The places I send families, and the ones I use myself.
None of these are mine and none of them pay me. They are simply the pages I find myself writing down for parents over and over, so they may as well live here. Every one of them is free, and the state ones are the official source rather than somebody’s summary of it.
Choosing child care, and checking on it
You should not have to take my word for any of this. New Hampshire licenses family child care homes, inspects them, and publishes the rules in full.
- NH Child Care Licensing NH Department of Health and Human Services. What a license actually requires, and the rule that sets my numbers: one provider, a maximum of six preschool children, plus up to three who are enrolled in school.
- NH Child Care Search State of New Hampshire. The official register. Look me up, look up anybody else you are considering, and see their license and inspection history for yourself.
- Child Care Aware of New Hampshire Community Action Partnership. Free referral service for families, including help understanding what you might be eligible for. Useful if this house turns out not to be the right fit.
Knowing what to expect at each age
Most of what parents ask me at pick-up is really this question in disguise: is that normal? These four answer it better than I can in a doorway.
- Learn the Signs. Act Early. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Milestone checklists from two months to five years. The plainest list of what most children do by a given age.
- Zero to Three National non-profit. Deep, readable material on the first three years, from sleep and tantrums to language.
- Understanding Your Child’s Development New Hampshire Family Voices. Built around New Hampshire’s own Early Learning Standards, with activities and short videos.
- Learn and Grow Early Learning NH. Development, health and safety, and getting ready for school, written for New Hampshire families.
Something to do today
Both of these turn the parts of the day you already have, the car, the bath, the line at the store, into something useful. No screen time and nothing to buy.
- Vroom Free app and website. Sixty-second brain-building ideas keyed to your child’s age. We use these here too.
- Just in Time Parenting Cooperative Extension. A free newsletter that arrives matched to your child’s exact age, so it is always about the stage you are in.
If something is worrying you
Say it to me first. I see your child all day and I will tell you honestly what I notice. But you never need my permission or a doctor’s referral to call the people below, and an early conversation costs nothing.
- Birth to 3: Family Centered Early Supports and Services NH Department of Health and Human Services. New Hampshire’s early intervention program for children under three. Free, and you can refer your own child.
- Early Supports and Services Easterseals New Hampshire. One of the organizations that delivers Birth to 3, one to one, at home.
- Pyramid Model, New Hampshire Pyramid Model Consortium. The framework behind how I teach sharing, waiting and calming down. New Hampshire has been a Pyramid Model state since 2017.
These links go to other people’s websites, which I do not control. If one of them stops working, tell me and I will fix it.