Cold and Flu Prevention

It's that time of year. Everywhere you go, you're likely to hear sniffling, sneezing, coughing, and complaining. Kids bring viruses home from friends' houses, preschool, church, the grocery store, and anywhere else they've been. To combat this problem, especially when you have children over for a co-op shift, make sure everyone washes their hands. It sounds so simple, but it's easy to forget.

To help you and the children remember, print off this printable handwashing poster and post it in the bathroom, at least when your co-op kids come over. Some parents find, however, that it helps to keep a visual handwashing reminder up all the time. If fast food restaurants do it, why can't we? There are lots of printable posters available, but here's an especially kid-friendly one right here.

In addition to pushing handwashing, sanitize toys, door knobs, and other oft-handled objects occasionally during flu and cold season, especially if you know some of the kids have had contagious viruses. Sanitizing wipes make this job easy, and you can even recruit the kids to help you with clean-up before the parents come to pick their children up.