early childhood australia Archives - Page 13 of 13 - Early Learning Childhood Education

21/07/201622/07/2016

Revealed: The Top 3 Challenges Faced by Early Childhood Educators

On July 12 the very first Wellness Works: The Complete Early Childhood Leaders Conference took place in Melbourne… And what a fantastic success it was!

In the lead up to the Melbourne event, we did some research to find out exactly what challenges in early childhood education were coming up for educators, leaders, managers and owners working in the field. The reason for this was to ensure that the conference addresses what you really want and need from your early childhood professional development. We asked many centres to share their top three challenges, and it’s safe to say there was a theme in the responses!

Top 3 Challenges in Centres

Here are the top 3 challenges in early childhood education that we identified after reviewing responses from a range of centres. These are challenges that are faced on a daily or regular basis by educators, room leaders, management and owners.

Motivation

Many centres find they have difficulties with motivating their teams – from getting them motivated initially, to keeping them motivated. This is a priority at Wellness Works and is addressed thoroughly. Our approach is through empowering and motivating the leaders in the centre as the basis of improving motivation levels across the team. Our tactics and tips are foolproof…

Transitions

If you’re like the vast majority of the educators we heard from, transitions continue to cause stress and are a great source of frustration in centres. We’ve been careful to focus on this area and deliver practical ways for your centre to tackle transitions. You will even find them enjoyable…!

Documentation

How do we document a child’s learning, how do we maintain adequate – even excellent – standards for our centre’s documentation without it being a job too big to handle? Documentation is a hot topic for early childhood and we set out to improve your understanding of documentation and make sure it is no longer a huge challenge for you and your centre.

Do these challenges sound all too familiar? Not to worry –Wellness Works: The Complete Early Childhood Leaders Conference comes to Sydney on July 26 and Brisbane on July 28. Both Galina and Alina (or the Duolinas as they’ve been dubbed!) are really excited. If you’re coming along to Wellness Works, you should be excited too! (And if you haven’t got your seats organised yet, you’re in luck as there are still a couple of places available for Sydney and Brisbane – be quick and get them here!)

What Early Childhood Professionals are Saying

Here’s what just a few of the Melbourne Wellness Works attendees had to say about the event:

“Thank you today was very enjoyable. I have RSI I took so many notes!”
– Mandy, Joseph Avenue ELC

“Great opportunity. I feel empowered to take back to a team. Loved the songs and games”
– Rebecca

“This PD was fantastic, all the info was great, very engaging and fun”
– Jessica, Aberdeen Street ELC

Join us at Wellness Works: The Complete Early Childhood Leaders Conference and let’s break down your challenges in early childhood education and address them together.

Featuring the engaging and experienced early childhood experts, Galina and Alina, this just might be the best professional development session you attend this year!

23/06/201624/06/2016

Don’t Wait For Change – CREATE Change

Too often we spend time waiting and hoping for change. This applies to life in general, but today we are specifically referring to early childhood education providers.

You might have recently read our blog about leadership and how important it is to have leaders who are inspiring. With this in mind, many managers, owners, directors and educational leaders have asked – how do we use our leadership positions to make positive change?

You can be a leader, you can inspire those around you, but how do you create real change that will benefit your team, your families, your centre and most importantly the quality of care and education you provide to children?

When it comes to professional development, we are huge advocates of ongoing training and training that involves your whole team. However, for true change to take place, the leaders in your centre need to take charge and lead the way. This is why it is crucial to have professional development that focuses solely on management and educational leaders.

This is why Galina Zenin and Alina Dan have joined forces to deliver just that. Introducing, the upcoming event ‘Wellness Works: The Complete Early Childhood Leaders Conference’.

Galina recently attended a conference in Chicago in the USA that was dedicated to leadership and was tailored to specifically address the issues and challenges that are unique to management and to educational leaders. Inspired, she has teamed up with early childhood business development expert Alina Dan to deliver an event that is tailored to the leaders – to inspire them to inspire their teams.

The simple fact is, change won’t happen unless the leaders – the management – make it happen. And to make it happen, you need the right tools. Wellness Works provides practical tools that WILL equip management and educational leaders to bring about positive change in early childhood education and real results.

If an Early Childhood Education Revolution sounds like a breath of fresh air, take a look at the flier for Galina and Alina’s July conference below. You can even reserve your spot right now by emailing info@bonkersbeat.com.

09/06/201610/06/2016

Exceeding NQS Rating again

We’ve done it again! Bonkers Beat Music Kinder & Childcare has received an outstanding rating of Exceeding National Quality Standard from the Australian Children’s Education & Care Quality Authority (ACECQA)! This is the second time we have received an Exceeding NQS rating, having been assessed in 2012 and 2016.

This result is one that the Bonkers Beat Music Kinder & Childcare team at Aspendale worked hard for, and it’s important to let you know you aren’t alone in your challenges in your centre – we all need support, guidance and teamwork along the path to achieving our goals, whether that’s an Exceeding NQS rating or something else.

While the Bonkers Beat programs offer exceptional value, support, practical tools and proven benefits for all, we also invite you all to visit our Aspendale centre yourself to get a feel for the Bonkers Beat experience. If you’d like to arrange a time to visit, please send us an email (info@bonkersbeat.com) or give us a call (1300 022 328).

You can have a taste of the Bonkers Beat experience in this video tour of our Aspendale centre. The video also features an insight into Galina’s passion and vision for the future of early childhood education.

We truly believe that a team effort is required for success, strengthened by effective leadership and a passionate approach to early childhood education.

Happy singing and stretching,

Galina and the Bonkers Beat Team

P.S Take a look at the video to enjoy a virtual tour of our Aspendale centre and hear about the things that are most important to Bonkers Beat and the future of early childhood education.

18/05/201619/05/2016

Walking – The path to better health

This Friday 20 May is National Walk Safely to School Day – an annual event that encourages Primary School children to walk to school with a focus on safety. As early childhood educators, we can spread the message of the benefits of walking and the importance of pedestrian safety within our centres. After all, children, their families and educators can benefit from walking!

Walking for good health

Most of us walk each day, at least a little – walking is one of the easiest ways to fit in some exercise every day. No special outfit or equipment needed, and you can do it just about anywhere at any time!

So what are the benefits of walking?

Benefits of Walking for Educators and Parents

Whether you’re a parent of a young child or children, or an educator of them, we think it’s safe to say that you lead a busy life. Many of us don’t take care of ourselves as well as we should, but walking for just 30 minutes each day can offer a range of health benefits, such as:

-Lower stress levels
-Improved mindset and mood
-Better cardiovascular fitness
-Strength for bones and muscles
-Reduced body fat
-Lower risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease

Benefits of Walking for Children

-Boosting mood
-Improved academic performance
-Connection with the outdoors
-Maintain good physical health
-Setting up healthy habits for life
-Become responsible pedestrian familiar with road safety

Best of all, any day is a good day for walking!

Mix it Up

Keep walking interesting – walk to the shops, stroll along beaches and local tracks, walk through national parks, walk with other families or friends… Even just parking a little further away from your destination and walking a little extra adds healthy steps to your day.

If you live close enough to your centre, consider adding a walk to or from the centre into your weekly routine – you won’t regret it and you’ll be embarking on a path to better health for life!

04/02/201619/04/2016

Facebook With Families – Social Media in Early Childhood Settings

Whether it’s to save paper or try a more interactive approach, more and more childcare centres and kinders are using online communications to keep in touch with parents.

While many in the early childhood field hold strong opinions about the use of iPads and computers for young children, this post is more interested in the use of Facebook for centre educators and management to keep in touch with families.

Facebook With Families

Plenty of early childhood educational services have Facebook business pages to publicise their centre, almost like an extension of their website. Other centres also have private ‘closed groups’ on Facebook. In these groups, only parents and immediate family members are accepted into the group to view the information posted. This information can be anything from reminders of upcoming events, to photos of children and everything in between. Parents can post questions that can then be answered by other parents or the centre’s staff. Sometimes parents may even post photos from an external occasion like a child’s birthday party, for example, to share with other families and the staff.

These closed groups can become an extension of the partnership between centres and families, and also facilitate bonding and communication between parents, and between staff and parents.

Plan It Carefully

The key is for it to be well managed. A plan or strategy can be helpful for a few reasons: make sure that there is activity in the group on a regular basis, ensure comments and questions are monitored and moderated in a timely fashion that the rules are adhered to.

What sort of rules, you may wonder? We recommend requesting that parents don’t save the images from Facebook that have other people’s children in them, but that they can make a request to have the image sent to them via email. We also advise that a consent form be signed by parents to allow images of their children to go on the Facebook group. Although it is private and can only be viewed by approved members, some parents may not want their children’s image posted for various reasons.

Pros and Cons

We are in favour of the use of Facebook Groups for centre, but here a few pros and cons we have identified in relation to private Facebook Group for you to consider:

PROS
-Increase communication between the centre and families
-Facilitate bonding between families
-Attract parent interest and increase participation
-Simple way to stay in regular contact with all families

CONS
-Potential privacy and confidentiality issues
-Takes some extra time for the educator/s and/or management to post and monitor

Does your centre use online methods to contact parents and families? What other pros and cons do you see when it comes to the use of private Facebook closed groups for centres? Have you had a particularly positive or negative experience with Facebook Groups as a parent, educator or management?

Join the discussion with us on Facebook.

28/01/201628/01/2016

Chinese New Year – Celebrating the Year of the Monkey in Early Childhood Settings

This year feels extra special to Bonkers and now we know why: it’s the Year of the Monkey!

The Chinese New Year is here on February 8, and 2016 sees us enter the Year of the Monkey (specifically, the Year of the Fire Monkey or Red Monkey).

When the Year of the Monkey arrives, it is said to reflect the character of the animal – cheeky, clever, and inventive. Monkeys are also well-known for being problem solvers and very playful. Sounds like 2016 will be exciting and a lot of fun!

As always, we like to find ways of incorporating the cultural calendar into early childhood settings. While children in your centres won’t have been born in the Year of the Monkey as the last was in 2005, 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.

Activity Village guides you through the following Chinese and Monkey themed craft activities that are perfect to try out:

Want to know which animal you are according to the Chinese Zodiac? Click here to find out and read more about what the Chinese believe the year has in store for you!

It’s also worth noting that International Mother Language Day is coming up on 21 February. Take these opportunities February presents us to get talking about language, culture and diversity with children!

Kung Hei Fat Choy (Happy New Year) everyone!