Author: Galina

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5 Benefits of Music Every Day

It’s a musical time of year as end of year concerts take place as well as Melbourne Music Week which is on currently in the city and of course Christmas not too far away.

It seems like a good time to revisit the benefits of music on children’s development, because while music is enjoyable it is also a very special gift we give to children that affects them in many varied positive ways.

Creativity

It’s an obvious and yet important element of listening to and creating music, but encouraging creativity allows children to embrace self-expression and experiment with their own unique approach to singing and playing music.

Confidence

Learning to sing all the words of a song or learning to play an instrument – either way, the act of learning in a musical setting is a sure fire way to help children to gain confidence in their ability to take on musical skills.

Communication

As the saying goes ‘Where words fail, music speaks’. As we all know, children can often have trouble with finding the words to express themselves but by being in touch with music and song children are able to explore feelings on a deeper that they may not otherwise understand. Music often tells a story in a way that we can all understand. To reference another adage, music is a universal language and so it makes sense that children of all ages can bond through music and the shared joy it brings.

Concentration

To sing a song, one must first learn the words and keep practicing to get it right. Listening to music to know when to start singing, or even playing along on a drum and trying to keep the beat. Music helps children to learn to focus which can help them in many other areas of their development.

Coordination

Where there’s music, there’s movement and while learning an instrument is fantastic for hand-eye coordination, there’s a lot to be said for the combination of singing and movement to go with the song. Many songs tell stories not only through lyrics but through actions too.

And those are just the C’s! There are countless other benefits to including music in children’s lives every day, from improving memory to relaxation to boosting brain power. But most importantly, music is fun too!

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CCCAV Conference 2014

Only one sleep to go until the CCCAV Conference 2014 kicks off! Needless to say, we are very excited…

The CCCAV Conference and exhibition is a great opportunity for owners and educators from Long Day Care, Family Day Care, OSHC and Kindergarten to attend some fantastic presentations from a range of celebrated early childhood education researchers and professionals as well as network with one another.

Across October 24 and 25, The Pullman on Albert Park in Melbourne will be brimming with ideas, innovation and incredibly passionate members of the early childhood sector. Don’t miss out on all the fun that’s been incorporated within the events including Friday evening cocktails and the exhibition that will be set up in the Grand Ballroom.

As always, this year’s CCCAV Conference features must-see presenters including Dr Michael Carr-Gregg, Therese Joyce, Dr Anne Kennedy as well as many others. Our Bonkers Beat creator Galina Zenin will be there too! You can see Galina’s presentation ‘In Tune with Wellness’ on Friday 24 October from 1.30pm – 2.30pm.

We hope to see your friendly faces at the conference, and if you haven’t registered yet, it’s not too late – simply click here to visit the CCCAV website and book your spot.

Once you have registered, don’t forget to Like the CCCAV Conference page to go into the running to win an iPad mini!

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Mental Health Week 2014

Mental Health Week takes place in Australia from Sunday 5 October until Sunday 12 October, 2014 (give or take depending on your state), coinciding with World Mental Health day which is marked each year on October 10.

The goal?
To activate, educate and engage one and all on the subject of mental health through a range of events across Australia!

You may already be aware that around one in five adult Australians will experience mental health issues in their lives, but it isn’t as well-known that mental health issues are frequently experienced by children. “The Child and Adolescent Component of the National Survey on Mental Health and Wellbeing recorded that 14% of Australian children and adolescents aged 4–17 experience mental health problems” (Source: https://www.chf.org.au/pdfs/hvo/hvo-2009-4-children-with-mental-illness-disorder.pdf).

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says “There is no health without mental health”, which really makes you think about how important a healthy mental state is for playing, learning and growing.

Wondering what sort of mental health issues could affect children? Kids Matter talks about two categories of children’s mental health issues: internalising and externalising. The features associated with each are listed below as per the Kids Matter website.

Features associated with children’s ‘internalising’ difficulties include:

  • nervous/anxious temperament
  • excessive worrying
  • pessimistic thinking
  • withdrawn behaviour
  • peer relationship difficulties (eg can be isolated).

Features associated with children’s ‘externalising’ difficulties include:

  • challenging temperament
  • reduced problem-solving skills
  • attention difficulties, hyperactivity
  • oppositional behaviour (eg doesn’t like to be told what to do; won’t follow rules)
  • aggressive behaviour.

 

We believe in the power of music and the mind and as such, our Bonkers Beat program focuses on incorporating music, yoga and meditation, among many other areas, to help children to learn to experience and deal with feelings effectively. The results speak for themselves and we are continually blown away by the sense of control children are able to achieve over their own emotions when the right approach is taken consistently and they are given the support they need.

You can find out about Mental Health Week events in your area by clicking on your state below:

Western Australia

Victoria

South Australia

ACT

NSW

Tasmania

Northern Territory

Queensland
If you’re interested in finding out more about how the Bonkers Beat focus on music and wellbeing in early childhood education, there are some special events taking place in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth in October and November. You can register for those by clicking here or visit nqsrating.com.au.

As always, you can stay up to date and share your views with Bonkers Beat on our Facebook page.

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How You Can Incorporate Mindfulness into Every Day

In early childhood education many approaches come and go when it comes to teaching children to handle their feelings, many of which they may be experiencing for the first time. One such approach that is prevalent at the moment is mindfulness.

You may have heard of mindfulness, but if you haven’t or you’re not sure what it means, this definition explains it quite well: “a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.”

On Reachout.com it is described as being “about training yourself to pay attention in a specific way. When a person is mindful, they:
-focus on the present moment
-try not to think about anything that went on in the past or that might be coming up in future
-purposefully concentrate on what’s happening around them
-try not to be judgemental about anything they notice, or label things as ‘good’ or ‘bad.’”

It is safe to say that practicing mindfulness is something that just about anyone will benefit from, no matter the age. One way that is frequently recommended is through one of our favourite things at Bonkers Beat and that is meditation.

We have talked about meditation previously on our blog, and often parents and other educators query how on earth it is possible to get very young children to sit still and partake in the act of meditating but it truly is possible through some gentle guidance. It only takes mere minutes of deep breathing and some thoughtful reflection each day for your children (and adults) to feel happier, more relaxed and more in control of feelings and life in general.

Practicing mindfulness works towards combating stress, dealing with all the obstacles life throws at us and ultimately (and crucially), building resilience.

Here’s three additional tips from ParentsCanada.com that are easy and fun ways of incorporate mindfulness into every day:

Mindful listening: Tell your child you are going to ring a bell or a tone bar. Ask them to listen carefully to the sound of the bell and raise their hands when they can no longer hear it.

Breath awareness: Have your child lie down on a mat on the floor, or on their bed, and place their favourite stuffed animal on their belly. Have them rock the stuffed animal to sleep with the movement of their belly as they breathe in and out. This is how they can begin to pay attention to their breathing.

Mindful eating: This is a time when playing with your food is OK. Give your child a piece of fruit and ask them to pretend they are from another planet and have never seen this piece of fruit before. Ask them to describe their experience using all five senses. What does it look like? Smell like? Feel like? Taste like? Does it make a sound when you bite it?

What can you share with us about mindfulness? If you have some mindfulness techniques that you have seen results from, we’d love if you would share them with our Bonkers Beat community here or on our Facebook page.

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Best Medicine for Wellness

This year’s incredibly successful ECA Conference covered a wide range of topics including a strong focus on wellness for children and the wellbeing of both children and educators alike. There were many outstanding speakers, and many talked about the importance of the emotional and mental health of children, but also that of the hard-working educators who take care of children day in and day out.

Each year it is a tradition at Bonkers Beat to organise a Staff Retreat and this time after the conference we felt even more inspired to do something that would have a specific focus on the wellbeing of our educators. Every retreat involves lots of brainstorming and sharing, as well as some delicious food and fun. Previous years we have done things like massage, yoga and reflexology, but this year we tried something a little different and enjoyed a Laughter Session together!

Ros Ben-Moshe from Laughlife Wellbeing Programs visited our team at the beautiful Woodman Estate on the Mornington Peninsula (what an exquisite place – we could not fault the food and service!), where she made us all very aware of the amazing feeling and benefits of laughter! We won’t give too many details away but we will highly recommend a Laughter Session to any group wanting to establish bonds within their team and give people a truly unique and brilliant experience. Ros’s laughter and wellbeing workshops offer an opportunity for people to learn strategies to ‘let go’ that work for them, and helps them to discover their personal strengths.

With wellness and laughter in mind, we’ve put together a collection of some of the health benefits of laughter:

Lowers blood pressure
Improves cardiac health
Acts as a mild anti-depressant
Boosts the immune system
Decreases stress
Helps us bond with others
+ many more!

Read more about the benefits of laughter here.

With the mental health of educators a crucial part of the foundation of quality of care for children, it is so important to create a supportive and caring environment for all educators. Having outlets to manage stress and stay centred and focused are highly beneficial, and we are now passionate believers in the power of laughter and its benefits. So much so that we are incorporating laughter into our daily Bonkers Beat routine! At Bonkers Beat children, families and educators take part in a ‘Welcome A New Day’ wellbeing session each day and we are looking to bringing laughter into our morning routine now too!

When it comes to brightening the day, improving bonds and boosting our overall physical and mental health, it seems that laughter really is a valuable medicine!

P.S. Head over to Bonkers Beat Music & Wellbeing Page and take a look at the photos from our 2014 Staff Retreat to see what a great time we had!

 

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The Path to Higher Academic Performance in Australian Schools

The question of children being school-ready is something that many parents may be thinking about at the moment, as the end of the year fast approaches and school enrolments are in full swing.

Many parents are confused about what age is the right age for their children to begin formal schooling in a primary school setting and it’s not surprising as the age requirements vary quite a lot across each state of Australia. Currently the law in each state is as follows (via Kidspot):

VIC: Children must be five by 30 April to begin the school year.

ACT: Children must be five by 30 April to begin the school year.

NSW: Children can begin compulsory Kindergarten at the beginning of the school year if they turn five on or before 31 July in that year. By law, all children must be enrolled in school by the time they turn six.

NT: School is compulsory from the age of six. Children can enter non-compulsory Transition at the start of the school year if they turn five by 30 June that year. To enter Year 1 (compulsory) children must turn six before 30 June in the year they are enrolled.

QLD: Queensland offers a year of Prep for children who turn five by 30 June in the year they are enrolled. Prep is not compulsory so compulsory schooling begins with Year 1 when children must be enrolled in the year they will turn six by 30 June.

SA: Children must enroll at school by six years. From 2014, all children will start school on the first day of term one in that year so that every child will have four terms of Reception when they go to school. If your child turns five before 1 May they will start school on the first day of term one in that year. If they turn five on or after 1 May, they will start school on the first day of term one the following year.

TAS: Children must be five by 1 January to be enrolled in Prep, the first year of school. In Tasmania you may enrol your child in non-compulsory Kindergarten if your child turns four on or before 1 January of the year they start.

WA: Schooling is compulsory from the beginning of the year a child turns six years and six months of age. Children must be five by 30 June in the same year to attend the first year of school and it’s now compulsory for children in WA to enrol in Kindergarten or Pre-Primary programs.

According to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald earlier this year, the average school starting age in Australian children is 5.2, based on a study from 2012. This is lower than the majority of other developed countries, as is the rate of preschool attendance among Australian students. Interestingly, the starting age of most of the highest academic performing students was higher, with children commencing at age 6 and in some cases even 7 or 8 years old.

At Bonkers Beat, we are devoted to the wellbeing of children and as such we keep up with the very latest and highest quality research from Australia and around the world.

Therefore, we have developed a policy and encourage parents to enrol their children into our funded 4-year old kinder program, particularly boys, who have turned 4 years old prior to January of the year they will attend.  We note this policy is especially important for young boys because of the time difference in the development of boys and girls brains, ‘and since the brain affects cognitive development, attention and emotional regulation, this impacts a boy’s overall “school readiness,” including activity, attention span, and academic development’ (via Earlychildhood News).

Again, this is in line with international research and evidence of emotional and social developmental stages, which are just so crucial to consider when it comes to ensuring a quality, enjoyable education.

Some parents believe that children starting later can disadvantage them academically but there is no research to support this, while there is ample research to suggest that a later starting age would only benefit children, while there is a clear negative impact from children starting too young.

The argument that some children are moved into school because they are bored at pre-school is one that may unfortunately be valid at times, depending on the pre-school children are attending. This is one of the reasons why we are so passionate about ensuring that kinder programs are able to attain the delicate balance of structured and somewhat challenging learning and school readiness initiatives along with free play at this crucial time before children enter formal education. By ensuring that children are stimulated and excited by their pre-school experience, there will be no need for young children to enter formal schooling before they are emotionally and socially ready and ultimately this will only lead to higher academic performance and educational success for all involved.

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Benefits of Poetry

Which Month is a Poetry Month?

NATIONAL Poetry Month falls in April in the US and Canada. It’s October in Britain.

Fremantle Press has declared July its poetry month (organising a series of events around the launch of three new titles), while in Brisbane, the Avid Reader bookshop has declared September “Poetry Month”, running talks, readings and a poetry competition. Meanwhile, Australian Book Review has renamed its $4000 poetry prize in honour of the late Peter Porter, and is calling for entries of no more than 100 lines, closing date November 15.

I believe that every month is PERFECT for poetry and would encourage all early childhood educators bring some poetry into children’s hearts, homes, pre-schools and schools.

Read below some interesting articles about benefits of poems and poetry:

‘Lifelong Benefits from Learning Nursery Rhymes and Poetry at a Young Age’

‘Five Benefits of Memorizing Poems‘

Until next time, stay in tune with poetry and up to date with us on the ‘Bonkers Beat Music & Wellbeing’ Facebook Page.

Happy Singing & Stretching,

The Bonkers Beat Team

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Making Other Children Happy…

Happy Easter to You, Your Families and ALL Children Around the World!

This year our children at Bonkers Beat Music Kinder, together with educators, made some musical instruments and created a special canvas to donate to The Royal Children’s Hospital for their annual Good Friday Appeal. This is our message of LOVE and HAPPINESS to everyone around this time of the year and particularly to those who are in need or unwell. So we’re wishing you all to be Happy and Healthy!

   

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Long Day Care Professional Development programme & NQS Assessment

Providers have flexibility in how they use the funding, however, all funding should be used for activities that support the implementation of the National Quality Framework.

Please note, that the most efficient way to provide professional development to your team is to pay a trainer to come to you and deliver training at your centre.

Bonkers Beat Training provides a wide range of benefits for children (QA1 & 5), for Educators (QA 5 & 7), for Families (QA 6) and for Management (QA 7).

Bonkers Beat Educational Programs & Training will:
- Improve educators’ skills through in-house training
– Provide ongoing guidance, support and easy-to-use range of educational resources
- Improve all areas of NQS
- Increase occupancy & make your centre stand out

Long Day Care Professional Development Programme – Funding Agreement:
To Read Funding Agreement click HERE

LDCPDP – Frequently Asked Questions:

Click HERE to read Frequently Asked Questions

Changes to Assessment and Rating

As mentioned in the introduction, a number of changes have been made to the assessment and rating process. It might help you to know that these changes are summarised are set out in an easy- to-follow table on pages 9 and 10 of the Guide to Assessment and Rating for Services (April 2014)

Resources to Support You with Your NQS Assessment:

ACECQA has updated some of its documents recently and the latest versions can be downloaded. Click on the links below to read/download the following documents:

Privacy Laws

On March 12 2014 changes to the Australian privacy laws came into force. We highly recommend you to review your service policy to ensure it reflects these changes. These changes are outlined on:

Privacy Fact Sheet 17 is also well worth reading:

 

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Happy Easter!

“Easter is a time to rejoice, be thankful, be assured that all is forgiven so life extends beyond the soil of earth.” – Byron Pulsifer

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your loved ones a lovely break and a very Happy Easter!

Hope that you can relax and enjoy this special time with your families.
Here is a small gift from our dear friend Bonkers to you and your children for this time of Easter.

“Easter Bunny” – Tune of “I’m a Little Teapot”
I’m an Easter Bunny, watch me hop
Here are my two ears, see how they flop
Here’s my cotton tail, here’s my nose
I’m all furry from my head to my toes.

To see the actions for this song, view the video:

Hope that you will enjoy hopping and singing with your children.

For more art and craft printable ideas check out the link below.
These printable activities are great for children from 3 to 6 years and are FREE.
Printable Ideas for Easter

Other Celebrations in April/ May are:
Orthordox Easter
Passover
Sri Lakan New Year
Quing Ming festival – Chinese
Tamil New Year (Puthandu), Wesak
Buddha’s Birthday (Hana Matsuri – Japan)
Thai New Year (Songkran)
Hindi and Sikh New Year (Baisakhi)
St.Georges Day
Anzac Day
Lag B’Omer (Jewish)

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