FAQs About SOS 4 Kids Safety Courses

Please email us at [email protected] about bringing this beneficial program to children in your community. Please note, we do not offer in-home private courses.

We accept PayPal, MasterCard and Visa. We also accept eTransfer payments sent to [email protected] (please be sure to include your child’s name and the course you have registered for in the comment section of the eTransfer.)

Our courses are very popular and have limited spots. In order to secure a spot, pre-registration with pre-payment are required.

Please refer to our cancellation policy for further details.

If you don’t see your registration confirmation in your main inbox, please check your spam or junk folder, as it may have been filtered there.
If you still can’t find the email in any of your folders, please contact SOS4Kids. There may have been a spelling error in the email address used during registration.

A course reminder email will be sent out one day before the course. It will outline what participants should bring, including:

• Nut-free snacks and lunch

• A refillable water bottle

• A pen or pencil

• A quiet activity for breaks

• A doll or stuffed animal (if your child is attending the Babysitting Course)

If your child is taking the Babysitting Course, a parent or guardian may email us prior to the course or sign a “leave on their own” waiver. This allows the child to leave on their own at the end of the day without a parent or guardian present.

All courses include handbooks that participants can take home, as well as completion certificates.
Please note that courses such as the Babysitting Course require certain skills to be successfully demonstrated in order for participants to receive their certificate.

No, it does not. No one knows the child’s maturity level better than the parent or guardian. This is a decision that the family makes together.

Contrary to popular belief, there is no legal age at which a child can be left home alone. We follow the recommendations of the Toronto Children’s Aid Society which says that a child younger than 10 years old should not be left home alone and only if the child is ready. This recommendation may be different in your area. Please contact your local Children’s Aid Society or Department of Children’s Welfare for recommendations in your area.

Similar to the Toronto Children’s Aid Society’s recommendations that no child under the age of ten be left unsupervised, Halton Children’s Aid Society recommends that children under the age of 12 are not ready to be responsible for the safety and care of other children.

We will send you a reminder email a few days before the course, but all participants should bring a doll or stuffed animal so that they can learn and practice infant care skills. We will provide your child with a participant manual that has space for notes, but if your child likes to take a lot of notes, you may also want to send a notebook.

We require written permission before we will allow participants of the Babysitting Course to leave on their own at the end of the day. If your family decides that your child will arrive at the course and/or leave independently, please be sure to print, sign and send this permission form – PERMISSION FOR CHILD TO SIGN OUT.

During the course, we will talk about how to use these three forms at future babysitting jobs. Feel free to download and print these forms for your child after they have completed the course: 

1. Red Cross Babysitter’s Interview Form
2. Red Cross Babysitter’s Report Form
3. Red Cross Babysitter’s Self Quiz Form

There is no age specified by law for babysitting. Not all 12-year olds are mature enough to babysit. Parents are responsible to ensure their babysitters are prepared and ready to care for their children. A great asset for babysitters is formal training, such as the Red Cross Babysitter course.

No, it is not safe for young teens to advertise their babysitting services through flyers or online mediums (ie, Kijiji.com). Youth should only provide babysitting services for people they know – friends, neighbours and family.

No, at this time SOS 4 Kids only offers in-class courses to learn about babysitting.

Parents who hire babysitters are looking for someone they can count on to care for their children and keep them safe. They want a babysitter who is:

• Responsible, self-confident, dependable & healthy
• Attentive and able to recognize danger to prevent accidents from happening
• Comfortable spending time with children
• Knowledgeable about children’s care and their different stages of development
• Level-headed and mature with good problem-solving skills
• Respectful and shows good manners