Safety and Discipline Policy

The Easthampton Family Center is a parent co-operative—everyone who uses it owns it. The Center has a coordinator and parent volunteers who manage the daily activities. We also look for your help in making the Center an enjoyable place to be. Please do your part to help keep the environment friendly, healthy, clean, and safe.

Safety Policy
The goal of the Center is to be a comfortable, safe, and healthy environment for all visitors. It is everyone’s responsibility to actively support this goal. If you need help or guidance with this please talk the to the coordinator a parent volunteer.

• Parents must supervise their children at all times.
  
• When a child is behaving in a way that is harmful to self or others, the parent is expected to physically remove her from the situation and help her calm down. When the child is able to resume playing safely, she can be allowed to rejoin the others, under the close supervision of the parent. If the child is not able to rejoin the play in a safe manner, the parent should take her home with the expectation that they can try again next time.
  
• Under no circumstances is physical punishment appropriate at the Family Center. Young children are learning social skills and positive teaching techniques (such as redirecting, praising and modeling positive interactions) are recommended.
  
• Please be respectful of individual parenting styles. The Center is a place where parents can offer support and information to each other. Occasionally an adult who is not the child’s parent may need to step in to prevent harm. All parents should have an opportunity to respectfully express their feelings and wishes about other adults guiding their children in this way.

Discipline Policy

We Promise:

To help each other

To include people

Not to hurt each other

Not to call each other names

To take turns
To listen.

Hints About Children’s Behavior

One of the advantages of bringing your child to the Family Center is that it offers opportunities for children to develop social skills in a supportive and supervised space. Most toddlers and preschoolers are still learning how to play with other children. It is normal for them to play by themselves or next to, but not with, another child.

It is also normal for children to grab toys and become upset if they cannot have what they want right away. You can help your child through this stage. If you see your child behaving aggressively or unfairly at the Center, please intervene. We encourage you to intervene in a quiet, calm, and fair way to help your child learn how to share and play with other children.