​Did you know that Oklahoma has some of the most stringent child care laws in the United States? Many people are unaware that Oklahoma law requires that anyone who watches even one unrelated child in their home on a regular basis be licensed by the Oklahoma Department of Human Services.
Why is this important? It is for the safety and well-being of our children. New family child care providers and everyone in their home 18 years of age and over must have an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation criminal background check, including a check for violent and sex crimes along with having a fingerprint background check. They must not be listed on the Child Abuse Registry or the Oklahoma Child Care Restricted Registry which is a list of people barred from working in child care in Oklahoma. Then before they can accept their first child, they must have training on health and safety issues such as the best way to lay a baby down to sleep, immunizations, and behavior and guidance plus other issues and they must be CPR and First Aid certified. If you want to read all of the requirements for Oklahoma family child care homes, go here.
If you are interested in getting a licensing to do family child care in Oklahoma, please contact your local Department of Human Services licensing office to find out more information. You can also get in touch with me and I will be happy to help you find the information you need to know. 

I don't know about you, but it is easy for me to get bogged down in all the negative "stuff" and forget how blessed I truly am. 

What do I do when that happens? I try to focus on my blessings:

I get to do what I love everyday-work with children and teach others.

I am married to a man who loves me exactly as I am. 

We have wonderful children and grandchildren. 

We have a lovely home. 

We have plenty to eat.

We have two nice vehicles.

How are you blessed? Share in the comments! 

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Sometimes, actually a lot of the time, I feel like there are not enough hours in the day. I have all these ideas and plans and cannot seem to get them done. Take this blog for example. I had good intentions when I started it, but have done a lousy job of keeping up with posting on it. There are all kinds of reasons (or excuses) but the simple fact is I have not made it enough of a priority. I can either beat myself up over that or do better moving forward. I choose to do better moving forward. 

To do better, I should have a plan. So the first part of my plan is to spend some time today putting together a weekly schedule of my commitments (need to do's) and my want to do's. 

Do you feel overwhelmed? How do you cope with it? Share your strategies and thoughts in the comments!

Bullying is nothing new
Bullying makes me sad and angry. I have been bullied as both a child and an adult and I have also done some bullying. I daresay that is true for most of us, if we are honest with ourselves.  It hurts me to see other people, especially children being hurt and feeling helpless. When I have been the bully, I don’t feel very good either (this is important, so remember that!). There are cries for schools and parents to take care of the bullying problem, but the issue I see with that is, no matter how much we like to think we can, we cannot MAKE someone else do what we think is right. Yes, parents and schools should impose consequences but we also must empower the victims and teach them how to stand up for themselves.
As long as there have been people, there has been bullying. Look in the bible and you will see stories of bullying from Genesis throughout the entire bible. The bible even tells us how to handle bullying in Romans 12:20:  “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head”.
Here are my thoughts on this subject. I am by no means an expert, but maybe something here will help someone.

1. If you have never heard of Dr. Becky Bailey or her Conscious Discipline program, I urge you to immediately check out her website and resources and get her Conscious Discipline book, if possible. http://consciousdiscipline.com/
2. Take deep breaths. You will be amazed at how much calmer you can handle a situation if you take some breaths first.
3. Teach children to take deep breaths.
4. Encourage children to come to you when something happens (whether you are the parent or the teacher). This is not tattling! Children need to know you are a safe person to tell when something is not right! Do not belittle the child and whatever you do, do not let them be a “victim”. Teach them how to use their strong voice to go back and tell the aggressor, “I don’t like it when you do that.” A strong voice is a firm voice with no whining or yelling. Have them practice with you first and go with them to help them talk to their aggressor.
5. If you witness a bullying event, go to the child who was hurt first. Going to the aggressor teaches them that their actions warrant your first attention. Some of them will continue to be aggressive simply for the attention.
6. Remember that the child who IS being the aggressor is likely also hurting inside. Remember what I said about the times I’d been a bully? I did not feel good about it in my heart. These children need our help and love also.
7. If your child is being bullied, help them develop their self-confidence and the ability to stand up and say enough. When my brother was being bullied, my parents enrolled him in karate. It gave him the internal confidence to finally put an end to it. Not by harming the other child, but having the guts to say STOP!
8. Teach children to walk away when necessary and distance themselves from the situation.  Sometimes standing up for yourself will not put a stop to the situation. This is a sad fact of life. In those cases, it is best to walk away and move on. This is not being weak or giving in, it is simply moving on.
9. If your child is the bully-impose consequences. These consequences should be logical and have to do with the specific event. Is your child bullying someone online? They should lose all online privileges. Is your child bullying someone in the locker room? They should lose the right to play that sport. But more than imposing consequences; please strive to get to the bottom of the problem and get help for your child. If your child is being the aggressor, your child is hurting too!
10. Last and most importantly, pray, pray, pray!! Pray for the people being bullied. Pray for those doing the bullying (remember, they are hurting too). Just pray!!!