Babysitting Class Ideas
Babysitting is a viable business opportunity for responsible teenagers and adults alike. Creating a babysitting class to provide instruction on the most important issues related to childcare can help class participants improve their skills and potentially secure lucrative babysitting jobs. Babysitting class ideas range from basic first aid and childcare techniques to cooking, crafts and child-focused playtime. Babysitting class ideas can also cover logistical aspects of childcare, including the parent interview process and negotiating an appropriate pay scale.
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Basic Child Safety and First Aid
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The most crucial of all babysitting skills is the ability to keep children safe and to provide basic first aid if necessary. Babysitting class ideas around medical training should include, at a minimum, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), particularly techniques that focus on treating babies and young children; choking prevention, including the Heimlich maneuver, which also has slightly different applications depending on the size and weight of a child; and basic first aid, such as the treatment of cuts, burns, contusions and broken bones.
Parent Interviews
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An interview is not only an opportunity for a parent to interview a potential babysitter, but for a babysitter to get a feel for the parents' attitudes and demeanor and for meeting the child or children to be cared for. Babysitting class ideas involving the initial meeting could include role-playing activities (mock interviews) and tips about how to respectfully inquire about a child's eating habits, bath/nap time, medical needs and the parents' discipline preferences.
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Negotiating Responsibilities
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Babysitters are often expected to not only care for a child, but also do laundry, clean up messes, prepare meals and transport children to different activities. It is important for a babysitter to discuss overall child care expectations with parents prior to accepting a job. Babysitting class ideas in this arena can focus on how to best discuss daily routines and responsibilities with parents and come to a mutual understanding of what the babysitter will and will not be responsible for. This teaching technique will also help the babysitter negotiate an appropriate hourly rate.
Salary Negotiation
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Salaries for babysitters differ across the country, so the best way to teach babysitters appropriate pay scales is to examine the "going rate" for sitters and nannies offered through commercial placement services and set rates slightly lower. Babysitting class ideas on salary should teach sitters how to clarify the number of hours to be worked, a payment schedule, the number of children to be cared for and the full list of duties the sitter will be expected to perform. For example, a babysitter watching three children, driving carpool, preparing lunch and dinner and doing dishes needs to know that she should be compensated at a higher rate than a sitter who watches one child and is only responsible for making lunch and cleaning up afterward.
Diffusing Tantrums
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Babysitters need to know how to calm down tired, angry and cranky children in their care. Babysitting class ideas in this area can focus on learning distraction techniques to move a child's focus away from whatever is agitating him; using soft and soothing words to calm a child; and successfully employing whatever agreed-upon disciplinary techniques parents asked a sitter to use, such as time-outs.
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References
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