Tag: babysitter’s training

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Calling all babysitters!

By Erin Ferris, American Red Cross

During a Babysitter's Training course in Minneapolis, Minn., youth learn that CPR is performed differently on infants than on children and adults. Techniques are performed here that require hands-on skills focusing on back blows, chest thrusts and proper ways to safely hold an infant. Photo credit: Krista Weiler/American Red Cross
During a Babysitter’s Training course youth learn that CPR is performed differently on infants than on children and adults. Techniques are performed here that require hands-on skills focusing on back blows, chest thrusts and proper ways to safely hold an infant. Photo credit: Krista Weiler/American Red Cross, Minneapolis, Minn., Feb. 2015.

My first American Red Cross experience came at 11 years old when I enrolled in a Red Cross Babysitter’s Training course. Eager to earn a little extra spending money, I had plans to start caring for children in my neighborhood and knew I needed to prepare myself for whatever my charges might literally and figuratively throw at me.

The decision to become a babysitter ended up a great one, as it led to years of gainful summer and weekend employment and began me on my journey to a life-long partnership with the Red Cross.

25 years later, the Red Cross continues to offer babysitting courses to students ages 11 and older. The courses, available mainly online, provide participants with the knowledge and skills necessary to safely and responsibly care for infants and children and to manage their own babysitting businesses.

The Babysitting Basics online course takes approximately 4 hours to complete and includes videos, interactive games, and downloadable resources covering basic caregiving skills (holding, carrying, diapering, feeding, bathing, etc.), what to do in emergency situations, how to play with children, how to interact with parents, and how to build a babysitting business. The course is designed for children between the ages of 11-15.

For those 16 and up, the Red Cross offers the online-only Advanced Child Care Training. This training features the latest in learning techniques – simulation learning – for an engaging format that students of this generation prefer.

Learning materials are provided by the American Red Cross to aid in the education of all attendees (Handbook, Reference Guide, Student Kit). Photo credit Krista Weiler/American Red Cross, Minneapolis, Minn., Feb. 2015.
Learning materials are provided by the American Red Cross to aid in the education of all attendees (Handbook, Reference Guide, Student Kit). Photo credit Krista Weiler/American Red Cross, Minneapolis, Minn., Feb. 2015.

My almost 9-year-old son, while still a little young for babysitting, loves to look out for his younger sister, cousins, and friends. I plan to enroll him in an online Red Cross babysitting course in a couple of years, knowing that along with learning how to care for younger children, he’ll learn how to deal with emergencies, the basics of building a business, and how to work with adults in a professional manner. Sounds like a pretty good introduction to real life responsibility!

Whether your future babysitter wants the Babysitting Basics course or the Advanced Child Care Training course for older, it is guaranteed to be a fun and educational course.

This post was originally published on the national American Red Cross blog. To find Red Cross babysitting and childcare classes near you, click here.

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Red Lake Kids Get Red Cross Trained

Red Lake, MN, fifth-graders learn skills to save a choking victim during an American Red Cross Babysitter's Training class on June 20, 2013.
Red Lake, MN,fifth-graders learn skills to save a choking victim during an American Red Cross Babysitter’s Training class on June 20, 2013.

On a sunny, warm morning in Red Lake, Minnesota, 29 fifth-graders from Red Lake Elementary School were not out enjoying weather.  Instead, they were inside a classroom learning how to care for others as part of an American Red Cross Babysitter’s Training class.

Wearing gloves while cradling baby dolls, the children stood in two-person teams practicing skills and repeating Red Cross instructor Debbie Foster’s directions for how to respond to a choking emergency.

“Keep coughing!  Are you okay?  Call 911!” were some of the verbal directions given by Foster and her co-instructor Lois Holman. With laughing and learning, the children loudly repeated the directions as they worked with the dolls, child-sized manikins, and each other.

Red Cross instructor Debbie Foster helps a student during a babysitter's training class at Red Lake Elementary school in Red Lake, MN, on June 20, 2013.
Red Cross instructor Debbie Foster helps a student during babysitter’s training at Red Lake Elementary school in Minnesota on June 20, 2013.

During babysitter’s training, students learn how to respond to emergency situations, protecting children during common local disasters, such as house fires, tornadoes and lightening strikes. They learn first aid for choking victims, how to hold an infant and how to keep an injured person safe when responding. They also get tips on how to entertain youngsters, deal with tantrums and to care for scraped knees.

Arleen Swenson, their regular school teacher, has worked at Red Lake Elementary for 15 years. She says that her students are right for this training.

“Our kids need to be able to take care of themselves, their siblings and children in their extended families,” says Swenson.  “Many of our 10 and 11 year-olds are already active babysitters. We’re glad the Red Cross is here to teach them how to be safe.”

Red Cross Babysitter Training teaches vital skills to youth entrusted with the care of children. From now until July 31, 2013, the Red Cross is offering 20% off all Babysitter Training classes, including our online course Babysitting Basics. For more information, click here. Use coupon code INDY200913 when registering.

Story and photos by Judy Hanne-Gonzalez/American Red Cross. The Red Lake training was made possible with grant funding from the Otto Bremer Foundation.

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Changing Diapers Is Fun!

Brianna Kompelien holds up her Red Cross baby. Photo credit: Lynette Nyman/American Red Cross
Brianna Kompelien holds up her Red Cross baby. Photo credit: Lynette Nyman/American Red Cross

Oops! Brianna’s baby’s head popped off! Not the head of a real baby. No! No! No ! It’s Brianna’s babysitter’s training doll’s head! Phew. That’s a relief, which is kind of the whole point of the Red Cross Babysitter’s Training Class: to teach young people how to care for children (including how to hold them) and to be outstanding babysitters.

Recently, around 10 kids from Willmar, a small town west of the Twin Cities metro, took a Red Cross babysitter’s training class that a generous donor helped fund (thank you!) making the class nearly free ($10). Liz Sheehy, the Red Cross instructor teaching the class, says that the grant funding is terrific because “it gives kids who normally couldn’t afford the class to chance to take the class.”

Tammy Rudningen says the grant funded classes were a "screamin' deal." Photo credit: Lynette Nyman/American Red Cross
Tammy Rudningen says the grant funded classes were a “screamin’ deal” for Willmar kids. Photo credit: Lynette Nyman/American Red Cross

The Red Cross worked with Tammy Rudningen at Willmar Community Education & Recreation to arrange the classes. Rudningen, who also teaches at Willmar Public Schools, says that more than “50 percent of her students qualify for reduced fee or free lunches. That’s reflective of the economy of our community.” And costing $85 normally, $10 she says, is “a screamin’ deal.”

As usual, the Red Cross is over the moon to have had a hand in making important emergency training available for young people, and especially future babysitters of Willmar. We hope you are, too. Click here to learn more about Red Cross health and safety classes in your area.

Story and photos by Lynette Nyman/American Red Cross

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