New! You can now pay for more than one On Demand lesson at a time.
Better Kid Care’s new On Demand Distance Education system provides professional development anytime you are ready to learn! The On Demand system has the following features:
There is a $5.00 fee/lesson to receive professional development hours. You will be directed to a credit card payment screen prior to taking the assessment. You must have a credit card to complete the lesson for professional development credit using the On Demand system.
After you pay and successfully complete all the assessment questions for a lesson, you can choose to print your certificate of completion and/or have it sent to your email address.
Activities for Learning Math: Numbers, Colors, and Shapes
Advocacy: Raising Awareness for the Early Childhood Professional
All By Myself: Self Help Skills in Childcare
Are You Ready for A Child with Special Needs?
Are You Ready for An Infant?
Art Appreciation 101 for Young Children
Autobiographical Statement
Avoid Behavior Problems -- Teach Self-Control
Baby Play
Balancing Child-Staff Ratios (for Center Directors)
Be Clear on Clearances (for Center Directors)
Behavior is Contagious
Becoming a 21st Century Skills Program
Block Play Builds Learning Skills
Building Relationships with Children and Youth Who Challenge Us
Caring for Groups of Mixed Age Children: It's a Juggling Act!
CDA Credential: Understanding the Professional Path
Child Care...for Mixed Ages
Creating Intergenerational Connections
Creating Special Moments with Infants and Toddlers
Creating the Bond – Attachment
Developing an Emergency Preparedness Plan (for Center Directors)
Developing an Intergenerational Program in Your Child Care Center
Emergent Literacy Begins at Birth
Ethics: Your Responsibilities to Children
Ethics: Your Responsibilities to Coworkers and Community
Ethics: Your Responsibilities to Families
Every Child Counts: Building Community
Executive Function Skills: Foster with Play
Family Child Care...it's a business
Family Child Care: Getting Started
Family Child Care: Learning Environments for Infants
Family Child Care: Learning Environments for Mixed Ages
Family Child Care: Learning Environments for Pre-Kindergarten
Family Child Care: Learning Environments for Toddlers
Fighting Children's Obesity Through Active Play
Get Parents Involved in Your Program
Getting to Know Families with Preschoolers
Getting to Know Families with Infants
Getting to Know Families with Toddlers
Getting to Know the Kids through Observation
Giving Children Appropriate Choices
Giving Your Best: Making Secure Attachments
Healthy Child Care Environments: Pest Prevention Using IPM
Help Parents to be Advocates for Children with Disabilities
Hiring Staff (for Center Directors)
How to Get Parents on Your Team
How to Turn a "No" into a "Yes"
How to Turn Good Play into GREAT Play
How to Work with Active Children
Improving and Using Your Observation Skills
Improving Transition Times
I Want! I want! I WANT!!: Building Good Consumers
Keep Children Healthy and Safe: Air Quality (for Center Directors)
Keep Children Healthy and Safe: Reuse & Recycle (for Center Directors)
Keep Children Healthy and Safe: Toxins (for Center Directors)
Keeping Children Safe on Playgrounds (for Center Directors)
Keeping Families Engaged Through the School Age Years
Learning to Read and Write
Let's Talk...Discipline
Making A Great Day for Babies
Making A Great Day for Toddlers
Math for Every Age
New Staff Orientation
Observation: A Toolkit of Methods
Observation: Connections with Children
Observation: It Starts with YOU!
Observation: Preparing to Observe
Observation: Connections with Families
Playing Detective About Biting
Powerful Communications with Parents
Prevent Childhood Obesity with Healthy Eating (The title of this lesson changed from Obese Kids: They are What They Eat, however, the content of the lesson has not changed.)
Professional Development Record (PDR) – A Valuable Tool for Providers
Re-Thinking Praise
Safe and Smart Supervision
Saying Goodbye at Child Care
School-Age Care: New Staff Orientation
Science For Young Thinkers
Space for Playing and Learning in a Family Child Care Home
Sparking Kids Curiosity
Stepping Stones to School Readiness
Strategies for Preventing Challenging Behaviors
Super Snacks
Supervising Children in Family Child Care
Supporting Children's Families
Supporting Families in Healthy Living
Teach Self-Regulation
The Ins and Outs of Recordkeeping (for Center Directors)
There's Always More to Learn (for Center Directors)
Three Core Concepts in Early Brain Development
Through the Eyes of a Five-Year-Old
Through the Eyes of a Four-Year Old
Through the Eyes of a Three-Year-Old
Through the Eyes of a Toddler
Through the Eyes of an Infant
Toilet Learning
Tools of the Trade for School-Age Practitioners: Positive Guidance
Transitions - "Hello" and "Good-bye"
Understand and Help Stressed Children
Understand & Support Children's Language and Social/Emotional Development
Understand & Support Children's Physical and Cognitive Development
Understanding Temperament
What Children Need to Start School
What Does Brain Research Tell Us About Infant Care?
What Does "Time" Mean to Children?
What's the Plan for Your Day?
Your #1 Priority: Keeping Children Healthy and Safe
No more than 8 hours of professional development may be completed during each calendar day. Because deeper learning takes time for reflection, we encourage On Demand users to explore ways to reflect and apply what they learned from completed lessons and return refreshed for learning more on another day.
Watch this video for a quick introduction to using the On Demand system.
The On Demand system may be unavailable on Sundays from 7 a.m. - 9 a.m. (EST) for system maintenance.
You must have your own email address. If you don’t have an email account, create a free account using any provider. Google mail is a popular free email provider .
We now offer two options for purchasing the assessment and receiving a certificate of completion for lesson in the On Demand system. You must have a credit card to complete the assessment and receive professional development credit.
Option 1: For a single lesson. Log into the On Demand
system, progress through the lesson, pay to access the assessment using a credit card that is processed
through a secure on-line payment system, complete the assessment, and print your certificate of
completion.
Option 2: Prepay for multiple On Demand lessons with one credit card transaction. Select "Lesson Prepayment" option under "Your Account" after signing in. When prepayment is established, a code is provided to use for lesson payments. The code may be shared with other On Demand users; however, the purchaser of the prepayment code is responsible for the security of the code. The code purchaser can request email notification each time the code is used. The email indicates who used the code and what lessons were completed.
You must set your Internet browser preferences to work with our system so you can view video and download the handouts.
Allow "cookies" for the On Demand web site
Allow pop-ups for the On Demand web site
Trust the security certificate for the On Demand web site
See below for detailed settings and instructions .
Adobe Acrobat Reader must be installed on your computer to access all lesson handouts. Click the link for download and installation instructions.
This helps us to identify you in our database and to provide an accurate record of the lessons that you have completed. For Pennsylvania providers, we are able to enter your professional development records directly into the PA Key professional development database.
There is a $5.00 fee/ per lesson to receive professional development hours. You will be directed to a credit card payment screen prior to taking the assessment. You must have a credit card to complete the lesson for professional development credit using the On Demand system.
Please contact Better Kid Care during normal business hours (Monday - Friday; 8:00am - 5:00pm EST). You will be asked a series of security questions to verify your identity.
Please verify that your browser settings allow for "cookies" and pop ups for the On Demand Distance Education website. You can find these settings in the browser preferences panel.
If you are using Internet Explorer as your browser to access your lessons in On Demand, you may be asked the question, “Do you want to view only the web page content that was delivered securely?” In order to view your lesson materials, you need to select NO in response to this question. In selecting NO you give permission to connect to the Better Kid Care Server, a known and trustworthy site, to view your lesson content.
Please note: If you select YES in answering the question, you will receive a "Navigation to web page was cancelled" message. You will need to close your browser and then open and log into On Demand again.
Please be aware that is your responsibility to update all your security definitions in order to maintain the safety of your computer.
Go to the Tools menu and click on "Internet Options"
Click on "Privacy"
To disable all popups:
Uncheck the "Turn on Pop-up Blocker" box.
To disable popups on just one site:
Click on "Settings"
Enter the URL of the site for which you would like to allow popups
Click "Add"
Close the window
Click "Ok"
Tip - If you grant popups for a site and want to remove them later:
Follow the steps above to Step 4
Click on the url to block in the list of sites
Click on "Remove"
Close the window
Enable Cookies for Internet Explorer 7 or 8:
Click Start > Control Panel.
(With Windows XP Classic View, click the Windows Start button > Settings > Control Panel).
Double-click the Internet Options icon.
Select the Privacy tab.
Click Advanced.
Select "Override automatic cookie handling" under the "Cookies" section in the Advanced Privacy Settings window.
Select the "Accept" or "Prompt" option under "First-party Cookies."
Select the "Accept" or "Prompt" option under "Third-party Cookies." (If you select the "Prompt" option, you'll be asked for approval every time a website attempts to send you a cookie.)
In the Internet Options window, click OK to exit.
Enable Cookies in Internet Explorer 6:
Click Start > Control Panel. (With Windows XP Classic View, click the Windows Start button > Settings > Control Panel).
Click Advanced.
Select "Override Automatic Cookie Handling."
Select the "Accept" or "Prompt" option under "First-party Cookies."
Select the "Accept" or "Prompt" option under "Third-party Cookies." (If you select the "Prompt" option, you'll be asked for approval every time a website attempts to send you a cookie.)
If Firefox prompts you with a yellow banner towards the top of the browser and reads "!This PDF document might not be displayed correctly." Please select "Open With Different Viewer" option. To make this your browser preference, go to preferences / applications / scroll down to "Portable Document Format (PDF) and change the action from Preview in Firefox to Use Adobe Acrobat.
You should receive an email within 24 hours of your request. If not, please check your spam, junk, or quarantine folder before contacting the BKC office.
Yes. No more than 8 hours of professional development may be completed during each calendar day. Because deeper learning takes time for reflection, we encourage On Demand users to explore ways to reflect and apply what they learned from completed lessons and return refreshed for learning more on another day.
Yes! CEUs (Continuing Education Units) are available for completing Better Kid Care On Demand lessons. At least 5 hours of lessons must be completed to request a certificate, worth .5 CEUs. One (1.0) CEU can be earned and requested after completing 10 hours of lessons.
Better Kid Care awards one (1) CEU, for every ten (10) hours of Professional Development completed. Any combination of 1-hour or 2-hour Better Kid Care Distance Education lessons can combine to earn CEUs. After finishing an On Demand lesson and the assessment, you will be able to go to a lesson information screen where you can choose to request CEUs. Click on the Request CEU button and you will be taken to a CEU Request Form. Print out the form and list the Better Kid Care lessons you completed, along with the dates of completion. Mail the completed CEU Request Form to Better Kid Care at the address at the bottom of the form. Better Kid Care will verify your completed lessons and mail a CEU certificate to you.
Attention Participants: If you are completing online lessons to earn Continuing Education Units (CEUs), Better Kid Care will award a maximum of 8 hours of professional development per calendar day. The date that the lesson is completed is printed on the Certificate of Completion. Our online lessons are designed for participants to receive the designated number of professional development hours by reading all lesson content, viewing video clips, completing reflection activities, and reviewing handouts. It takes time and reflection to learn. Research shows that professionals who continue learning offer higher quality care to children.
Better Kid Care's new discussion forum feature is available to participants who have completed any lesson in our online On Demand lesson system. The discussion forum provides a way to interact with an early childhood or youth development instructor, discuss application to your own early care and education or school-age setting, reflect on what was learned, read comments and ideas from other providers, and respond to those ideas.
To participate in the forum for a completed lesson, select the Discussion Forum link from the lesson information screen for that specific lesson. The discussion forum associated with that lesson becomes available. Just click on the button to enter the forum. After a user participates with at least three discussion posts and/or responses to other participants' posts, the certificate of completion for that specific lesson will note "Participated in Discussion Forum"; however, no additional professional development hours will be credited for participation.
After a lesson is completed, the user selects the Discussion Forum button to enter the forum associated with the completed lesson. All Better Kid Care On Demand lessons are associated with one of the following nine discussion forums. To see what lessons are linked to each forum, select Discussion Forum from the On Demand menu.
To participate in a discussion forum you must first complete a lesson. There is a letter "C" in the far right column on the lesson list to designate that you completed the lesson.
Muchas de las lecciones tienen segmentos cortos de video. Los videos están en Inglés. Para cambiar el idioma de los videos siga estas instrucciones.
Para cambiar el lenguaje de (auto-translate), abra los encabezamientos "Captions".
Pase el ratón sobre el "Closed Caption" (CC) situado en la parte inferior derecha del reproductor de vídeo. El menú se abre.
Elija "Traducir Subtítulos" para usar Google Translate para proporcionar en tiempo real la traducción automática del título de la pista actual.
Haga clic en la "Caja de Lenguajes" y desplácese por la lista hasta encontrar el lenguaje que desea. Haga clic para fijar el lenguaje seleccionado.
Distance education lessons are available in alternative media upon request.
Please contact the Better Kid Care office at 1-800-452-9108 for assistance and information.