Slide outline for Lesson 3.17, one day. Fourteen slides. No child, doll, or infant simulator is used in this lesson, and no real child is ever observed or photographed for this course. Slides 4 and 5 are the two that cannot be cut. This lesson is not medical training; slide 12 names the Red Cross course as the next step and says so out loud.
Babysitting Basics: Safety, Safe Sleep, Emergencies
- Lesson 3.17: Families and Caring for Others
- Unit 3: Growing Up, Getting Along
- Do now: have you ever been left in charge of a younger child, even for ten minutes? Yes or no
- If yes, one thing you were worried about. If no, one thing you think you would worry about
Teacher notes
Hand vote on yes. The count tells you how many students are already doing this job without the rules. Collect four worries on the board: they cry, they get hurt, they will not listen, something breaks.
Every worry on that board has a rule
- There are seven rules
- By the end of today you know all seven
- And you know when the right answer to "can you babysit Saturday" is no
- A babysitter does five of the eight caregiver jobs: safety, food, love, limits, time
Teacher notes
Image: seven numbered blank strips stacked, the last one shaped like a stop sign.
Money and health decisions are not a babysitter's jobs. That is from yesterday.
Rule 1: Never leave a young child alone
- Not for a minute
- Not to answer the door
- Not to get a towel
- Take them with you
- Why: a minute is enough
Teacher notes
Image: an outline of an eye over a small figure, and a door with a figure walking away from it crossed out.
Rule 2: Safe sleep
- A baby sleeps on their back
- In a crib or bassinet, on a firm flat mattress
- With nothing else in it: no blanket, no pillow, no stuffed animal, no bumper
- Why: anything soft can block breathing. Back is the only safe position
Teacher notes
Image: a plain empty crib with a baby drawn on its back, and beside it the same crib with a blanket, pillow, and stuffed animal drawn crossed out.
Empty the shoebox crib in front of the class, item by item, and say why each one comes out. Never cut this. [Sal: the school nurse can take this demonstration and say it in her own words; ask.]
Rule 3: Never shake a baby
- Ever. No matter how long they cry
- Why: a baby's neck and brain cannot take it, and the damage is permanent
- What to do instead: put them down safely, on their back, in the empty crib
- Step out of the room for two minutes. Breathe. Then check them
- Then call the parent
Teacher notes
Image: a hand rocking a crib gently, next to a crossed-out shaking motion.
Say it plainly, once, with the why and the what-instead. Do not dramatize it. This and slide 4 are the reason this lesson exists.
Rule 4: Small objects and choking foods
- The tube test at your table: anything that fits through a toilet paper tube can choke a child under 3
- Test all six objects. Sort them: fits through means danger
- A child under 4 eats sitting down with an adult watching
- Not on the plate: whole grapes, hot dogs, hard candy, nuts, popcorn, chunks of raw carrot or apple
- Why: the airway is the size of a straw
Teacher notes
Image: a cardboard tube standing on end with a coin, a bottle cap, and a bead beside it, and a large block that will not fit.
Students remember the tube better than the list. If no tube is available, the objects are drawn to size on this slide.
Rule 5: Water and stairs
- A child can drown in two inches of water
- The bath is never left. Not for a towel
- Check everything that holds water: the tub, a bucket, a toilet, a pet's bowl
- Stairs get a gate or a hand. Every time
- Why: two inches, two seconds
Teacher notes
Image: a bathtub with a shallow line of water, a bucket, a pet bowl, and a stair gate.
Rule 6: In an emergency, call 911 first
- For anything you cannot handle, 911 comes before the parent
- The dispatcher asks for the address first. Read it off your card
- Then the parent's number, and a backup
- Poison Control: 1-800-222-1222
- 911 works in any language. Say "I need help" and stay on the line
Teacher notes
Image: a phone screen showing 911, with an index card beside it.
The first three things a dispatcher asks: where you are, what happened, and who is with you. Say that.
The safety walk
- You are babysitting a 2 year old named Eli, at his home, for the first time
- Five rooms plus the yard, described on your handout
- Circle every hazard for a toddler. Write the fix in the table
- A fix is something a babysitter can do right now: move it, close it, gate it, dump it, stay with him
- There are at least twelve. 9 minutes
Teacher notes
Read the home aloud once before they start. Grade 6 and IEP/504 pairs do three rooms. Grade 8 does all five plus the yard. Clipboard: the bucket, the stairs, one choking hazard, one poison hazard, and every fix doable by a babysitter. "Tell the parents to renovate" is not a fix.
Check your walk
- Water: the tub, the bucket in the yard, the toilet lid, the dog's bowl
- Choking: the hard candy, the bouncy ball, the grapes at the counter edge, the keys and the remote
- Poison: the cleaner and the pods under the sink, the medicine on the bathroom counter
- Safe sleep: the crib has a blanket, a pillow, and two stuffed animals in it. Take all of it out
- Also: the blind cord at crib height, the pot handle turned out, the plastic bag, the open gate, the back door that does not latch, the unstrapped vase
Teacher notes
Eight found with a real fix is "got it." A pair that missed the bucket gets the question "where is the water in this house?"
The emergency card
- Fill it out with the parent before they leave. Every time, even if you have been there before
- Address with the apartment number, and the cross street
- Parent's name and cell, plus a backup adult
- Child's name and age, allergies, and any medicine
- Where the first aid kit is, where the parents will be, and when they are back
- Poison Control and 911 are already printed on the card
Teacher notes
Image: the blank emergency card as it appears on the handout, ten labeled lines.
Students fill it from the fictional family's information box. Grade 8 writes the script for asking a parent for every line. The stomach-sleep answer is on the key: babies sleep on their backs, say it kindly, and do it.
Should you take this job?
- Judge four jobs: yes, yes with conditions, or no. Write the rule that decides each
- Rule 7, the general rule for 12 to 14 year olds: short jobs, a child old enough to talk, a parent you know and can reach, a house you have seen, daylight or early evening, no infants overnight
- New York has no minimum babysitting age in law. This rule is about what a middle schooler is ready for
- This class is not medical training. No CPR, no first aid beyond "call 911"
- Next step: the American Red Cross Babysitting Basics course [Sal: confirm the current course name, format, age minimum, cost, and the local chapter]
Teacher notes
Take job D out loud. It fails rule 6 and rule 7 both: unknown ages, unknown house, no parent's number.
Questions
- What is the only safe position for a baby to sleep in, and what is in the crib?
- A bottle cap fits through the tube. What does that mean?
- What are the first three things a 911 dispatcher will ask you?
- Why do we say "never shake a baby" out loud in a class where nobody would ever mean to hurt a baby?
- Which job would you be most tempted to say yes to, and what is the rule that should stop you?
Teacher notes
The answer to the fourth one is that the people who do it never planned to; they ran out of patience at 3 a.m. That is why rule 3 has a what-instead attached.
Exit card and tomorrow
- 3-2-1 on the handout: 3 of the seven rules
- 2 things that must be on the emergency card
- 1 job you would say no to, and why
- Tomorrow: the project. You build an activity kit a real babysitter could use. Three days
Teacher notes
Three students read their "1." Every card must have "back to sleep, empty crib" or "never shake a baby" in the "3" line, or it goes in "needs more" no matter what else is on it.