace screen time with active time. This doesn’t mean they have to do routine exercises. It can be any fun activity that involves physical movement. Some examples include biking, running around the playground, playing hopscotch, taking a walk together around the neighborhood, and a lot more!

Prioritize sleep

The importance of good quality sleep in growing kids cannot be discounted. It’s essential for their growth and development. 

Sleep deprivation can be detrimental to their overall wellbeing as it doesn’t only increase their risk of being obese or overweight but it also impacts their academic performance, mood, appetite, risk of catching illnesses, and more. 

Train your child to follow a consistent bedtime routine starting from as young an age as possible. Set a specific time when they should be in bed. If bedtime is at 8 o’clock, cut off screen time starting about an hour before.

You can help them get in the mood for sleeping by establishing routines such as reading them bedtime stories and other activities that can help them feel more relaxed and calm. 

Teach them to make healthy choices every day

While part of your primary role is to teach your kids what they should and shouldn’t do, it’s also important that you also teach them to make the right choices on their own.

This is especially important when their health and wellbeing are involved. Talk to your little one about the importance of taking good care of themselves and what that entails.

Help them develop the skills to make good and healthy choices each day. Some examples include eating healthy, handwashing, brushing teeth, and more.

Healthy kids are happy kids. Follow these simple tips to help you keep your little one as healthy and happy as they can be!

For more helpful parenting tips and guidelines, please visit Young Scholars Academy. 

Dr. Seuss Week

Most of the world celebrates Dr. Seuss’s birthday on March 2nd by enjoying his many books. He has so many classics, and each book has so many ways to make new connections with children. We will be taking the extra fun route here at Young Scholars and celebrating Dr. Seuss for the next two weeks! Here are some ways to incorporate the fun at home.

Dr. Seuss week is a great time to jump aboard the reading train! They are the funnest books to incorporate activities into. There’s sure to be one close to your heart from when you were a child. Pick your favorite to share with your children. It can be a memorable time for all.

Take one day to get the supplies and a few books from the library or pick up a few of your favorites from the store. Your best bet is party stores or craft stores for finding the perfect items to create DIY costumes and crafts.

Make this the year to add a new tradition to your family fun. Dr. Seuss week is celebrated in elementary schools as well, so start making costumes now for you and your kiddos to enjoy for the next decade!

For us here at school we are focusing on Fox and Sox, The Lorax, and Cat in the Hat for our spirit days.

Fox and Sox day will be so fun wearing silly socks and mismatched shoes. For the Lorax find fake mustaches or dress your girls up like Truffula Trees in tutus. For cat in the Hat day dress up as the cat in the hat, super easy and super fun! A black sweatshirt, red tie, and cat ears or his famous red and white stripped hat.

Two other fun books to do activities with are Green Eggs and Ham and Wacky Wednesday. For green eggs and ham make this to eat. Maybe for breakfast, then your child can go to school and share the experience with their friends. Wacky Wednesday can be letting your kiddos pick out their own outfits from head to toe. I remember dressing up for this one in about 3rd grade and looking absolutely ridiculous! I had on fake colored hair, mismatched clothing, socks up to my knees that didn’t match, a feather boa, and mismatched shoes. Let the wacky take the cake for one day.

Dr. Seuss is just the celebration week that everyone needs when no other holidays are here to break up the last of the cold winter. Bring in the bright colors and jump start your Springtime! Dr. Seuss left us books of inspiration and food for thought. Happy reading!

-Ms. Brooke
Curriculum Coordinator
Literacy Coordinator
Lead Pre-Kindergarten Teacher

March is such a fun month for Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations! Who doesn’t love to celebrate and bust out all the green for one day! In the preschool world, we are all about using our imaginations and have gotten the kiddos pretty excited to try and catch leprechauns! There are so many cute ideas out there to try and catch the tiny green leprechauns by building your own leprechaun trap! The children absolutely love creating their own models.

It is very easy to find things around the home to have your child construct and design their own trap. Allowing your child to build their own trap independently is so beneficial to their fine motor and creative development. Here are a few of the materials we had around the house that I gave my preschooler: paper, tape/glue, an old box, rubber bands, paperclips, and scissors. Get creative! Find fun things around the home that they could use to recycle into their trap!

Using all these materials will strength their fine motor skills, which are crucial for improving their writing abilities. Using scissors to cut, gluing independently, and drawing are all fine motor skills that are important to have when entering kindergarten. While at preschool, we practice these actions daily! Adding in fun projects like this, gives them the opportunity for additional practice at home.

Allowing your child to create on their own design gives them the chance to go through the artistic and design process. They will run into stopping points where something might be a struggle, they will have to work through the process of problem solving to get an end result. I set out the materials for my preschooler on the table and told him to use what he wanted to make something that could possibly catch a little leprechaun. He has read the book How to Catch a Leprechaun and really loved the idea to build his own.

While building, he did come to some areas of the process where he got frustrated. For example, when he was trying to think of a way to get the lid to shut, he tried glue a paperclip to the box to make a hook. As he found out, the glue would not hold. He then asked me what to do and if I could help him. I walked him over to our sliding door and showed him how the latch was a hook and he noticed how some of the end had a curve to it. I explained that he should try to recreate that for his trap. At this point he surprised me by bending the paperclip (so it matched the curve as the door hook) and got very excited! We kept talking and making connections before we worked out a plan to stick the paperclip through the box to make the hook catch the rubber band. It was so awesome to talk it out with him and find a solution together!

Creating fun projects like a leprechaun trap from simple items around your home is an easy way to keep your preschooler busy, make fun memories, and build upon their fine motor skills in an entertaining way! We can’t wait to set the trap up, set out the paper gold coins he cut, and see if this is the year we trap a leprechaun!

-Ms. Whitney
Curriculum Coordinator
Lead Pre-Kindergarten Teacher