Your Child's Spiritual Development

Here is an excellent article on the spiritual development of children broken down by age groups:
Spiritual Development

Responsive Caregiving

Being a Responsive Caregiver requires that one understands that to contribute to a child's sense of trust you must be intoned to their needs and their mode of expressing these needs.  It's important to know that children who feel safe are better able to actively explore their environments.  Sensitive, responsive care in particular, has been connected in research to cognitive, social emotional, and language development in child care settings.  Responsive care is a critical component of our curriculum, especially in the infant and toddler department.  Being sensitively responsive means reading and understanding the communication cues, verbal and nonverbal, of another individual; to do so requires an established relationship with that person.

25 years of excellence

Holland United Methodist Church assessed the growing needs of the community 25 years ago and determined that their was a need for center based program in Dubois County.  Their vision was to provide a program that focused not only on the child's social and education needs, but their spiritual development as well.

Today we continue with that vision.  We are dedicated to the education of the children in our care, while also focusing on their social development.  We are in the business of creating life long learners and the leaders of tomorrow.  We believe that the foundation for your child's future success is established well before they enter the public schools.  It begins with the secure relationships that they have with the staff within the program.  It continues to unfold as the child continues to transition through our program in a group of peers that they have been able to build a relationship with over the years.  Children learn their numbers and their letters, but most importantly they learn to respect the differences of the individuals around them. 

An update for the families of HUMmingbird Day Care Ministry

We will be having our visit from the State for our Voluntary Certification Program on Tuesday, June 28.  The Voluntary Certification is a measurement to allign our program with that of a licensed facility.  Although all of our policy and procedures have been in place for some time, we did have to do some major reconstruction of our physical program in regards to electrical work, plumbing and installing the fire alarm system.  After the use of various resources from fundaising and grants, we are ready for the first step towards achieving future accredidation.  We are so thankful for all of the parents who have volunteered their time and talent as we have made these changes, to ensure that our facility structure would mirror the high quality programming that we have offered the families of our community for years.

Summer fun for School Agers

Our summer program is off to a great start.  It is important that children have the opportunity to spend time with peers doing activities that keep them both physically active and mentally engaged.  Making sure that children have a balance of activities is important to us.  This summer we dropped our child care staff ratio down to a 13 children per adult in the morning hours so that we can focus on age appropriate activities.  The children get to take part in two field trips a week, one afternoon they go swimming with their group, and another time they go to another field trip destination within the surrounding counties.  The children also participate in activities including arts and crafts, science experiments, games and activities, reader's theater/talent show, and special community guests.  The education professionals this summer are making sure that the children have a fabulous summer.

Choosing a Bible for Your Child

Your child will more than likely go through several different Bibles throughout their lives. Understanding that your child goes through several different levels of development through their childhood helps to aid in the understanding of the practicality of this change through Bibles.









It is important to allow your child to select a Bible for themselves (give them developmentally appropriate options, of course), because this allows for ownership and increases the chance that they will be willing to actually use their Bible.


Remember these few hints in selecting a Bible for your children:

Preschool: Choose a Bible storybook, with simple illustrations, that covers key Bible stories and has a small number of simple words per picture. This allows them to see words and letters and recognize that when strung together they have meaning. It helps to familiarize them with this fact.

Beginning Readers: Choose a storybook that contains simple illustrations and more stories than a preschool storybook. It is best if beginning readers have a storybook that takes two pages or more to tell each story. This keeps them interested in the book because they do not consistently have to require an adult to read through the text, but it keeps it in a format that they enjoy to hear through story.

Grade Schoolers: Fewer pictures, more words is the key at this level. Make sure the illustrations are interesting and up-to-date. Simple Bible reference lists and an index are also good features to look for at this age level. At this point your child will be reading on their own more often than not. Don't forgo reading the stories with them, but when they want to discover stories, or reread their favorites, they can.