Tag: early years learning

Posted on

Celebrate Easter with Creativity, Music & Nature

Celebrate Easter

Easter is fast approaching and for many centres that means lots of children getting excited about the Easter bunny visiting! If you celebrate Easter in early childhood, this blog has plenty of ideas for you.

As Easter’s dates are not fixed, it can be a trickier one to keep track of. Here are the dates at a glance for you to remember for Easter 2017:

Easter Dates 2017

Good Friday (public holiday): April 14
Easter Sunday: April 16
Easter Monday (public holiday): April 17

Does your centre celebrate Easter? If so, we have some fun ways to get children involved in Easter while enhancing their wellbeing at the same time.

Celebrate Easter with Creativity

Creativity is essential for children to express themselves – and Easter is a great opportunity to try some new creative ecperiences.

Decorate eggs

Decorate real eggs (Traditional) 

Create Easter hats

Easter colouring printables

Make Easter baskets

Celebrate Easter in Nature

A classic Easter egg hunt is always a favourite for children, so why not take it outside and get children exploring the garden while their hunting for their special treat?!

If you would prefer to avoid giving children chocolate eggs, no problem. Try an Easter treasure hunt by hiding a selection of Easter-related objects around outside, then create a checklist for children to tick off when they find the items. You could even have children create or decorate items for this experience.

Celebrate Easter with Music

No celebration is complete for Bonkers Beat until we’ve incorporated some musical fun!

Click here to access our special Easter song ‘Easter Bunny’! You can watch the video to learn the actions and download and print the words if needed.

Posted on

5 Reasons to Empower Children (and 5 Ways to do it)

empower children

Whether you’re a parent or you work with children, we all want the best outcomes for children. We want to see these young people flourish and reach their full potential.

Of course there are countless factors to consider in children’s lives, but today we’re going to explore one particularly powerful element that can have an impact.

What is empowerment?

The Oxford Dictionary defines empowerment as “the process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one’s life and claiming one’s rights”.

To empower children is to guide them to feel valued, capable and to realise they play the role of creator in their own lives and futures.

It doesn’t mean children should have a say over everything – of course, children must still learn to work within rules and guidelines set by authorities, teachers, parents and so on.

What we do want it for young people to make informed choices for themselves, identify and take responsibility for the consequences of their actions. Children should be given the opportunity to engage with the world around them in a meaningful way.

Why we should empower children

1. Grow confidence and self-esteem

Confidence and self-esteem enables children to feel happy and comfortable with who they are, as well as try new things. They are more likely to manage their own behaviour.

2. Encourage independence

Allowing children to have a say in their lives and make choices that affect them helps them to be independent.

3. Build resilience

Empowerment is a key factor in building resilience, which enables children to bounce back from whatever life throws their way.

4. Develop self-respect

When children understand that they are powerful creators in their own worlds, they develop a sense of self-respect. Self-respect enables children to better respect and value others.

5. Make them better learners

A confident, independent child has the best chance of being an effective learner and shaping a fantastic future for themselves.

How to empower children

  1. Give children responsibilities
  2. Celebrate accomplishments
  3. Involve children in family and classroom decisions
  4. Lead by example
  5. Support and guide children on their journey

For further guidance in empowering children, the Montessori Philosophy and Reggio Emilia Approach are well-known examples of how to encourage children and develop their skill and life confidence in early years. Incorporating empowerment is also an essential ingredient in our approach to early childhood education at Bonkers Beat Music Kinder and within our Bonkers Beat Music and Wellbeing Programs.

Let’s empower children today and help them to become more resilient, effective learners. What better way to set them on a path to reach their full potential.

Posted on

3 amazing ways poetry impacts children’s development

It’s no surprise that at Bonkers Beat we LOVE music. Along with a beat and some fun instruments, music often includes lyrics or can be based around poems. For children’s songs these rhyming words focus on a message or a subject that they can relate to, escape within, express feelings through or simply enjoy.

On Tuesday 21 March, World Poetry Day takes place offering a special time to focus on poetry in early childhood education.

Children love rhymes, but there’s also three amazing ways that poetry impacts children’s development.

1. Poetry for memory and language

Poetry is closely linked with recognising and memorising patterns both audibly and visually – that is, through both listening to the sound of poems being read and through reading them on paper firsthand. This style of information processing can also be helpful when children are learning maths and new languages.

2. Poetry for emotional development

By producing sounds and beats, poems allow even very young babies and children to experience language and storytelling on a less cognitive and more emotional level. Some studies also show that poetry contributes to building resilience in children and expanding their capacity to experience and understand emotions.

3. Poetry for physical development

Clapping, turning around, hands up in the air – many poems and rhymes work alongside simple, fun physical movement, much like music. At Bonkers Beat many if not all of our poems and songs have movements to go along with them that not only improve children’s understanding of the content but get the blood flowing!

These are just a few of the benefits of poetry for children. One of the most simple and convincing reasons to make sure you expose children to poems at a young age is the first thing we mentioned – children love them!

Head over to Facebook and let’s come up with some of the best poems we’ve used in centres!

Posted on

A Holistic Approach to Educators’ Wellness

If you focus on the wellbeing of the children in your care but perhaps don’t do enough for the mental health of your educators, you’re not alone.

As early childhood educators it’s only natural that our emphasis on wellbeing and health usually focuses on the children in our care. However, the wellness of educators is vital too and can have an impact on children in their care.

Thankfully, you can tackle both with the one holistic approach.

The importance of educator wellbeing

In order to deliver the best outcomes for children, we need to ensure the health and wellbeing of educators is taken care of.

According to a 2014 paper on the subject of childcare providers’ mental health, is it essential that we prioritise educator wellbeing. The paper specifically states:

“Childcare providers’ mental health is important for their well-being and its potential impact on turnover and care quality”.

This is alarming, yet not entirely surprising. If an educator’s is physically unwell, we understand they will not be capable of performing to the best of their ability. Mental health should be considered similarly. That is, if an educator’s mental health needs attention, their work will suffer too.

How can we do better?

The mental health of educators impacts staff retention, quality of care delivered to children – not to mention the personal overall wellbeing of the individuals themselves.

With this knowledge, we as an industry must consider how we can do better.

We believe a greater focus on the mental and physical wellness of children and educators is a must.

A priority of our Bonkers Beat training is to help educators to learn the knowledge and practical tools they need to improve the overall wellbeing.

The wellbeing education of children should start from educators self education and their own wellbeing.

A focus on wellbeing practices in centres

We see more and more centres promoting yoga, meditation and music to attract families, but the key is in how we embed these practices in centres.

The benefits of these approaches to enhancing wellbeing in children – and educators who take part alongside children – will not have the profound impact we desire without consistent, regular, ongoing routines.

At Bonkers Beat we believe that wellbeing practices deserve a daily time slot. Over the past decade we have developed a program dedicated to this. We have now successfully incorporated the wellbeing-enhancing approaches of yoga, meditation and music into various centres across the country. And the results speak for themselves.

Each day we hear about staff becoming more motivated and inspired, children’s behaviour improving dramatically and boosts in family engagement.

Prioritise wellbeing for your educators (and centre) to thrive

For your educators to thrive and flourish, along with the children in their care and of course your centre, switch the focus to wellbeing.

Our Melbourne Bonkers Beat members did just that at our Summer 2017 Wellness Summit last week – click here to take a look.

If you need guidance in doing this, rest assured this is what the Bonkers Beat community does best. You can register your interest in joining us here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image Designed by Freepik

Posted on

Soothing Separation Anxiety in Children (and Parents!)

separation anxiety

Many children have just started in new centres, new schools or perhaps new rooms with an existing care provider.

For some families and educators it will be all smiles and a smooth transition. For others it can be very upsetting as children can be distressed, particularly at drop off time. Sometimes we see parents feeling separation anxiety around this time too. This is nothing to be concerned about.

Separation anxiety is not unusual – in fact, it’s quite common. With a few tried and tested strategies, educators and centres can help families to overcome separation anxiety and make drop off time easier for everyone.

What causes separation anxiety?

To understand it best we need to know what brings on bouts of separation anxiety.

Two of the most common causes of separation anxiety we tend to see in early childhood education are directly related to:

-Change in surroundings eg moving house, changing schools/care providers

-Manifestation of parental separation anxiety.

Strategies to soothe separation anxiety

As educators, there are things we can do to help parents and children feel less anxious at drop off time and keep separation anxiety under control.

1. Get ready

A good orientation process can be really effective at reducing the onset of separation anxiety.

Whether it’s a new room, new educators or a new centre, we should guide parents and children to prepare for the impending change in advance.

2. Create a routine

It’s not just children who love routines – adults benefit from them too! Parents and children should be encouraged to create a regular, reliable routine for childcare/kinder days. This helps everyone understand what to expect.

On arrival, knowing what will be happening in the centre will assist children to be even more confident and settle into the day better. (This will help parents to relax too!)

3. Focus on relationships

We believe that collaboration with families is essential for the best outcomes for children in early childhood.

Communicate with parents and reassure them. Parents need to know that educators are capable of identifying signs of discomfort or distress in their child and that their wellbeing is your priority.

4. Incorporate transitional songs

The Bonkers Beat Music Program harnesses the power of music in many ways for centres and children – one such way is through the use of transitional songs.

A transitional song is a great way to facilitate a smooth transition between activities in childcare settings. This same approach could be applied to the drop off period for parents and children. A simple song to be sung by families on the way into the centre each time could be a valuable addition to the routine to help everyone to adapt to the approaching shift in environment.

Your support counts

Separation anxiety isn’t enjoyable for anyone, however your support as an educator can go a long way to help families through it.

Calm voices, reassuring words and body language and a positive attitude paired with our strategies will help guide you through as children settle in to 2017.

If you feel you would like more tips, this ACECQA resource is very handy and full of information to help.

Posted on

Top Tactics for More Centre Enrolments

As centre owners, directors, managers and educators, we take pride in our centres. So when our beloved childcare and/or kindergarten service isn’t getting as many enrolments as we would hope, it can be disheartening.

Increasing your centre’s occupancy can be challenging. More established centres feel they struggle to compete with brand new centres offering impressive centre design and newer facilities. On the other hand, some new centres are starting from scratch and face the challenge of establishing a good reputation in the community.

Never fear – with many years of experience guiding centres to success, we have compiled some top tactics for you to get more enrolments at your centre.

1. Get your centre out there

Whether you’re an established centre or brand new, there’s a chance that you’re experiencing lower than desired occupancy rates simply because you’re not putting your centre out there for the public.

You don’t have to spend thousands on marketing to get noticed. Try hosting an Open Day – simply open your centre on a Saturday or Sunday and let families explore it for themselves. A sausage sizzle or craft for children can attract more people.

Facebook is full of opportunities to help familiarise your community with your centre. You can post in community groups and/or create a company page for your centre. Investing as little as $10 on Facebook ads can help spread the word about your centre to a selected demographic.

2. Motivate your team

One of my favourite acronyms: TEAM: Together Everyone Achieves More. When your educators work together and are a united team, you will have the best chance of success.

Centres old and new struggle to find passionate, committed staff. Regular professional development can help motivate your team – take a look at the staff development curriculum day at Bonkers Beat Music Kinder we arranged this week to get inspired. We did lots of bonding and brainstorming.

Try brainstorming with your educators about how you can increase occupancy. If families are leaving after one year, discuss why you think that might be and what you could be doing differently.

3. Enhance your point of difference

What makes your centre special? What do you do differently? Find your point of difference and make it stand out.

Centres who have our Bonkers Beat Music Program embedded are given plenty of resources and guidance. This includes how to highlight their centre’s unique, powerful and effective approach to early childhood education. Parents love to learn about the incredible results and with their enhanced knowledge, they are more inclined to rave to others and spread the word for you!

We’ve even seen centres that run the Bonkers Beat program covered in the local papers across various states because of the exceptional outcomes for children in the community.

If you can identify what makes you different to the other centres in the area, you have a better chance of attracting families who will be committed to your centre. The idea is that these families’ values and goals for their children will align with your centre’s outcomes.

SPECIAL OFFER EXTENDED!

To help you with improving your centre occupancy and get 2017 off to a fantastic start for you, we have extended our Bonkers Beat special offer.

Join the Bonkers Beat Music Program before Monday 6 February , you’ll get your first month membership FREE.

Learn more and sign up here.

Our award-winning program is simple to embed into your existing curriculum and will:

  • Stimulate Children’s Brain Development
  • Increase occupancy at your centre
  • Attract, Motivate and Retain Quality Educators
  • Increase Your Centre’s NQS Ratings
  • Enhance Family Engagement
  • Make Educators’ Programming and Documentation Easier
  • Give Your Centre a Key Point of Difference

Best of luck with improving your centre’s occupancy – we know that with a few tweaks and some dedication, you’ll have more enrolments in no time!

Posted on

Exploring Australia Day with Children

Australia Day with children

Australia Day is well known across the country and will be explored throughout centres around this time in January.

It’s a great opportunity to touch on some Australian history and culture, to enable the children of today to get a well-rounded understanding of the country they call home.

The meaning behind Australia Day is different for many Australians, so we believe it’s important to treat it with sensitivity and understanding. This doesn’t mean avoiding marking the occasion, but using it constructively with a sense of purpose.

To help you bring Australia Day discussions into your centre (or your home), try exploring these aspects of this wonderful country and Australia Day with children:

Flora and fauna

At Bonkers Beat, we love nature. Incorporate some of Australia’s native plants and animals. These paper plate koalas and wombats are fun to make!

The states and territories each have their own unique flowers. Find printable colouring sheets for these and many Aussie animals here.

Art

As part of celebrating Australia Day through creativity and art we suggest using natural materials and resources, such as gum nuts, tree bark and a variety of flowers and leaves. This is a wonderful opportunity to explore nature and learn more about our natural surroundings. For more ideas follow this link.

Music

We like to use music to celebrate and learn whenever possible, and Australia Day is no exception. Learn about Australia and have fun singing along to classics. Try Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree or The Possum.

Geography

A great group activity is to either draw or print a big map of Australia then work together to talk about the different areas across our vast country. Get creative with different colours and textures.

As always, we love to see everyone’s creative ways of incorporating the cultural calendar into your services! Share your best Australian children’s song or craft activity with us on Facebook.

Posted on

This is it: 12 months of opportunity has begun

Welcome to 2017! A new year is upon us with 12 months of amazing opportunities for success and happiness for us all.

Like many, you may have made some resolutions entering the new year…  These can come in many shapes and forms – quit a bad habit, eat healthier food, do more exercise, visit friends more often…

Did you know that making resolutions on January 1st is said to date back to the time of Julius Caesar? He created the tradition, basing it on a mythical Roman god named Janus. Janus had two faces so he was able to simultaneously look back into the year that has past while looking forward into the new year that has commenced.

Two faces aside, we can all do a little bit of this, and should. That is, we should all reflect on 2016 and try to work out what went well and why. How can we repeat it? Can we do better?

We can also consider what didn’t go so well or where there was plenty of room for improvement. Again, why? And how can we make change and take steps towards bettering this area in 2017?

This year Bonkers Beat has made the resolution to grow and reach more early childhood educators and industry professionals than ever before.

We are expanding the Bonkers Beat Music and Wellbeing Program, providing more room for centres right across Australia to come on board. We are even taking interest from those interested internationally!

The Bonkers Beat Program includes more than ever before too – more value and even more amazing results for centres, management, educators, families and, of course, for children.

Just a reminder too that Bonkers Beat members have exclusive access to not one but TWO jam-packed, high quality early childhood professional development conferences in your state this year. We are very excited about our special guest speakers for the 2017 Wellness Summits, and you should be too!

Bonkers Beat could be just what you need to achieve your 2017 resolutions. In fact, it’s not too late to join us and come along to our February and March Wellness Summits! Click here to learn more about our programs or email your expression of interest to admin@BonkersBeat.com.

Again, welcome to 2017 and we can’t wait to make this year absolutely awesome with you all!

Posted on

Thank you for another inspiring year

this Just like that, it is almost time to farewell another fun, busy and exciting year! Throughout 2016 we saw educators and parents working together to guide and nurture children, using the power of music to enhance every aspect of children’s wellbeing.

I’d like to say thank you to each and every one of you for being a part of something so important – the shaping of the future. Your endless effort and dedication to the care of today’s young people is absolutely inspiring. I am immensely proud.

I’m very touched to have been given the privilege of presenting at early childhood events in multiple countries this year – I extend my gratitude and best wishes to all who invited me and attended these events. Your commitment makes me excited to see what is in store for the future of early childhood education.

Hopefully you are all enjoying the end of year fun – children really do love this time of year don’t they!

To our wonderful readers and supporters, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and to help you celebrate please enjoy a special Bonkers Beat Christmas song – ‘Ring The Bells’.

All the best for Christmas and the New Year! See you all in 2017!

Happy Singing & Stretching,

Galina

and the Bonkers Beat team

 

Posted on

Making the Biggest Decision for Your Child’s Future

continuity of care

There’s so much to think about during the early years of a child’s life. For parents it can be quite a whirlwind, from the sleeplessness of the first months to finding your feet in parenthood and then all of a sudden children are being enrolled at childcare or kinder.

With the knowledge that the first five years of life are when the brain does its most intensive wiring and development, making educated and informed choices about your child’s early learning is vital.

Pre-cursor for School Success

While childcare and pre-school/kindergarten programs are play-based forms of learning, they can play a big role in your child’s success in school.

In fact, a recent study by the University of Missouri College Education highlights the importance of pre-school years for children’s educational development and preparation for success in life.

Continuity of Care: It’s Crucial

When choosing a childcare or pre-school program for your child, it’s always best to think long-term – that is, commit to continuity of care for your child right through to commencing primary school.

Continuity of care means that children remain at one early childhood educational service for the three years prior to starting school. Early Childhood Australia says that consistency between settings is a critical factor in thinking about effective learning over the long term. “While children are certainly resilient and adaptable, their experiences of transitions and change are likely to be more favourable when there is as much consistency and continuity between settings as possible.”

Sometimes parents leave their current service to enrol their children in the 4-year old funded kindergarten year at the local government kinder. This is the equivalent of switching primary schools in grade 5 or high schools in year 11. Of course this can be a necessity when a family is moving areas, but for the most part these transitions don’t allow children to flourish and continue an uninterrupted developmental journey.

Extra Transitions Unnecessary

There are two main reasons we see this final year switch take place. The first is financial. It is often more affordable for families to send their children to the local government kindergarten. However, government subsidies and benefits like CCB make this cost difference less noticeable. Furthermore, you’ll find more flexible hours, excursions and incursions available in some settings like Bonkers Beat, included in the fees. Not to mention school holiday care! Most importantly of course, the very best early childhood education is an investment in your child’s future.

The other reason we find that drives families to change centres in 4-year old kindergarten is that they are under the impression that this will ensure their children have friends who will attend the same school. While friendships that continue into school can be wonderful, many primary schools will in fact separate children who have arrived from the same kinder in order to encourage even more new friendships to flourish in this new environment.

It’s important to note as well that there are often many kindergartens that feed into local primary schools, not just the government kinder nearest to the school. For example, local primary schools in and around Aspendale in Victoria love our Bonkers Beat Music Kinder because the children who transition to school from Bonkers Beat are very confident, creative and have more developed social and emotional skills.

Make the Commitment

Research supports continuity as an essential ingredient for the very best early education experience for children. This is also evident in our experience too. When your child commences care, make the commitment for your child’s future and pursue continuous care where possible for the best outcomes.

Before enrolling your child into a kindergarten or childcare, take the time to do the research and find the right high quality service for your child. To allow your child a smooth transition to school in the future, you may even like to start investigating your options for primary and secondary education. Whether your decision is based on a high quality public, religion-oriented or private school it should resonate with your family values and provide the best foundation for your child’s future.

Powered by WishList Member - Membership Software