Resources for Parents
You want to be the best caregiver possible for your children — we have the resources to help!
The Promise Resource Center offers training programs for parents, grandparents and other caregivers, tips on behavior management and events calendars.
Useful Links
Useful Links for Parents
Maryland Family Engage
Beansprout Networks
Beansprout is the first online community connecting parents with their pediatricians and child care providers. Visit this website to find up-to-date information, resources, and tools for families and child care professionals.
Have you discovered St. Mary’s Macaroni Kid? A website and weekly FREE e-newsletter, www.stmarys.macaronikid.com is a valuable resource and St. Mary’s on-line home for finding kid and family friendly events, activities, products and businesses. Subscribe to receive their FREE weekly e-newsletter and learn about family fun, great deals around town, kid friendly products, and event ticket giveaways.
National Parent Information Network
As part of the ERIC clearinghouse on elementary and early childhood education, this site focuses on information for parents. You will find a lot of great resources, including a magazine, discussion list, conference events, state networks, an “ask-ERIC” section, and much more.
Zero to Three is a national non-profit charitable organization whose aim is to strengthen and support families, practitioners and communities to promote the healthy development of babies and toddlers. Visit this website to find information and resources for both parents and professionals.
National Resource for Health and Safety in Child Care
Some highlights of this website include a study on cost, quality and outcomes, state child care regulations, and national safety standards. An extensive links page with resources on everything from lead poisoning to playground safety is useful for both parents and child care providers.
The American Library Association
This section, or index, of the larger ALA site has great resources for both children and parents. For children and teens, there are pages that highlight good websites to visit, and recommended reading and software. For parents, there is information on adult reference and media materials, a link to Booklist magazine, and much more.
US Consumer Product Safety Commission
This site maintains product recalls for consumers. Check here to see if your yard sale purchases are safe, or find out how to return a recalled product.
LOCATE Child Care Assistant is an easy-to-use, software program that enables a parent or guardian to conduct self-guided searches for regulated child care program referrals in Maryland including family child care, child care centers, before and after school programs, summer camps, Head Start programs, nursery schools, part-day programs, and private kindergarten programs. Parents enter an address close to where they want care and choose the type of child care they want. Based on the parent’s choices, a list of up to ten child care programs with short descriptions and contact phone numbers is displayed. This list can be printed out by the parent. The listed programs are referrals only, and no recommendation is expressed or implied. A disclaimer statement appears on the program’s initial screen, as well as on the screen containing the referrals.
Online Search for After School Activities
The After-School Activities web application provides on-line access for parents and children who are searching for information about after-school activities and programs of all kinds. Currently, the After-School database contains information on over 2,200 after-school programs, including all regulated after-school programs in the state of Maryland. The web application is searchable by county and by school or town within counties. The database contains information on cost, hours of operation, location, program description and more. Only programs that are monitored or regulated are included in the database.
Behavior Management Tips
LOCATE: Child Care
LOCATE: Child Care is a referral service at the Maryland Family Network offering assistance to parents seeking child care to meet their location, cost and curriculum needs. Using a database of all registered family child care providers, licensed center-based programs, accredited nursery schools, kindergartens, Head Start programs, before and after school programs, and certified camps in the Southern Maryland area, trained counselors are available to share information with parents regarding child care options as well as provide referrals to programs in their area.
Referral information can be obtained by calling toll free 1-(877) 261-0060. This is a free telephone counseling and referral phone service. Hours of operation are Monday-Friday 8:30am to 4:30pm
All providers listed in LOCATE: Child Care are regulated or approved by the Maryland State Department of Education, or certified by the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. When LOCATE identifies childcare program options for parents, it means only the programs identified are regulated by the appropriate agency and have met criteria that agency sets forth. The responsibilities for providing LOCATE with accurate listings of regulated providers/programs rests with the appropriate agencies. Responsibility for selecting and employing a child care provider rests with each parent. LOCATE: Child Care cannot guarantee the quality of providers in its files and urges parents to carefully interview and check references before leaving a child in care. A referral from LOCATE does not constitute a recommendation as to the quality of care.
