Health and Safety Policy

The Learning Lodge has a responsibility to all parents and children to maintain strict standards of health regarding attendance at school.  Any child with symptoms indicating an infection may not attend school (i.e. fever, vomiting, rash).

If a student becomes ill at school, we will notify parents and asked to make arrangements to pick up within two hours (emergency contacts will be called, if we do not hear from a parent or the student is not picked up in a timely manner).  Children are required to have a physician’s note or be symptom free for 24 hours before returning to school.  We understand that it can be difficult for parents to miss work, so we ask families to plan alternative arrangements in the event their child is not feeling well.

Behavior Management Policy

Learning Lodge views discipline as a process of developing appropriate behaviors.  We practice positive reinforcement for “good” behavior in a loving and supportive environment.  This promotes a child’s self-confidence and leads to increased desirable behaviors. 
We use indirect guidance techniques:

• We give time warnings during play.  “You have five more minutes to play before it’s time to clean up.”
• We give choices.  “You may paint with the other children or you may read a book in the library corner.”
• We have regular routine.  “We always wash our hands before lunch.  After lunch is story time.”
• We avoid nagging.   We tell the child what we expect just once, follow it by asking the child if he/she remembers what we asked and then offer to help the child do what was asked.
• We’re consistent.  We do things the same way each day so the children know what to expect and learn to trust and feel safe in their environment.

We also use direct guidance techniques:

• We use affirmation.  “We use walking feet indoors” rather than “Don’t run!” or “use your words to tell us you’re angry” rather than “Don’t hit!”
• We get the child’s attention by crouching down to his/her level, making eye contact, speaking quietly, and asking the child to repeat the directions.
• We try very hard to be fair.  We examine our expectations to make sure they are age appropriate and we don’t make rules just because an activity is too noisy or messy.
• We avoid arguments by following through with solutions that address the problem, but also offer the child a way to exit gracefully from the problem:  “you can choose a quiet place to calm down or I can choose one for you.”

If a child is unable to demonstrate self-controlling behavior, a brief time-out results for the child to regain control.  Time-out occurs only when other measures fail and is used as an opportunity for the child to re-group, not as a punishment.