Demand for Early Childhood Programs Across the Globe

Across the globe the demand for quality early childhood programs is growing all the time, with research continuing to highlight their important role when it comes to providing educational value for children.

The National Quality Standard (NQS) is a key aspect of the NQF and sets a national benchmark for early childhood education and care, and outside school hours care services in Australia. To ensure children enjoy the best possible conditions in their early educational and developmental years, the NQS promotes continuous improvement in quality.

In many countries, including the United States, it is continually being highlighted that the early years of a child’s life are the building blocks for their future success in school and later in life: “Leading economists agree that high-quality early learning programs can help level the playing field for children from lower-income families on vocabulary, social and emotional development, while helping students to stay on track and stay engaged in the early elementary grades. Children who attend these programs are more likely to do well in school, find good jobs, and succeed in their careers than those who don’t. ” (White House) 

As such, it has been exciting that the interest in Bonkers Beat Music and Wellbeing programs has been experiencing its biggest boom yet. Bonkers Beat Music and Wellbeing is the most comprehensive educational program, covering all seven areas of the National Quality Standard and in addition to being incorporated into many centres across Australia, it is now receiving increasing interest from the USA, Japan and Singapore.

The interest has been so great that Galina was invited to speak at CAEYC’s annual conference. CAEYC stands for California Association for the Education of Young Children. This is an affiliate of the United States organisation, NAEYC – the National Association for the Education of Young Children. The 2015 Annual CAEYC Conference and Expo takes place in Sacramento, California from March 4 – 7, and draws nearly 3,000 attendees. It is the largest gathering of Early Care and Education professionals in California!

Needless to say, it’s a privilege for Bonkers Beat’s passionate creator Galina Zenin to have been invited to present at this event. If you happen to be attending the 2015 CAEYC Conference and Expo, Galina’s presentation ‘Learning Through Music’ is on Friday 6 March at 4.15pm and is incredibly valuable.

If you’d like to learn more about the CAEYC Conference, visit conference.caeyc.org.

Upon her return, Galina will be taking on Australia for another tour covering Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney and the subject of successfully implementing music and wellbeing programs. Equipped with a wealth of brand new insights from CAEYC as well as her own ongoing research and development in music and wellbeing programs, Galina’s 3.5 hour sessions can contribute to making positive change in your centre and staff right before your eyes. With small groups and a delicious lunch included, you’d be crazy to pass up these practical and informative sessions. Find dates, times and book online at nqsrating.com.au.

The need for quality developmental programs in the early years is only becoming more and more obvious. To quote the experts from the NAEYC, “Several decades of research clearly demonstrate that high-quality, developmentally appropriate early childhood programs produce short- and long-term positive effects on children’s cognitive and social development”.

If you are a passionate Owner or Director of a Childcare Centre and are interested in finding out more or booking in at the Adelaide, Melbourne or Sydney session, the up to date information about this upcoming tour can be found at nqsrating.com.au.

 

Focusing on Language and Culture

Kung Hei Fat Choy! Or Happy New Year! The Chinese New Year (as well as the Lunar New Year, celebrated by many cultures) takes place on February 19, 2015, followed closely by International Mother Language Day on February 21 – what a perfect opportunity to touch on language and culture with children!

Celebrating the Chinese culture and their different New Year opens up a conversation about various countries of the world doing things a little differently. One of the most obvious ways we are all different is through language. This video ‘Hello to All the Children of the World’ is a beautiful thing to show children as the word ‘Hello’ is explored in language after language: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nYjGy_ZUG8

If there are children, families and educators within your centre who speak languages other than English, explore how you can encourage them to share their own special words for things and how fun it is for all of us to learn a little from one another’s mother language. If possible, plan something in advance – songs are a great way to share language with children and you never know who might like to share theirs.

International Mother Language Day aims to promote multiculturalism, linguistic diversity and to celebrate their associated cultures. In the case of China and the Chinese language, a big part of their culture is the Chinese New Year…

To celebrate the Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year in your centre, be aware that this year is the Year of the Goat! While children in your centres won’t have been born in the Year of the Goat as the last was in 2004, it is still fun to incorporate the animal into your art and craft activities. In fact, you could talk about all 12 of the animals involved in the 12-year cycle Chinese calendar – Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat (or sheep), Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. The Chinese New Year is also a time for feasting with family and celebrating, so you might like to offer some Chinese cuisine. Kidspot has plenty of Chinese food ideas for children.  And you can head here for a great bunch of ideas for your art and craft relating to Chinese New Year…

If you have a fantastic idea to share about celebrating the Chinese or Lunar New Year, or International Mother Language Day, we’d love to hear it. Let us know on Facebook.

 

Sustainable Future with Three ‘R’s

Just as we teach children to respect and take care of themselves, their belongings and their homes, taking care of the environment should be rated as highly important too. After all, we need to keep the planet in top shape for their future!

Last week we mentioned that putting together a wrapping-free lunch is a brilliant way of looking out for the environment, so this week we thought we’d go a little further and talk about the three ‘R’s – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Here’s a little about each of these sustainability approaches with some ideas about how you can get children involved in centres and at home.

Reduce

Look at all the packaging on everything from food to toys and it’s not hard to imagine that a huge amount of waste is created in every household year in, year out. Christmas and birthdays are always an insight into this as the bins are overflowing as packaging fills them to the brim in one day. When just one kilogram of aluminium generates more than 15kgs of greenhouse gas, the impact of packaging on the environment is notable.

Between us all we can make a huge difference by aiming to minimise the amount of packaging-heavy products we buy. The less we purchase things that are excessively wrapped, the better example we are setting for children and for these companies that reducing waste is important to us and the planet. Avoiding individually wrapped items is an easy one to stick to. Skip the plastic at the supermarket and put the fruit and veg straight in the trolley or basket. Always make sure you take a plastic bag alternative when you go shopping.

Reuse

Reusing things is an exceptional way of helping to reduce waste and there are so many ways we can do this.

Using refillable containers for drinking as well as for handwash, toiletries and more minimises waste. Washed plastic containers from takeaway, egg cartons and milk bottles can all be used in centres and homes to store things and as the basis for art and craft projects.

When it comes to electronics, homewares and clothes, there’s no doubt another family who needs these things so rather than throw them away in your next clean out, consider donating or offering to people you know.

Food scraps are often suitable for pets or for compost. Maybe a neighbour has a garden that could utilise your organic waste.

Recycle

Recycling goes a long way to reduce the impact of pollution and helps to keep the planet in good shape.

At Bonkers Beat Music Kinder we have rubbish and recycle bins arranged in each room and discuss with children the importance of using the correct bin. Needless to say, children are fascinated to learn that their off-cuts of used scrap paper can be turned into tissues, newspapers, kitty litter and moulded cartons for eggs and fruit.

A good key to recycling effectively is to always aim to buy recyclable items. This means avoiding things that are packaged in materials that need to be separated and make recycling challenging.

Children might enjoy watching this video, How Recycling Works: http://www.getitrightbinnight.vic.gov.au/how-recycling-works/

Work with children to feel the different textures of plastic and paper and how to separate them for optimal recycling – as always the key is to make it fun. Creating a sustainable future is something that should be engrained in children in a positive way and now is the time to begin!

If you’d like to learn more, these links may be of interest to you:

http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/explore/reduce/
http://www.recycling-guide.org.uk/rrr.html
http://www.cleanup.org.au/au/Campaigns/reuse–recycle–reduce.html
http://www.cleanup.org.au/PDF/au/putrubbishaway.pdf
http://www.wwf.org.au/get_involved/change_the_way_you_live/sustainable_shopping_tips/
http://www.wikihow.com/Recycle

 

P.S. As a loyal Bonkers Beat supporter, please enjoy this gift from Bonkers the Monkey – click here for your exclusive access to our song ‘Bonkers Rap’. A fun resource for talking about looking after the planet!

 

 

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