Photo Credit to  Jeremy Thomas on UnSplash

All children go in to the nap room as they finish lunch. Sometimes a child is too tired and goes to sleep before lunch. They are ages 0-3 years.

  • educators help those who need it by gently rocking them in a chair, or rubbing their back, or patting their backs gently.

If a child is having difficulty falling asleep or calming their body, there is no force used. For example: there is one child who doesn’t go down until 1:30, so the educators have opted to have them join the nappers at a later time so they are not disturbing the other children.

The educators always communicate their intentions with the child, and provide closed choices to those who need it.

  • the child is spoken to gently, given direction by one educator.
  • child wrapped in blanket
  • rocked in chair

Once the child is calm or asleep, they are placed into their bed.

IF a child isn’t going down, they are brought out and they try again after the child has time to regulate/reset.

Reflection:

The contrast between Caribou and B&B is quite interesting. Taking into consideration that both programs claim to be play based and child lead, I can see where one is much more child lead than the other.

I’m just this small example of nap time, I noticed the gentle tone of voice, and gentle hands. Where I’ve seen a much more forced style of putting a child down for their nap.

In situations where I was trained to physically swaddle the child and put them on their tummy and begin to pat, these educators are so gentle and kind. Showing a form of respect for children that I am not entirely used to seeing. Instead of putting your leg over a child to calm them and stop them from moving, Caribou allows the children to move freely on their beds so long as no child is being hurt or bothered.

Helping a child regulate is part of our job.