Obtaining an Online Child Care Education

Working directly with children in a professional setting requires some form of educational training. Students that are interested in obtaining an online child care education have several training options to choose from. Online colleges and universities provide students with educational opportunities at every level of education to prepare them for a career.

Education provides students with the skills to care for infants and young children inside child care clinics, preschools, and individual homes. Specific child care degree programs are only offered at the certificate and associate's degree level of education. Further educational study at the bachelor's and master's degree level is available in early childhood education or child development programs. Education allows students to step into teaching and management positions. Graduate training at the doctorate level of education allows students to function as administrators or work as professors.


Students that can't dedicate time to a full associate's degree can work through a certificate program. Most colleges require students to complete 15 to 30 credit hours of schooling to complete a program. Depending on the college chosen education may last anywhere from six to twelve months. Inside a program student's examine child care practices in regards to development and they learn first aid procedures for children and infants. Psychology, basic nutrition, and behavioral observation are major courses taken online.

Child care management certificate programs are also available for students that desire to enter careers in administration. Students study how to effectively communicate with children and their parents. Nutrition, safety, and discipline are three main areas explored in a management program. Child development is also highly focused on. Common coursework includes topics on special needs care, child abuse identification, child discipline, and education for young children. Further education at the associate's degree level is the best option for students seeking entry-level careers.

Training at the associate's degree level prepares students to deal with numerous aspects pertaining to discipline and education. Some online schools and colleges may offer students concentrations, which may include director, pre-school, and infant child care. Some specific online courses could include:

Child Psychology
Working with Parents
Child Guidance
Students will learn the practices needed to establish a satisfying career. Inside discipline courses students will learn the different styles in regards to the strengths and weaknesses of using each. Appropriate disciplinary actions are covered as well as industry tested punishment procedures. Students also cover the five domains of child development and how to positively increase those areas through child care education.

Online students need to be aware that the industry requires hands-on experience to graduate from a program. Students will need to seek out supervised training from the school they are attending or one in their hometown. This restriction is put in place to give students practical experience before they enter a career. Students learn to put their knowledge to the test when directly working with children in a care setting.

Kindergartens Versus Child Care Centres

In Singapore, there are numerous choices with regards to caring for a child outside the home, the toddler's first exposure to other people besides the family. There are numerous options to choose from including kindergartens, playgroups, infant and child care centres. Each has its own set of advantages, depending on what the parent is looking for, what the child needs and can handle.

Some of the more popular options include kindergartens and child care centres. Although both terms are sometimes interchanged for one another, each has something different to offer. For parents, being able to differentiate between child care centres and kindergartens will help them make better choices for their young child or preschooler.


There are numerous differences between kindergartens and child care centres. For one, child care centres are not structured around a definite academic curriculum but are geared more towards looking after and taking care of the child and improving various skills in place of the working parents. These include enhancing motor skills, language and problem solving skills and teaching them how to interact with others. Child care centres are geared for children ages 7 and below. Some centres include infant care for infants aged from 2 to 18 months or programmes for preschoolers aged 3-6 years.

One of the main differences between kindergartens and child care centres is the number of hours they are open. Centres are normally open between 7 am until 7 pm during weekdays and until 2 pm during Saturdays. Being open for longer hours allows busy parents to be able to leave their child for several hours a day while they are at work. Local child centres can provide a number of programmes. These include full day care, half day care, flexible child care or student care programme.

On the other hand, kindergartens or schools for preschoolers, are open for much shorter periods during the day with a more rigorous academic program for preschoolers. Regular operating hours are between 8 am until 4 pm, with the day split into two sessions, with preschoolers coming into class for 3 to 4 hours a day for five days a week. Parents have the option of choosing which of the sessions they choose to put their preschooler in. The normal age for admitting preschoolers is between 4 and 6 years of age. These preschoolers are put through a daily routine which involves improving their language, basic math and science skills, social interactions, problem solving skills as well as improving their creative side. Preschoolers are taught English as the first language with an option of Malay, Tamil or Chinese as the Mother tongue language.

3 Ways to Gain Respect From Your Students

RESPECT. What is respect? Respect is easily defined as a deep admiration for someone or something. As educators, respect is a concept that we are constantly teaching our pupils. We teach them to have respect for their peers, themselves, teachers, parents, siblings, their belongings, etc. Respect is a concept that has been ingrained in the minds of many pupils since they began pre-school.

As our young scholars grow, this sense and knowledge of respect many times begins to fade. During adolescence, students begin to have "a mind of their own". Students begin to go through changes in moods, interests, tastes, amongst many other things. During these changes, sometimes they lose this sense of respect they may once have had for authoritative figures. Educators know first hand when this concept of respect has been clouded or lost by some of their students. If this happens to our how can we gain this respect back from them?


Most students these days do not feel respect from educators themselves. The first way we as educators can gain respect from our pupils is by showing them respect. By showing them this respect we must treat our students with fairness. We should never compare one child to another. We all know no two people are the same. We must treat each child as an individual. We must also treat our students with care. By showing students care they will begin to understand that they are important and needed.

The second way to gain respect from our scholars is by step out of our educator role and into the role of the students themselves. By placing ourselves at their level we are opening up to understand them more. By understanding a students situation at home, school, and environment we can help them grow to respect authoritative figures. We must never put ourselves above the students. If we do such things students will begin to feel inferior. We do not want them to feel this way. We want students to feel as if they themselves are intelligent individuals. By the teacher placing themselves above them the students will just feel as if the are insignificant. We want them to feel worthy and gain respect for themselves and we can start that by giving them confidence and show them that though we are the teacher that we are all equals as human beings and people.

NEVER GIVE UP. To gain respect from students we must never give up on them. Students all need role models. By being consistent in your efforts students will see that you are trying. A lot of students have many people who have given up their efforts and let them down. Do not be that person. Show students that you are reliable and trustworthy. Many may not agree with this view because some students are hard to get through to but remember "Rome was not built in a day". Students can be one of most challenging to get through to but they are also worth the effort.