Newsletter from 31st August to 4th September

As a part of the continuous improvement required by the National Quality Standard, this week we are:
– ensuring everyone who works, volunteers or studies at the Service is aware of the requirements under child protection laws to identify children who may be being abused or neglected, and to report these cases of child abuse or neglect to relevant authorities. If you have any questions about our child
protection practices please feel free to discuss them with me
– reviewing our Child Protection Policy. A summary follows:   

Child Protection Policy
The Approved Provider, Nominated Supervisor, employees, volunteers and students will:
o be trained in their child protection obligations so they can confidently
o identify indicators of abuse
o manage disclosures or suspicions of abuse/neglect
o report abuse/neglect to relevant authorities including any made involving employees,
volunteers, students
o prepare accurate records to assist investigations and store them securely
o always take anything a child says seriously and follow up their concerns
o maintain the confidentiality of all parties involved in an investigation
o keep their child protection clearance current (eg working with children check) unless exempted under
the law.

During the whole month of September our children will have the great opportunity to enjoy and learn about music with Dearne. She will come each Monday for the next four weeks. Dearne is teaching many songs with us and provide a range of resources that enable children to express meaning and learn about new concepts using music and movement, such as clapping sticks, shells and stones.

We will also like to use this post to thank everyone who celebrated Early Childhood Educator Day with us and helped in making us feel loved and appreciated. 

Preschoolers

This week, the preschool class is been engaged on the ongoing outdoor project that is making our mud kitchen. Children had the chance to practice their carpenter skills that involve the use of tools, learning about safety and some mathematical concepts to measure the right dimensions. We used some tools such as masks, gloves, safety goggles, a saw and sandpaper.

Through engaging in such discussions and using these tools, children learn more about how to be safe and to use different tools and equipment with increasing competence and skill.

We also dedicated some time preparing the Family/Father’s day which was a great follow on from our interest in tools and small bits and pieces. The moment was a lovely shared one, where the children were relaxed and chatted freely amongst themselves about what they were doing and how. Experiences involving fine motor skills are crucial because the ability to use the smaller muscles in the hands allows children to perform self-care tasks without assistance, and gets them ready for drawing and writing.

 We are learning about making choices and accept that things don’t always go the way they expect, and develop an awareness of fairness.  To enhance our learning, we decided which book to read by voting democratically – we learned that in a democracy, majority rules, and we can only vote once! This was a tricky concept to grasp, but we were ok with it when we realized that in this situation, the other book was not ruled out forever, we could read it later! Learning about democracy in this way helps children to and they realize that by working together and being respectful, we can all get along as we develop ideas and concepts of the way we each contribute to shared moments.

Toddlers

Our toddlers this week had been focusing their experiences into creating spectacular gifts for Sunday. They had the opportunity to dress up as different occupations and enjoy pretending to be grown-ups. During their free play, they engaged with a variety of open-ended resources such as the sandpit, our new garden or constructing blocks.

Some of them join in the ongoing project of building a mud kitchen using some tools and learning about safety. It was really nice to see the positive and kind interactions they had with their older peers who carefully taught them how to use the tools and offered them the opportunity to contribute on their project.

On Thursday, toddlers engaged in a fun and messy water play enjoying the nice weather we had that day. Water Play gives many opportunities to develop fine and gross motor skills across age ranges. Children will increase their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination through actions like pouring, squirting, scrubbing, stirring and squeezing. It’s an amazing sensory experience introducing them to textures.

babies

Children are enjoying the new vehicles topic. They’ve been rolling up and down different small cars on top of a mat which has the picture of a city.

Each day, our babies are becoming more and more sociable, and they begin to enjoy playing with others. Slowly, they are increasing their empathy and fairness in play and want to make sure their friends are also having fun. Their communication skills are also developing and some of them are starting to pronounce some short words and while others disclose their needs and emotion using their body language.

As the rest of our older friends, the babies had been getting ready for the special celebration this weekend. Using their fine motor skills and enjoying textures they’ve prepared amazing gifts to give to the people they love on Family/Father’s Day.