Playdough is one of our Educators’ favourite activities and has been a staple of the Early Childhood Education and Care setting for decades. Why?
Because of the range of developmental benefits it offers to children.
Playing with playdough provides sensory stimulation and is a very calming experience.
It also provides proprioceptive input.
Proprioception is a sense of where your body is in space, which children require in order to develop skills such as balance, movement and how much muscle force to use.
When children use their hands, fingers, and tools to pound, push, poke, shape, roll and cut the playdough, they are developing the small muscles in their fingers and hands.
Through these manipulations, children also develop their hand-eye coordination.
These are both critical areas of physical development for writing, drawing, playing, eating and many other purposes.
Using playdough supports children’s capacity to be creative and develop their imagination skills.
Creativity is a very important life skill that helps children develop strategies to overcome problems and find solutions.
Playdough offers open-ended play, which stimulates curiosity, another important life skill and character strength.
Creating with playdough supports children to feel competent and proud of their accomplishments.
It is a great outlet for children to express their emotions.
Playing with playdough in small groups and/or with adults presents lots of possibilities for talk and discussion, playing collaboratively, problem solving and planning with others.
Through playdough, children build their vocabulary and practice listening to and talking with friends, siblings, and adults.
When making a batch of playdough, children start to understand the purpose of written language. Following the recipe instructions helps children to connect written and spoken words, to learn that writing can be used for different purposes.
When children play with playdough, they are measuring, counting, sorting, classifying and learning about shapes, weight and volume.
Playdough is also an excellent tool for teaching the alphabet, by having children form letter shapes with the playdough or experiment with alphabet cutters.
Ingredients:
1 cup of flour (any kind)
1/4 cup of salt
1 Tablespoon cream of tartar (optional)
1/2 cup warm water
1/4 teaspoon non toxic food colouring powder
(Note: if you don’t have colouring powder, you can also use a drop of non-toxic gel or liquid colouring. Just make sure you mix it thoroughly!)
Knowledge is life – we know you’re never too old or too young to start learning. At Explore & Develop Parramatta, our Educators are intentional in their teaching and educational programs, while following children as authors of their own learning. Together, we inspire each other and ensure we are open to learning for all.
We are lifelong learners, supporting children to have the best start to schooling with our ‘transition to school’ and ‘foundation for life’.
We are a ‘home away from home’. Partnerships between families and Early Childhood Education and Care Services are like a puzzle – we work together, we share our knowledge – coming together for your child.
We co-ordinate additional external services to connect with our community, working with Parramatta Council, dentists, speech pathologists, health care professionals and learning providers for a variety of
in-house opportunities to support children’s learning and development. Our Service also has a local artist who inspires our children weekly through art and cultural knowledge.
Our learning spaces speak for themselves, designed for open-ended exploration, holistic learning and opportunities for endless discoveries.
We source high quality and sustainable resources, supporting local businesses and communities. The children have many opportunities to run, explore and express themselves in our outdoor environment.
Your child will be excited to come to Explore & Develop Parramatta, where a day of learning through play awaits. Through play, we ignite the children’s curiosity, imagination, creativity and their learning. Risky play, dramatic play, sensory play, exploratory play, schematic play, creative play, symbolic play, and much more. The opportunities for play are endless!
After so many years of caring for and educating children, families always return, referring more families and their friends. Explore & Develop Parramatta is not just a service, it’s a family. We have been individually owned operated since opening our doors 16 years ago for my daughter, Isabelle. Sixteen years on, both my daughters are working alongside me as passionate, dedicated Educators who strive for quality and excellence.
We are sure you will agree we are the right fit for you!
Please feel free to call us on tel: (02) 9898 1100 or enquire here. We’d love to hear from you!
An interest in immersing ourselves in an imaginary magical world was sparked early last year as the children were exploring sounds and listening to instrumental compositions. One particular soundscape that featured twinkling chimes and suspenseful highs and lows became the ‘fairy music’ and was a prompt to drive imaginary dramatic play.
Without any physical resources, the children as a group created their own fantastical imaginary world. We explored dark swamps in rickety boats, avoiding crocodiles and keeping an ear out for those dangerous wolves and yetis. Luckily, our world was also inhabited by fairies who often helped us get out of sticky situations by gifting or using their magic.
As the world expanded and more children joined in the fun, the play naturally developed some unspoken rules, roles and a predictive narrative. While boys and girls were equally interested and actively participating, I noticed that the roles were seemingly gendered. Some children took a more passive role alongside myself, however, the ‘fairies’ were only played by girls, and the ‘wolves’ only played by boys. I wanted to challenge this idea as I feared this too would become an unspoken ‘rule’ of the game.
As expected, one afternoon for the first time in this play, I heard: “Boys can’t be fairies, they have to be wolves.” Before I could interject, a strong voice made herself heard, and challenged this thought: “Boys can be fairies, there are boy and girl fairies.” Nothing more was said and the play continued, but from this point on, the topic seemed to pop up time and time again.
“Children should not be limited by having to choose to be ‘masculine’ and therefore, ‘not feminine’ and vice versa…. If Educators can learn how gender binaries are ‘maintained and policed’ in classroom life, they have an entry point to disrupting the maintenance of the binary, thus freeing children to ‘be’ rather than to ‘be gendered’.
MAC NAUGHTON, 2005, p87
Children developing their own understanding of gender and identity are doing so through the messages they receive from the world and people around them. In an early childhood setting, Educators can play a big part in challenging and crossing the traditional gender boundaries. Older peers also have persuasive power to disrupt perceived notions of gender.
Throughout the year, the play evolved and branched into different avenues of exploration to support the original, imaginary play. Suddenly, we were receiving letters via our ‘fairy tree’, making potions in the art studio to aid our adventures, and decoding information using our fairy encyclopaedia. In these settings, I noticed a few boys who had a strong interest in the play, resist and reject it when the fairies took centre stage, because of their gender.
While I wanted to challenge this and help them feel comfortable and confident, I also recognised that many of our older children were already challenging these ideas verbally between themselves. It seemed to have a great impact on the children, especially in spaces like the art studio, where they often made potions and discussed their theories about fairies and magic. It helped to have resources that were inclusive of boy and girl fairies, like the fairy encyclopaedia that showed off illustrations of boy fairies riding fish and hiding in cacti, and the introduction of a small male fairy into the potion making space. Slowly I observed those same boys becoming very involved with fairy business, even hearing a few of them say, “I wanna be a fairy”.
The Anti-bias Approach encourages Educators to consider the implications of gender in relation to social and political power and be conscious of the impact our pedagogical choices can have on children’s developing identity.
“There are many competing discourses, or ways of knowing ourselves and the world, and these produce a range of effects. Translated into the everyday politics of classroom life, this means some ways of being a boy or a girl are more possible, desirable and powerful than others” (Smith, Campbell and Alexander, 2020, p61).
The imaginary space can and should be a safe place for children to explore their own role in a group, as an individual, and express new ideas, including those about gender. In our fantastical world where wolves can be frozen with magic apples, and yetis can swing between aeroplanes, why can’t boys be fairies?
References
Mac Naughton, G. (2005). Doing Foucault in Early Childhood Studies; Applying Poststructuralist Ideas. Routledge: New York, United States of America
Smith, K., Campbell, S. & Alexander, K. In Scarlet, R. (ed), (2020) The Anti-bias Approach in Early Childhood (4th Edition). Multiverse Publishing: Sydney, Australia.
It is fantastic to see 80 per cent of the population of NSW being double-vaccinated. This is a great step in protecting vulnerable people in our communities and a big help in getting life back to normal.
Of course, during the pandemic, the Early Childhood Education and Care sector became an essential service and our teams adapted to the challenges of working on the front line.
I am really proud of the efforts of everyone in the Explore & Develop community – educators, children, parents, and of course our franchise owner/operators over the last few months for doing everything possible to maintain a safe environment for all.
In this newsletter I would like to share the latest research on the impacts of COVID-19 on young children and what role families can play to help keep them safe.
I am also happy to share some positive changes that have been made to the Child Care Subsidy that will provide greater financial support for some families.
I am looking forward to a brighter 2022 where we can enjoy all the freedoms whilst staying safe.
Kind regards.
Belinda Ludlow
CEO of Explore & Develop
It is mandatory for all Early Childhood Educators and staff across NSW to have received two doses of COVID-19 vaccination by Monday 8 November 2021 and all Explore & Develop services will be compliant with this requirement.
Explore & Develop services follow the current requirements and advice of NSW Health and take all necessary precautions to minimise the risk of further transmission of COVID-19 in our service community.
In addition to vaccinations, our Explore & Develop services have implemented a number of control measures that have included increased cleaning and hygiene practices and altering requirements to drop-off and pick-up procedures to suit each specific location.
Recent data published by the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NIRS), with the support of the NSW Ministry of Health and NSW Department of Education looked at the transmission of COVID-19 in schools, early childhood settings and households in 2020 and 2021.
The research concluded that although most children in this study had no or mild symptoms from COVID-19, however, household transmission was a much more pressing issue.
The report findings indicated that the impact of cross contamination of COVID-19 for children that attended an Early Childhood Education and Care service or school, was the highest in the family home. In their studies with this age group, they found 70.7 per cent of overall transmission was among household contacts.
Additionally, the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute recommends that to protect children and adolescents in the community and keep schools and Early Childhood Education and Care services open, we should encourage parents and adults of all ages to be vaccinated now.
We are confident that this, in combination with support from our community, will minimise risk and help to keep the Explore & Develop services open and children learning face-to-face beside their peers. This is so important, as we know that children’s brains develop connections faster in the first five years than at any other time in their lives.
A child’s participation in an organised Early Childhood Education program assists in the development of their cognitive abilities and also enhances their social and emotional skills while they interact with their peers.
In fact, “full participation in education is essential for children to learn and develop socially, but also for family and societal functioning,” says Doctor Archana Koirala, Paediatric Infectious Diseases Specialist at the University of Sydney.
Ultimately our priority is to minimise risk as much as possible, so that all children and families can experience the benefits of Early Childhood Education and Care.
Under the current Child Care Subsidy arrangements, the Federal Government capped the maximum benefit that it contributed to the cost of child care at $10,665 per year for families that earned over $190,015. However, from Friday 10 December 2021, this annual cap will be removed, meaning that more families will be able to benefit from this increase in funding.
This is an important change, as many families would cease receiving Child Care Subsidy half way through the year and were required to cover 100 per cent of the cost of care for the second half of the year. As a result, some families were forced to limit the amount of days that their child or children attended, by either seeking care by other means, or limiting the number of days of workforce participation.
In addition, from Monday 7 March 2022, families with more than one child may be eligible to receive a 30 per cent higher subsidy, up to a maximum of 95 per cent subsidy for the second and younger siblings. This increased subsidy is available for families earning less than $354,305 per year, who have more than one child aged five or under, who attend Early Childhood Education and Care.
If you would like to estimate how the increased Child Care Subsidy will affect your child care fees (as of Friday 10 December, 2021) please utilise the Explore & Develop Child Care Subsidy Calculator.
We are encouraged that these changes to Child Care Subsidy will be implemented, assisting to make Early Childhood Education and Care more affordable and accessible to families.
Sustainability is a key facet of our curriculum. Embedding sustainable practices, communicating environmental responsibility, and observing environmental stewardship and activism in our children are regular, deep, and underlying parts of what we do. In line with the service philosophy, embedded sustainability practices exist across the service that encourage environmental responsibility. Sustainability motivates all decision-making, from management to curriculum. But what more could we be doing?
Late in 2020, we engaged in critical reflection around sustainability. Educator action research projects ignited a sustainability review which identified a missed opportunity in meal processes. Recognising the excess waste that was created through sourcing all meals through an external caterer, we saw an opportunity. We transitioned to preparing and providing our own afternoon teas. This change allowed for utilising leftovers (in line with Food Safety guidelines), executing resourcefulness and repurposing excess foods for cooking experiences. In addition, the change also encouraged the facilitating of: regular, relevant classroom cooking experiences; opportunities to eat produce from our garden; and meaningful connections in garden-to-plate-to-garden learning.
“Education for Sustainability (EfS) is about transformative change at many levels- our thinking, our ways of being and our ways of acting to regenerate the Earth. Many educators readily engage in the tangible aspects of EfS in early childhood services, such as establishing compost bins, recycling and growing produce. But, there are deeper layers of meanings about thinking and being that can be explored with children through our daily practices.”
(Dr. Sue Elliott, 2019)
A routine is something that is repetitive. Rituals are those ‘special’ actions that add magic and emotion; that deepen the connection and relationship (Loader & Christie, 2017).
Afternoon tea has become a cultural practice, a ritual developed over time. The reciprocal action of ‘feeding the school’ has fuelled the sense of community as children have embraced the practice. A layer of pedagogical magic has developed around what once was just a routine task. The children have been empowered with agency.
Cooking has also become a place for educators to share their home cultures with our little school on the roof, adding delicious recipes that reflect the multi-cultural make up of our community. Dia has shared her childhood favourite, coconut soup. Linnie has taught us all how to make Vietnamese rolls. Sandra’s red bean pastries are a firm favourite.
The menu is prepared every week with each class planning for their day. The Outdoor Teacher coordinates the plan and identifies key ingredients for inclusion. Excess foods are saved from becoming waste, instead resourcefully planned to use in the upcoming menu. For example, last week, a corn salsa served at lunch was transformed into a corn dip served with school-grown, and much anticipated, snow peas. The week before, leftover tortillas were coupled with warrigal greens from the garden to become quesadillas, cooked fresh at the table. Early weeks saw on average two baked dishes, with easily prepared foods served on the other days. As educators and children have settled into the practice, it has shifted from a ‘job to do’; they are now excited to cook, and subsequently more complex dishes are increasingly on the menu.
Most recently we have seen dishes directly reflecting the children’s curriculum and interest. Our Bilby children have begun working with tools, creating resources for their sound project. To extend on this, we trust our toddlers with knives as they cut vegetables to be served with dip. Food was melded with storytelling when the Wombat children wanted to create a “Pirate Pie” for the school. With imaginations on, the Wombats told their educators they needed the filling to be coral-slime. This delicious sounding concoction was achieved with warrigal greens from the garden, cooked with mushrooms. Yum!
The changes have totalled to be much more than the sum of the parts. What began as a sustainable action, primarily driven by a desire to reduce food waste, has become something much more. An act of care, an opportunity to share love, culture, and deeper-rooted connection to the land; growing, sharing and eating together.
Elliott, S. (2019). Education for sustainability. The Spoke. [Blog]. Early Childhood Australia. 1st, May, 2019.
Loader, M. & Christie, T. (2017). Rituals: Making the everyday extraordinary in early childhood. New Zealand: Child Space.
Our overarching goal is to improve children’s lives by providing them with the tools needed to succeed in life. To do that, we need a committed team of pedagogically aligned teachers and educators.
Educators are the heart of early education; we understand that creating and maintaining a positive workplace culture is critical to maintaining educator engagement and retention, which is beneficial for the continuous relationships between educators, families, and children. Research shows educators feel more engaged when their voices are heard, and action occurs. Therefore, in our Service, we have developed systems for educators’ voices to be heard and valued.
Our team created service values very early in our inception; these values became our philosophy. Trust, Play, Belonging, Inclusion, Knowledge, and Wonder, have framed our pedagogical direction and critical reflection. In all decision-making, we ask ourselves, will this fit our values?
Team cohesion is vital for a positive workplace. It is built through communication and educators understanding themselves, each other and their roles. To develop an understanding of themselves and others, all educators have participated in personal DISC assessments. “The DISC Advanced assessment is a valuable tool that can be utilised for self-awareness and the personal development of the respondents, in conjunction with a properly facilitated process” (DISC Assessment workbook). These assessments are valuable for individuals to understand how they behave and react to stress and pressure and their preferred way of communicating with others. When debriefing as a team, educators can understand each other better, primarily in how we communicate, resulting in a more cohesive team. These reports are now integrated into our Personal Development Time meetings (Appraisals). They provide insight into each other’s communication styles and preferences and inform reflective questions, as a continuous cycle of reflection by team members, and support developing relationships in new teams.
We recognise the significance of whole team development alongside individual professional growth. To facilitate the entire team’s professional development, we have engaged in professional development projects with specialised consultants over extended periods, ensuring we have time for deep learning and critical reflection on a particular topic. For example, we have been connecting with Koori Curriculum since 2016, learning how to deeply work through embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in our program.
Educators’ connection to change is another way to enable a positive workplace culture. Several years ago, we embarked on a project to change the way we organised groups of children to create smaller groups and develop educator engagement . Over a six-month project, educators researched grouping possibilities, decided how the grouping structure would work, considered the impact on the learning environments and initiated a new daily flow.
Through this change we coined the term ‘Things belong to places, people belong to each other.’ to describe our new way of working. This change enabled a more collaborative and transformational leadership structure best supporting children and enabling the professional growth of our teachers.
A practice we have created to enable critical reflection is through thinking pairs. We use thinking pairs when undertaking professional development webinars to provoke critical reflection of practice or to critically reflect on documents like the new EYLF 2.0 or our service philosophy. Essentially, it is a pair of educators who critically reflect together. Our educational leader intentionally constructs thinking pairs to critically reflect on a practice. They are curated to ensure educators are paired with others with different years of experience, different levels of qualifications, different lengths of time working at the service and working with different groups of children. Constructing pairs this way provides space for multiple perspectives and the opportunity for informal mentor/mentee relationships to develop. Working in pairs provides space for quieter voices to contribute to professional dialogue. It also honors the opinions and ideas of all educators, regardless of their qualifications, experience or position.
The most important thing we have learned about engaging our team is to listen. We meet each educator where they are and continually reflect on their needs to build their sense of belonging to our team.
Is your child about to start early education and care?
For parents and caregivers the most daunting adjustment can be the anxiety of being apart for the first time or worrying about how your child will cope through this change. Separation anxiety is common, although easily addressed with a positive outlook and a few expert tips from professional educators.
This change can be as challenging for the child as the grown-ups involved. You may find that you both have an unexpected emotional response. For this reason, it’s important to focus on the benefits so that all parties can quickly transition into a healthy, happy routine.
Most early childhood services will have an orientation prior to commencing, which may be a couple of hours in care for you and your child to familiarise yourselves with the new surroundings and routine.
You and your child will likely have some mixed emotions on their first day of care. Expect that you will both be excited and nervous about this new experience. Your child will look to you for what to do/how to respond.
Every child and family is unique, so communication is the most effective way to navigate this milestone. This experience is new, but it can also be exciting, and should be nurtured with the positive attention that it deserves.
Talk honestly with each other at home, and draw on the support of the educators, who are highly experienced with the challenges of families and children encountering new routines.
As you work together with your early childhood service, you will feel informed and empowered by the experience, so that you can be the best support to your child as they grow and adjust.
“When we feel safe, we explore, we learn, we grow”.
— (Kids Matter, Australian Early Childhood Mental Health Initiative)
More than 44 per cent of NSW children are not developmentally on track when they start school, according to the latest Australian Early Development Census, an Australian government initiative that measures how children have developed by the time they start school.
The census looks at five key areas of early childhood development: physical health and wellbeing, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive skills, and communication skills and general knowledge.
Language and cognitive skills saw the most significant shift in the most recent report, with the percentage of children who were ‘developmentally vulnerable’ in this area increasing from 6.6 per cent in 2018 to 7.3 per cent in 2021.
Not being developmentally on track can have significant and lifelong consequences for a child.
The early years of a child’s life are critical for their cognitive, social, and emotional development. This period is marked by rapid brain development, where the foundations for future learning, health and wellbeing are established.
Research has shown that participation in high-quality early education and care leads to better outcomes at school and later in life.
“The first five years of a child’s life are vital for their health, development, learning and wellbeing. Children who participate in quality early childhood education and care, and who get the right support services, such as health and development checks, are more likely to succeed at school and have improved lifelong educational, social and economic outcomes.”
Reference: ‘Putting a Value on Early Childhood Education and Care in Australia’
In the report ‘Work and Play: Understanding how Australian Families Experience Early Childhood Education and Care‘, 83% of parents said that educators and carers have a significant impact on young children’s learning and wellbeing.
“Parents clearly see the early childhood education and care sector’s value in providing an environment of support and growth and setting children up for success at school and beyond, with this belief strengthening as their children approach school age,” states the report.
The two most popular options for preschool are Community Preschool, or a preschool program within an Early Childhood Education & Care (ECEC) service. ECEC services are often referred to as daycare/childcare centres but these are outdated terms that can cause confusion about what the services actually offer.
Opening hours
Hours of school preparation
Convenience
Parents identify that the benefits of early childhood education and care accrues beyond the child to the whole family, and extend beyond the monetary benefit of income earned while young children are in education and care.
According to the report, ‘Counting the Cost to Families: Accessing Childcare Affordability in Australia; The Front Project’.: “77 per cent of parents surveyed agreed that access to early childhood education and care services is important for the mental health and wellbeing of the whole family.”
One of the benefits of choosing an Explore & Develop service is that they are independently owned and operated, with the owner onsite to oversee daily operations.
While every Explore & Develop service is tailored to the needs of its local community, they have the following important features in common:
Find an Explore & Develop service near you.
Childcare, daycare, early learning, preschool… however you refer to it, it is one of the most important decisions a family will make during the early years of their child’s life.
Due to its fundamental role in a child’s development, the early education and care sector has moved far beyond merely “childcare.”
Research by the NSW Government shows that 90 per cent of brain development occurs in the first five years of life. As the brain grows, it is strongly influenced by what is happening in a child’s environment and their interactions with people around them.
Enrolling your child in early education is a valuable opportunity to help them explore their world and develop new skills that will stay with them as they grow.
We know that choosing where to send your child can feel overwhelming. We support new families through the process every day, so have identified some important considerations to help guide you in making the right decision for you and your child.
There are several different options for early learning and care, all of which are covered by a national regulatory system known as the National Quality Framework.
The options include:
Early education and care services
This type of service is often referred to as daycare/ childcare centre/ long daycare.
However, these are all outdated terms that can cause confusion about what the services actually offer.
Led by university qualified early childhood teachers, these services provide early education programs, including preschool (transition to school) programs, along with offering extended hours to better accommodate the needs of working families.
These services operate during school holidays, and usually accommodate children from around 6 weeks to 6 years of age.
One of the benefits of attending early education and care services is consistency for children and families, as a child can begin in the infant or toddler group and then move through to the preschool age group, having developed a sense of belonging within the service and trusting, respectful relationships with their educators.
Community preschools/kindergartens
Community preschools offer education and care during school terms and school hours only, which may be more difficult for working families to manage. Generally, due to the more structured nature of preschool programs, families will have less flexibility and choice regarding which days their child can attend the service.
These services usually only accommodate children from 3-6 years of age.
Family daycare services
Family daycares offer small group care in a qualified early childhood professional’s own home.
These services tend to be more focused on providing family-style care and may offer children less opportunity for social development due to the small number of children at each service.
All service types in Australia are regulated under the National Quality Framework and are monitored and assessed to ensure legal and quality requirements are met.
Ask the services that you’re considering what their ratings are in the seven National Quality Standard areas, as listed below:
To ensure your choice of care is a successful one for your family, it is important to make sure it will be convenient for you on an ongoing basis.
Things to consider:
The National Quality Framework also sets out the minimum educator to child ratio requirements, and minimum qualifications of educators, for all early education and care services.
As part of these regulations, all services are required to have a minimum number of university qualified early childhood teachers, depending on how many children are being educated and cared for at the service.
Things to consider:
Does the service director have the maturity and experience to enact decisions on their own and support you when you need it?
Is the service director an owner or an employee?
One of the benefits of choosing an Explore & Develop service is that they are independently owned and operated. The owner is onsite and able to oversee daily operations.
Our highly committed owners are constantly seeking to innovate their services to meet the needs of families and staff, and you have a direct point of contact if you have any concerns.
Not just anyone can become an owner of an Explore & Develop service. We look for early childhood professionals who are genuine in their desire to make a positive contribution to their local community by providing the highest quality early education and care services to children and families.
The next step is to make an enquiry and book a tour with the service. You may need to visit a few on your list to get a feel for the similarities, differences and aspects that you like the most.
Importantly, trust your instincts. You know your child best, and how they might respond to certain environments and people.
Make sure you meet the qualified educators on your tour, especially the ones that will be looking after your child.
On your visit, there are specific things you can look for and questions you may ask. These include:
Establishing quality interactions between children, educators and families is crucial to achieving positive learning outcomes for children. As you walk around the service, observe how educators interact with children and one another.
Look around the space and ensure it is adequately resourced for each age group. Children engaging in a range of play experiences is a positive sign.
Look for play spaces that are age appropriate and provide challenges for children to learn, play and develop.
Outdoor environments should extend and challenge not only children’s physical wellbeing, but also encourage children to take considered risks in their play, all the while developing their problem-solving abilities and building their resilience.
Even though it is a group educational setting, educators should be planning for children’s learning on an individual basis through play-based experiences.
Literacy, mathematical and scientific concepts should be embedded into everyday programs. For example – educators singing, talking and reading with infants and toddlers as well as preschool children is crucial.
Children should be provided with hands-on learning opportunities, resources and materials to promote their development.
The Australian Government supports families in their choice to use childcare while they are at work by subsiding some or all their childcare fees. This is a means-tested system with more financial support for lower income families.
To be eligible for the childcare subsidy, families must provide the age of the child, the child’s immunisation status and the parents’ residency status. In addition, the chosen childcare service must be an approved provider.
Approved providers include centre-based care, family day care, outside school hours care and in-home care. It does not include community preschool/kindergarten.
Our child care subsidy calculator can give you an idea of how much subsidy you may be eligible for.
At Explore & Develop, we will guide you every step of the way and lead you into a partnership where you are a valuable contributor to your child’s learning.
We offer daily programs that reflect a calm, relaxed and unrushed environment for growing and learning. We value the commitment, dedication, and professionalism of our educators and their desire to give every child a great start in life.
All Explore & Develop services are individually owned and operated by passionate professionals who are on site daily, ensuring high-quality education and care.
We have services across NSW. Click on ‘Locations’ at the top of the screen to find the Explore & Develop service closest to you.
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By Linh Dao
The learning of Auslan sign language inspires and enriches our learning journey.
We know that babies and toddlers rely on gestures to communicate with others and by the age of two, their non-verbal vocabulary is significant. Embedding sign language as an intentional teaching practice embraces this very nature in young children’s ways of learning and opens a platform in which adults and children share their imagination and perception of the world.
Dr Elizabeth Austin from Macquarie University, who is well-known for her body of research on the link between gestures and education, states that
“Gestures can reflect real-world objects and communicate some aspects of thought more effectively than words.”
(Austin & Sweller, 2017, p2)
This belief also pays reference to Gardener’s multiple intelligence theory which addresses that we all have different learning styles. As such, when we combine gestures and words to describe something, children who are visual or kinaesthetic learners can connect the verbal explanation to the visual presentation. This dual coding process is believed to improve children’s comprehension and retention.
An example of this learning is when I introduced Auslan signing for Isabella’s Garden by Glenda Millard and Rebecca Cool. The tale itself is cumulative and such a great fit to reinforce children’s memory recall as they are new to Auslan signs. Soon enough, signing was taking place everywhere, and the Gulamany children were confidently teaching each other, their older peers and family members how to sign the story with enthusiasm.
It seems clear that the Auslan learning has tapped into the complexity of the children’s narrative comprehension, which later results in their strong sense of confidence to pass on this emerging knowledge.
The Auslan teaching has started in many ways at our school. Our friend Meghan from Inner West Paediatrics inspired us to explore sign language as support for children with speech delay. For me, I would say a part of this teaching stems from my ongoing interest in finger play as an ‘old-school’ way of delivering a song or a story using metaphoric gestures.
This intentionality transferred into a considerate selection of Isabella’s Garden to begin using Auslan with, but this hasn’t limited our exploration to literature only. The children soon began asking how to sign things they encountered during the day. Whether we are on excursions or wandering in the garden, we continuously look up and build upon our current Auslan word bank. We listen to children’s interests and co-research with them to build our collective knowledge.
Co-constructing and de-constructing are central to our practice. Very often we ask children questions such as, “If this is yellow [signing], and this is house [signing], then guess what I’m saying? [signing both]” This fosters the children’s capacity to analyse and hypothesise. One of the most challenging signs is ‘tree’ which requires both arms to sign. To support children’s internalisation, we break down the signs according to our own interpretation, “So this is the ground [one arm laying flat], then comes the trunk [the other arm erecting on top of the ground], then blooms the leaves [hand on top swaying].”
My recent conversation with Dr Austin has reinforced our current strategies in teaching Auslan to our 2–3-year-olds. This work has inspired us to reflect on the growth of our curriculum, in which the children have led us to gain a much deeper understanding of what the world means to them through the lens of “two hands and a tale”.
Linh is an early childhood teacher at Explore & Develop Annandale she has an interest in how 2 to 3 years olds learn, young children’s citizenship and how they connect to nature.
Austin E. E., Sweller N. (2014). Presentation and production: The role of gesture in spatial communication. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 122(1), 92–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2013.12.008
Austin E. E., Sweller N. (2017). Getting to the elephants: Gesture and preschoolers’ comprehension of route direction information. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 163, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.05.016
Dargue, N., & Sweller, N. (2020). Learning stories through gesture: gesture’s effects on child and adult narrative comprehension. Educational Psychology Review, 32(1), 249–276. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-019-09505-0
Dargue, N., & Sweller, N. (2020). Two hands and a tale: when gestures benefit adult narrative comprehension. Learning and Instruction, 68, 1-13. [101331]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2020.101331
Hupp J. M., Gingras M. C. (2016). The role of gesture meaningfulness in word learning. Gesture, 15(3), 340–356. https://doi.org/10.1075/gest.15.3.04hup
Macoun A., Sweller N. (2016). Listening and watching: The effects of observing gesture on preschoolers’ narrative comprehension. Cognitive Development, 40, 68–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2016.08.005
McKern, N., Dargue, N., Sweller, N., Sekine, K., & Austin, E. (2021). Lending a hand to storytelling: Gesture’s effects on narrative comprehension moderated by task difficulty and cognitive ability. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 74(10), 1791–1805. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218211024913
These are all great questions that our educators at Explore & Develop are frequently asked by parents and caregivers.
When referring to literacy in the early years, school-age children may come to mind. However, research shows that language and literacy development actually begins from birth.
As babies begin to interact with the people around them, they start to learn how language works and gain an understanding of how to communicate effectively. Through play, children can transfer this knowledge to other contexts. As their literacy skills develop, the begin to connect spoken language to written language.
Research suggests that children who grow up in literacy-rich homes are more likely to do better at school, meaning that parents and caregivers play a vital role in supporting early literacy development.
Reading to your child, using a large range of vocabulary, providing drawing materials, spending time playing games and singing are all simple things you can do to help your baby, toddler or preschooler develop their literacy skills.
At Explore & Develop, educators focus on using language in all its forms. We strongly believe that singing, talking, reading and drawing with children of all ages is crucial and will lay the foundation for spoken and written communication to emerge.
Read on for some simple ways to help support your child’s literacy development at home across the core areas of:
Oral (spoken) language forms the foundation for literacy, as children begin to understand the meaning of words and sounds. This is when phonological awareness begins to develop.
A child’s understanding of spoken words will later translate to understanding written language, therefore making them more competent in decoding different texts.
Language learning begins at birth and there are many ways families can support this.
Children will begin to read by looking at the pictures, pointing out and naming familiar objects, noticing patterns such as rhythm and rhyme and then later, recognising letters and words in the text.
Lots of experience with books from birth will help them on their journey with reading.
“The fire of literacy is created by the emotional sparks between a child, a book, and the person reading. It isn’t achieved by the book alone, nor by the child alone, nor by the adult who’s reading aloud—it’s the relationship winding between all three, bringing them together in easy harmony.”
Mem Fox
Before a child can learn to write, they first need to begin making marks such as scribbles, lines and circles with a range of materials. There is no rush and you can support each step of the process in many ways.
We hope you have lots of fun using some of these simple tips and activities to help build your child’s early literacy skills.
For more helpful articles and advice, visit our Resource Library here.
If you’d like to find out more about how we can help support your child’s early literacy skills, contact your closest Explore & Develop Service. All of our Services are owned and operated by local early childhood experts, who are onsite daily and committed to your child’s safety and development.
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References:
Department of Education & Training (2022). Belonging, Being, Becoming – The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia v2.0.
Explore & Develop Transition to School Program Booklet
Fox, M. (2001). Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever.
Mielonen, A. & Paterson, W. (2009). Developing Literacy through Play. Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education 3(1).
Phillips, L. & Harris, P. (2017). How to encourage literacy in young children (and beyond) – https://theconversation.com/how-to-encourage-literacy-in-young-children-and-beyond-80459
Raising Children Network – raisingchildren.net.au (Developing Literacy/Literacy Activities)
Strickland, D. & Riley-Ayers, S. (2006). Early Literacy: Policies and Practice in the Preschool Years. National Institute for Early Education Research. Issue 10.
By Kirsty Piendl
Over the years I have dabbled with self-regulation, through Dan Segal (2012) and Stuart Shanker’s (2017) work and have considered how we (adults and children) process stress. While learning more about self-regulation, I realised that the teaching team and I did not have clear practices to support children to regulate themselves. It has been through our recent partnership with Inner West Paediatrics that I was introduced to the ‘Zones of Regulation’(Zones) created by Leah Kuyper, a tool that simplifies a complex concept for children. Working with an occupational therapist, the tool was initially introduced for a particular child. The more I learnt about the zones, the more I considered using this as a teaching tool to support my group to understand their emotions.
My introduction to the zones sparked my interest in further researching self-regulation and how it can be taught to children. In Brene Brown’s ‘Atlas of the heart’ (2021) she states, “The average number of emotions named across the survey was three. The emotions were happy, sad, and angry” (pp. xxi). Reading this and considering the ‘Zones of Regulation’ I began to look at myself and my responses when I was in different emotional states. If I struggle to identify, respond, and regulate my own emotions how can I expect that of children?
I come from a generation where we were never taught about our emotions. I was not given the language or courage to consider or talk about them. I want the children of today to have the courage to talk about their emotions and have the skills to seek the support they require to regulate themselves.
When learning about the zones we engaged in conversations about how certain emotions make us feel and which zone we felt they fitted in. Group discussions about how our brains work when in different zones supported a deeper understanding of our emotions. We then went through a process of linking behaviour to emotional states and the zones. The zones were labelled with words developed by the children about the brain’s responses. Using the zones to support conversations about emotions has made the children and teachers more comfortable admitting when we aren’t in a good brain space. It has allowed the children to recognise why their teachers or peers are having the reactions they are and supports them to get back to a calm state.
As the adult in this research and teaching, I view myself as the children’s co-regulator. I look deeper into why certain emotions may be presenting in a child. I consider; is there anything else going on for the child? Has their routine changed? Are they well? Is there anything else we can do to limit these feelings? Is the environment overstimulating for them? Have they eaten? Did they sleep well? Understanding the reason for emotions is complex.
“Self-Regulation starts by reframing a child’s behavior and, for that matter, our own. It means seeing the meaning of the child’s behaviour, maybe for the first time.”
— Stuart Shanker
When children have big emotions, we give them time to feel their emotions and calm themselves. We have a collection of resources and strategies that are used to support calming down. The most popular are our ‘calming tools’ (sensory toys) which are used in a quiet, less stimulated space. Alternatively, children may choose a calming activity from our flip book, ‘Getting to the Geen Zone’. With my support, the children created a visual aid of different calming activities they may like to engage in when they are in the red and yellow zones. Some of the activities include kicking a ball, drawing, reading a book, and moving heavy objects. If their peers wish to join them, they are required to ask and respect the answer given.
We have learnt that some children prefer to calm down alone, while others like to have a friend or teacher close by. When they return to a calm state, we discuss their feelings, the behaviour we witnessed and the zone they were in. Taking the time to reflect on their behaviour, talk through their feelings and hear about it from another’s perspective is an important part of the process. Using the zones allows it to be framed in a way that does not label the child, but rather invites thinking about the physiological responses they have to stress.
I want children to know it is okay to be in different zones. It is okay to be cranky or sad or frustrated or silly or over-stimulated or happy, but it’s not okay to cause others harm or disrupt other’s work.
Through this work, I have noticed myself relating more to the children and feeling more empathetic to them. I have noticed a shift in my teaching practice from when I began engaging with this work. When big emotions arise with children, I am more patient and take my time to be with the child/ren rather than trying to fix the situation immediately. I have observed children explaining the zones to the other learning groups (teachers and children) and notice the respect they receive for their knowledge. The zones are now being adapted and used with our three older groups (2-5 years).
References
Brown, B. (2021). Atlas of the Heart. Vermilion London.
Kuypers, L. (n.d). https://zonesofregulation.com/index.html
Siegel, D. & Bryson, P. (2012). The Whole-Brain Child. Random House.
Shanker, S. & Barker, T. (2017). Self-reg; How to help your child (and you) break the stress cycle and successfully engage with life. Random House
One of the major concerns parents have about starting their child at an early childhood education and care service is that their child won’t settle and adjust to care.
Children develop a sense of belonging through their relationships with family, their community, the culture around them and the places they experience. At Explore & Develop, we take the time to get to know your child and family. Building respectful, supportive relationships and creating a space where your child can feel a sense of belonging that inspires them to grow and learn is our priority.
Explore & Develop’s enrolment and orientation process is an important part of supporting a sense of belonging for children and families.
Our orientation program helps to make the transition from home to the service as smooth as possible, with the aim to maintain continuity between the home and the service. It is an opportunity to get to know each child and their family, building respectful relationships.
Our Educators put a great deal of thought and attention into creating a space for children and families to feel welcome and have a sense of belonging. A space and environment that communicates the message, ‘you are welcome, you are wanted, you belong’.
Children quickly learn how to be with others in the safety of their homes, neighbourhoods and early childhood education and care services, and their early experiences of being warmly acknowledged and responded to provide them with opportunities to become involved with and to get along with others.
Getting along with others means many things. It means listening and being heard. It means sharing and taking turns. It means being able to negotiate, compromise and work things out. Getting along means feeling valued and helping others that you’re with to feel valued too. It’s about trusting others and enabling them to trust in us.
The most significant relationships in a baby’s or child’s life are reinforced every time someone responds to them promptly in a predictable, gentle and caring way. Babies and children learn to trust those they most need – to support them in learning about the world and what it means to belong. This is why it’s so important that adults – caregivers and Educators who spend time with babies and children – become attuned to their communications and respond promptly.
Getting along with others is based on secure attachments and sensitive, responsive relationships with reliable, nurturing adults who use everyday experiences to model thoughtful interactions.
Explore & Develop’s orientation programs are planned in consultation with families. Generally, orientation consists of several visits to the service. The visits include spending time with your child and in your child’s room, getting to know your child’s Educators, the daily routine of your child’s room, the service philosophy, educational program and how Explore & Develop ensures two-way communication with families.
As well as telling you about us during your orientation visits, we want to know about you and your family, your values, culture and expectations, your child’s strengths, interests, concerns and routine at home, so as to ensure we provide the best possible education and care for your child.
Throughout your time at Explore & Develop, and particularly as your child starts with us, our focus is on building a reciprocal partnership with you. We invite, encourage and value your input. This helps us create a secure, personalised experience for your child, which in turn will make them more engaged, motivated learners and more likely to reach their full potential in life.
As your child’s social world expands, with new friendships, and as they participate in larger groups, they increasingly need to feel secure in the world beyond their home. Knowing how to communicate with others and how to be with others in mutually satisfying ways becomes increasingly important for them.
Getting along with others in larger social groups can prove tricky, but is achievable when children are supported by Educators to understand their own feelings and to be thoughtful about the feelings experienced by others. Early learning about belonging and getting along with others is highly dependent on the modelling demonstrated to them by the significant people in their lives.
‘Deep connection with others is the basis for a real sense of belonging. Supporting children to get along with others is a significant aspect of caring for and educating children at home and in early learning settings.’
Carmel Richardson, Author of ‘Belonging: At the Heart of Relating to Others’
With each Explore & Develop service being owner operated, there are many positive ‘flow on’ effects. It creates a strong, nurturing environment for Educators and families alike. The Educators benefit from the stability of a motivated leader who cares for their professional development and actively develops their career; who renumerates above award rates, and accommodates for work-life balance. The families have an accessible leader who is on-site, knows each child and family well, and is always available and present.
The starting place for this journey is by booking a tour and later attending an orientation visit with your child. Building secure, individualised attachments in relationships takes time. It takes trust, interest and and connection.
