There are many reasons that children bite.  Most of them don't bite at home, unless that reason is something like teething.  Sometimes a child will bite as a last resort when another child is taking a toy that they want or they are in what the child considers his/her space.  This usually happens when a child is not able to communicate very well.  You may want to check with the Center to see where and when the biting is occuring.  This may help you to determine what is the trigger.

No matter what the reason, having a "biter" is very frustrating to a parent.  No is very little that you as a parent can do and I'm sure that you are feeling a bit helpless.  What you can do is to help your child to communicate better.  Encourage them to talk by asking lots of questions and then after they give you their answer, repeat back to them what they said but say it in complete sentences.  This helps to increase their vocabulary.  If you are able to find out what is triggering the behavior, then you can role play with the same situation and help to "give" your child words that they can use instead of their teeth. 

Also, model behavior that will let your child see you caring about how others feel.  At this age, they really don't know that the other child hurts just like they do.  Use every opportunity to show your child this and that our actions effect other people. 

A child this age really isn't going to remember when you pick them up at 4:30 why they bit a friend at 9:00 that morning.  If you want to talk to your child about their biting ask the Center if they can call you when your child bites so that you may either go to the Center to speak to your child or talk to your child on the phone.  But ask them to call you after they have first paid lots of loving care to the child that has gotten bit and they have asked your child to help to make her friend feel better.  Sometimes biting is a request for attention and you don't want to give attention for negative behavior.  So always speak to her after she has done the nice thing of taking care of her friend.  Say something like "Ms. ? tells me that you have bitten Susie.  Is Susie okay?  You know that we don't bite. "  Then if you have decided what consequences that there will be for her biting her friends now would be the time to remind her.  As with any other behavior modification, be consistent and still to your word. 

Going on and on about how bad it is to bite really doesn't help.  Just encourage her to be nice to her friends and give praise for the days that she doesn't bite.  Good luck and remember it really doesn't last forever.  They do outgrow it!!

Three year olds like books that they can read over and over again.  They will soon begin to "read" the books to you.  Books with lots of repetition are great and stories with a sense of humor or play on words are favorites (Six Sleepy Sheep. Sheep In A Jeep, There's A Wocket In My Pocket)   Also, books with vivid illustrations are wonderful (Imagine A Day by Sarah Thomson and ill. by Rob Gonsalves is a beautiful book).  They also like books with rhyming words (Quick, Quack, Quick and Over In The Meadow)

One thing that I do suggest is that you express to your child how special books are and how to take gentle care of them.  Let them know your favorite childhood stories.  Children of all ages should be read stories that mean something.  Stories that express feelings or ideas that you would like to introduce your child to.  Challange your child's imagination and encourage their love of reading with books like Imagine A Day, by Sarah Thomson.  The words and pictures of this book help a child to see more than just what is expected.  They will go back to this book many times and will most likely see additional details in the pictures each time they do.

My children are each in their 20's and they can each tell you my favorite two children's stories.   These are stories that we read many, many times as they were growing up and I told them often how much I love these stories.  My all time favorite is Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree.  It's a wonderful story about giving of yourself.  My other favorite is Robert Munsch's Love You, Forever, about a mother's love for her son even through it's not always that easy (he throws her watch in the toilet, etc.).  It has a touching ending that young children find funny.  I tease my boys all the time that I love this story so much because it reminds me of them.

Robert Munsch has many other wounderful, funny stories that your three year old will love.  Eric Carle has many beautifully illustrated books that teach concepts such as time and days of the week.  Also, Bill Martin Jr. has some great stories will lots of repetition (Brown Bear, Brown Bear and Polar Bear, Polar Bear).  When my youngest son was three years old his favorite author was Mercer Mayor, who wrote many books about subjects familiar to a young child. 

If you would like a great list of children's books, you can go to www.decal.state.ga.us.  This is the Bright From the Start Georgia Prek web site.  The list of books is a suggested book list for Prek.  However, it's a great resource for three year olds also.  When you get to the home page of the web site look under the teacher heading and you should see "Suggested Book List".  I hope that you both enjoy many wonderful hours discovering your favorite stories.

The number of children per caregiver depends upon the age of the children.  Georgia law requires that child care centers maintain at least the following ratios:  infants up to 12 months = 1 staff per 6 children, toddlers 12 months to 24 months = 1 staff per 8 children, 24 months to 36 months = 1 staff per 10 children, 36 months to 48 months - 1 staff per 15 children, 4 years - 5 years = 1 staff per 18 and last but not least school agers up to 13 years of age = 1 staff per 25 children.  Some centers will try to maintain lower ratios of children to staff, especially if they provide a preschool program.  For example, in one of our centers our two year olds are in a room licensed for 18 children.  We don't fill it to the maximum 18 children, we have 15 two year olds with 2 staff members.

Now, in-home providers have different sets of regulations.  They are allowed six children of any age per caregiver.

The program that I like for use at home is the Time4Learning phonics curriculum(www.Time4Learning.com).  I like this program because it includes phonemic awareness skills in the phonics curriculum.  Phonemic awareness is a child's understanding that spoken words can be divided into separate sounds and that these sounds can be used like reusable building blocks to make up all words.  In order for a child to succeed in reading, they first must have phonemic awareness and then a strong foundation in phonics (phonological awareness).  Phonemic awareness is the understanding that the sounds of spoken language work together to make words.  Phonological awareness is the understanding that there is a  predictable relationship between spoken sounds and the letters that represent those sounds in the written language. 

There are alot of fun ways for you to help your child discover phonemic awareness:                               ** Read and reread favorite stories, songs, poems and nursery rhymes and discuss the rhyme and alliteration in them.                                                                                                                          

**Enjoy tongue twisters and other language play together.

**Read alphabet books and make alphabet books or posters with your child.

**Play word games with magnetic letters on your refrigerator (add word cards with Word Families).

**If your child is enrolled in a Prek Program, ask his/her teacher for ideas that you can use at home to extend the Prek learning experience.  Prek teachers are required to have phonemic awareness activities in their daily lesson plans and I'm sure that they would be glad to tell you about them.  Most programs have a lending library program so that you can borrow materials to use at home overnight.

**Most importantly, whether you choose to purchase a program or not just have fun with your child discovering the world of words!