Child Care Course Curriculum

The comprehensive curriculum of Blackstone’s  online Child Care course covers a broad range of topics.

Unit I: Blackstone’s Skills for Success

Chapter 1

Discusses learning styles and intrinsic and extrinsic motivation; explains the difference between visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners and field dependence and field independence.

Chapter 2

Discusses the importance of finding a place to study, setting realistic goals, and avoiding distractions and procrastination.

Chapter 3

Covers learning strategies, including the SQ3R; explains how to take notes, use memory tricks and references, and prepare for multiple-choice tests.

Unit II: English and Written Communication

Chapter 1

Covers the parts of speech including nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.

Chapter 2

Covers the parts of a sentence including the subject, predicate, direct object, indirect object, subject compliment, phrase, and clause.

Chapter 3

Covers pronoun/antecedent agreement and pronoun usage; explains how pronouns are used in sentences; covers subject/verb agreement.

Chapter 4

Covers sentence types and sentence punctuation.

Chapter 5

Covers fundamentals of written communication including using active versus passive voice, writing unified and coherent paragraphs, and writing topic sentences for paragraphs. Discusses common types of business communication including business letters and memorandums.

Unit III: Introduction to Computers, Keyboarding and Office Technology

Chapter 1

Covers how computers are used in the office today, the different types of computers, and the parts of a computer system.

Chapter 2

Covers basic keyboarding skills using Blackstone’s Online Typing Tutor.

Chapter 3

Covers the Internet, the World Wide Web (WWW), URLs, the different types of Internet connections, search engines, email, and other uses for the Internet.

Chapter 4

Covers other types of office technology, including office telephones and the different types of telephone calls; fax machines; photocopiers; multipurpose machines; transcribers; digital cameras; and wireless communication.

Unit IV: Time & Stress Management

Chapter 1

Discusses determining personal values through assessment activities and making decisions based on personal values.

Chapter 2

Covers creating new habits and patterns of behavior.

Chapter 3

Explores setting realistic goals and objectives to achieve desirable outcomes.

Chapter 4

Discusses prioritizing activities, projects and to-do items.

Chapter 5

Covers effective planning and scheduling.

Chapter 6

Explores how to analyze and deal with interruptions.

Chapter 7

Introduces the use of daily TimeLogs.

Chapter 8

Covers tips and tools to use in personal and work settings that assist with time management.

Chapter 9

Explores how self-esteem influences productivity.

Chapter 10

Provides tips for controlling stress at home and in the workplace.

Unit V: Critical Thinking Skills

Chapter 1

Provides an introduction to the critical thinking process, explores the importance of critical thinking skills and characteristics of critical thinkers, and describes a method to use for critical decision making.

Chapter 2

Covers schema, inference, and judgment and how these apply to critical thought.

Chapter 3

Discusses metacognition, the process of thinking about thinking, and how it builds critical thinking skills.

Chapter 4

Explains how consequences, assumptions, stereotypes, connotation and impulsive thinking affect critical thought, as well as how to identify strong conclusions to critical issues.

Chapter 5

Provides analyses of persuasive strategies that help develop arguments, including ethos, pathos and logos.

Chapter 6

Explores how to interpret and use three main critical theories—Marxist, Feminist and Deconstruction.

Chapter 7

Covers deductive reasoning, establishing premises and validity in critical thought, and interpreting and creating syllogisms.

Chapter 8

Defines emotional intelligence and explains its role in the critical thought process.

Unit VI: Child Day Care 1

Chapter 1

Covers career opportunities in early childhood education, training needed to work with young children, teacher’s responsibilities, and characteristics of successful teachers.

Chapter 2

Covers types of early childhood programs, including family child care homes, child care centers, school-age child care, and laboratory schools; explains center accreditation and selecting a child care program.

Chapter 3

Covers guidelines for observing children, creating portfolios, and using assessment to learn about children’s developmental needs.

Chapter 4

Covers child development principles and theories.

Chapter 5

Covers physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development of children from birth to age two.

Chapter 6

Covers physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development of two- and three-year-olds, as well as teaching strategies for this age group.

Chapter 7

Covers physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development of four- and five-year-olds, as well as teaching strategies for this age group.

Chapter 8

Covers physical, cognitive, moral and social-emotional development of children in middle childhood, as well as health concerns for this age group.

Unit VII: Child Day Care 2

Chapter 9

Covers the child care environment, including furniture and color choices, space organization, outdoor play environments, and organization of basic activity areas.

Chapter 10

Discusses selection criteria, safety issues, and sources for toys, playground equipment and educational materials.

Chapter 11

Introduces safety objectives, issues of child neglect and abuse, and liability of child care centers.

Chapter 12

Covers the planning of nutritious meals and snacks, serving meals and basic nutritional guidelines.

Chapter 13

Discusses objectives for guiding children’s health, first aid, controlling foodborne illness, and caring for ill or wounded children.

Unit VIII: Child Day Care 3

Chapter 14

Discusses the goals of guidance, preparing for guidance, and techniques for effective guidance.

Chapter 15

Provides an overview of guidance challenges, including stress, negativism, stealing, anger, biting, tattling, thumbsucking and fear.

Chapter 16

Covers establishing and enforcing classroom limits, as well as communicating limits to children.

Chapter 17

Provides an overview of handling daily routines and transitions between activities.

Unit IX: Child Day Care 4

Chapter 18

Covers developing program goals, curriculum planning, and planning classroom activities around a theme.

Chapter 19

Covers guiding art, blockbuilding and sensory experiences, including selection of supplies and tools, planning activities, and displaying children’s work.

Chapter 20

Covers guiding storytelling experiences, including selecting, reading and displaying books.

Chapter 21

Covers guiding play and puppetry experiences.

Chapter 22

Covers guiding manuscript writing, including writing objectives, manuscript writing systems, and building writing skills.

Unit X: Child Day Care 5

Chapter 23

Covers guiding math experiences, including assessing math ability, selecting math equipment, and planning activities.

Chapter 24

Covers guiding science experiences, including the use of color, water, food, the body, gardening, air, magnets, wheels, field trips and animals to teach science concepts.

Chapter 25

Covers guiding social studies experiences.

Chapter 26

Covers guiding food and nutrition experiences, including cooking experiences for children, developing good eating habits, and setting the table.

Chapter 27

Covers guiding music and movement experiences, including setting up a music center, the benefits of music, and making rhythm instruments.

Chapter 28

Covers guiding field trip experiences.

Unit XI: Child Day Care 6

Chapter 29

Discusses caring for infants and toddlers; infant and toddler environments; infant and toddler toys; curriculum planning and record keeping; and parent involvement.

Chapter 30

Discusses school-age programs, including the environment, curriculum, scheduling, and technology use.

Chapter 31

Discusses guiding children with special needs, including physical, cognitive and learning disabilities; integrating children with special needs; and gifted children.

Chapter 32

Discusses involving parents and families in child care through written communication, class videos, parent-teacher conferences, home visits and discussion groups.

Chapter 33

Discusses choosing a career in childhood education, including seeking employment, the interview process and employee rights and responsibilities.

Unit XII: Starting a Home-Based Day-Care Business 1

Chapter 1

Discusses the kinds of family child-care providers, the skills and experience necessary to start a home-based day care, and other considerations for running and maintaining a business.

Chapter 2

Explores resources for starting a home-based day care, licensing and registration, expenses, and profitability.

Chapter 3

Covers policies and procedures, including fees, termination, hours of operation, holiday schedule, vacations, handling illness, meals, guidance and discipline.

Unit XIII: Starting a Home-Based Day-Care Business 2

Chapter 4

Discusses devising a daily schedule, including mealtimes, naptime, free play, structured time, special events, and storytime.

Chapter 5

Explores fun activities for children, including language, science, movement, cooking, music, art and personal safety activities.

Chapter 6

Covers guidance and discipline techniques to help increase good behavior and decrease difficult behavior.

Unit XIV: Starting a Home-Based Day-Care Business 3

Chapter 7

Discusses generating enrollments, screening parents and children, setting up an office and record keeping.

Chapter 8

Explores solving problems with parents, your family, a multi-age mix of children and interruptions.

Chapter 9

Covers planning for the future, including hiring an assistant, finding a substitute, increasing fees, and becoming accredited.

Unit XV:Management Practices & Principles

Chapter 1

Covers the role of the supervisor as a manager and a leader.

Chapter2

Explores effective communication.

Chapter 3

Discusses how to create a positive work climate.

Chapter 4

Covers building teams and managing conflict.

Chapter 5

Discusses delegating to employees.

Chapter 6

Covers developing job expectations.

Chapter 7

Introduces employee recruitment.

Chapter 8

Covers selecting employees.

Chapter 9

Introduces orienting and training employees.

Chapter 10

Discusses employee performance evaluation.

Chapter 11

Discusses disciplining employees.

Unit XVI: Interpersonal Communications

Chapter 1

Discusses the various types of knowledge, types of goals used in the workplace, different means of providing feedback, incentives common to the workplace, and the different roles exhibited in the workplace.

Chapter 2

Explains techniques that promote effective nonverbal communication, listening and speaking. Explains proper technological communication techniques.

Chapter 3

Explores the concept of culture, the importance of cultural diversity in the workplace, and overcoming communication barriers caused by diversity.

Chapter 4

Covers attributes of successful teamwork, the role of the team leader, and overcoming barriers to effective teamwork.

Unit XVII: How to Find a Job in Child Day Care

Chapter 1

Covers job search correspondence including resumes and cover letters.

Chapter 2

Discusses job search techniques such as networking and using online employment search engines.

Chapter 3

Discusses job interviews; explains how to dress for an interview, what to bring to an interview, what to expect during an interview; discusses common questions asked during an interview and how to follow up after an interview.