Tag: Wellbeing Practices for Life

Posted on

A day of professional development for your ENTIRE team

professional development to your entire team

Each and every centre running the Bonkers Beat Music and Wellbeing programs gets the opportunity to attend two exclusive Wellness Summits each year. The Wellness Summits take place in summer and winter, plus we run them in each state so no one misses out or has to travel interstate.

Professional development delivered to your entire team

It’s not just the management or team leaders that are invited to head along – the Wellness Summits deliver a day of exclusive professional development to your entire team!

As if that’s not enough, the Summits feature guest speakers who are ready to share with you and your team, enlightening you on a range of different topics and unique approaches to grow your knowledge on various aspects of early childhood education.

Not to be confused with the recent (and fantastic!) Wellness Works! Early Childhood Leaders Conference, which was a ticketed event, the Wellness Summits are only open to centres with membership to the Bonkers Beat Music and Wellbeing program.

For all centres running Bonkers Beat within their curriculum, the Wellness Summit is a 1-day event for your entire team to attend together with NO additional costs, fees, tickets – it’s all included in the Bonkers Beat membership!

The Winter Wellness Summit will travel across Australia over August and September with all participating centres attending.

The event features:

-Reggio Emilia expert Kerrie O’Neill from Early Childhood Hub

-Wellbeing expert

-Managing behaviour with music and games

-Learning enhancing strategies

-A practical and informative session on setting up systems in your centre

-MUCH MORE!

To all the Bonkers Beat members, we cannot WAIT to see you there!

If this innovative, practical and cost-effective professional development day sounds like something you and your team would like to be involved in, feel free to send us an email to info@bonkersbeat.com to find out the many benefits of being part of the Bonkers Beat family.

Posted on

Your Guide to Celebrating the Rio 2016 Olympic Games

As we all know, the Olympics only comes around once every four years so it can be a novel event to celebrate in centres – not to mention a lot of fun! The Rio 2016 Olympic Games take place from August 5 – 21.

The Olympic Games provide early childhood educators (as well as educators at all levels) the opportunity to explore many different topics with children, but to make it simple for you we’ve narrowed it down:

1. What are the Olympic Games?

Start with a discussion of what the Olympic Games are. Keep it simple – pick from a few of the main features that children will find exciting. You could talk about the whole world working together, the teamwork, the sports, the Olympic torch and the medals.

Here are some leading questions to help you with your Olympics discussions:

What do you know about Olympic Games?
How often do the Olympic Games run?
Which countries participate in Olympic Games?
Where will Olympic Games run this year?
Which country is Rio de Janeiro the capital city of?
Do you like playing sport?
Which sport is your favourite?
Does your mummy or daddy play sport?
Why do people like to do sport?
Does playing sport make you healthy?
Why do we need to be healthy?

2. Get physical

Check out the full list of the sports featured at Rio 2016 here and adapt them to allow children to try at your centre. Children could line up chairs and row in an imagined kayak! Or get outside for one of the many ball games like basketball.

3. Get creative

Children can explore elements of the Olympics creatively using visual arts. Here are a few ideas:

-Colouring or creating Olympic rings is a classic Olympic activity for children. Here’s a printable, or try using plastic cups dipped in paint.

-Children can create their own Olympic medals using ribbon, cardboard, coloured paper, felt, foil – whatever else you can find!

-Roll up some paper into a cone shape, secure with glue or tape and stuff with orange and red tissue paper to create an Olympic torch!

4. Talk about teamwork

Children watching the Olympics and any sport will notice that in many cases teams need to work together and help one another. A simple parachute game of trying to keep a ball or balls on the parachute/sheet will help demonstrate the importance of teamwork to children! Observing and discussing uniforms can be fun too.

The Olympic Games are an exciting time all over the world, so above all keep it fun! If you have some amazing ideas to add, we would absolutely love to hear about them! Share with us on our Facebook page, or if you’re a Bonkers Beat member, share in our private group here. Parents, feel free to post in our private Facebook group for Bonkers Beat

Posted on

Revealed: The Top 3 Challenges Faced by Early Childhood Educators

challenges in early childhood education

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!

Posted on

Grandparents and their impact on children’s wellness

Did you know that involving parents in children’s pre-school and school life is linked to closer bonds with children, increased resilience and overall family wellbeing? Involving grandparents is beneficial to strengthening family bonds too and further improving the wellbeing of young children. This is why each year we encourage all providers of early childhood education to fit in a day dedicated to celebrating grandparents.

In the Seven Stone Philosophy, a stone is dedicated to relationships and their impact on wellbeing: “Healthy relationships lead to better lives. They are important and have an enormous impact on our physical and mental health.” Mums and dads should of course be celebrated, but we also believe that grandparents unique role in children’s lives should be celebrated too. This is why we always include a Grandparents Day each year!

Relationships can vary

As we all know, families come in all different shapes and sizes, and family dynamics and relationships can vary greatly.

Each child has a different relationship with their grandparents, while some may not have grandparents. It can be a good idea to invite children to celebrate grandparents and special friends, so that an aunty, uncle, godparent or family friend can attend too.

Grandparents and Special Friends Day presents an opportunity for children to share their learning environment – it’s always a treat to watch children give the tour and point out their artwork along the way!

July is the month we choose and recommend for celebrating Grandparents and Special Friends Day at Bonkers Beat – with Mothers Day in May and Father’s Day in September, it fits nicely in between.

Get creative for Grandparents and Special Friends Day

Here are some creative ideas to include in your celebration of Grandparents and Special Friends Day:

  • Create a photo frame as a gift
  • Children can simply draw/paint their grandparents/special friends
  • Children enjoy cooking up a storm to share some special treats with grandparents/special friends
  • Get out the glue to create a collage that represents their relationship
  • Sing some special songs together
  • Put on a special show for grandparents/special friends
  • Play instruments together in a music session
  • All children act out a favourite book for the grandparents/special friends
  • Yoga and wellbeing activities with grandparents/special friends

Bonkers Beat members, share your ideas to celebrate grandparents and special friends on our closed group. Parents, let us know what you thought of our celebration on the closed group for the centre. Everyone else, feel free to share yours on our Facebook Page.

Posted on

The Journey of a Small Local Kinder

Choosing the right childcare centre, kindergarten or school is one of the most challenging decisions parents have to make. It’s clear that many parents have an idea of what sort of program or approach to early childhood education they prefer… So how can our philosophy, values and early childhood curriculum suit everyone?

As early childhood educators, we want to deliver what all families want, but how do we do this while staying true to what we believe will help a child to reach their full potential?

Have a Vision

After teaching music to children for more than 25 years, it was evident to me that music is powerful! I could see how music could change lives and characters of young people and could become a key for the development of the whole child. The vision for me was to use music as the foundation of a program to nurture each individual, develop their sense of identity and unlock the door to reach their potential.

The questions I asked myself were: “How can we create a curriculum where music will become a strong and valuable foundation for children’s learning? How can we include music in everyday routines? How can we achieve the best outcomes for EVERY CHILD, EVERY DAY?”

Fix your Focus

With so many expectations from parents, it’s hard to know what to focus on. “Will your programme help my child to read and write before he’ll start school?…” “Can you help my child become independent? He will be going to prep next year…”
“Don’t you teach children math in kinder? They need to know how to count…”

So where do we start? I believe we should start with VALUES. For example, the Bonkers Beat Philosophy is based on Five Principles:
• Respect for all people
• Respect for all animals & living creatures
• Respect for all plants & nature
• Respect for kinder & personal belongings
• Respect for yourself

While our program reflects these Five Principles, it’s clear that every curriculum should have only one Main Focus: THE CHILD!

Ask yourself these questions:

What is the main focus of our curriculum?

Is this working for the children (and educators)?

Are the children really interested and engaged?

Do I really know and understand every single child?

What new and exciting ideas can I offer?

What is my purpose and what is my vision?”

Remember every educator is a creator and every educator is an innovator. If our Main Focus is the CHILD, we are well on our way to delivering a world-class curriculum.

Wellness Works for Every Child

We mentioned in our previous blog, ‘Why Wellness REALLY Works’, that a holistic approach really is crucial to deliver high quality early childhood education. For me, the approach that made the most sense – and demonstrated amazing results – was through wellness. There’s really no denying that achieving wellness for children AND for educators improves every aspect of early childhood education – for families, staff, centres and the industry as a whole.

In our days of pressure and fast living, it’s so easy to fall into the habit of doing the same things over and over again. From time to time we might feel scared to make a change or try something different. Often, we get criticised for not doing things the ‘usual’ way. Believing in your dreams and working towards one goal with a team of supportive and dedicated people, will make a difference. It will help you to put your vision into practice.

For me, one single idea of a music program for EVERY CHILD EVERY DAY, was just the beginning of a comprehensive and innovative curriculum which is now successfully run in centres all over Australia!

There is always so much more for us to learn, that we can never say that all our work is done. There will always be many more opportunities to improve, make our curriculum better and reflect on the changes of our fast moving society.

I’ve joined forces with internationally renowned early childhood expert Alina Dan and invite you to join us at Wellness Works: The Complete Early Childhood Leaders Conference. Come along and see for yourself why a holistic approach is so unique and effective.

Posted on

WHY Wellness REALLY Works

wellness in early childhood

“Wellness is a conscious, self-directed and evolving process of achieving full potential. Wellness is multidimensional and holistic, encompassing lifestyle, mental and spiritual wellbeing, and the environment. Wellness is positive and affirming.” National Wellness Institute

We all want to be the best version of ourselves possible. And we want the children in our care to reach their full potential too. Working towards wellness is the key.

Wellness is made up of several connected parts, and can really only be approached holistically. By approaching early childhood education with wellness in mind, we can make an incredible positive impact for all involved.

The Australian Psychological Society’s 2015 survey on stress and wellbeing in Australia showed that the wellbeing of Australians is faring worse than the first survey in 2011 – we’re reporting lower levels of wellbeing and workplace wellbeing, as well as higher levels of stress, depression and anxiety symptoms. This is in line with BeyondBlue’s statistics that suggest there are 3 million Australians living with depression or anxiety.

It’s time that we in early childhood education put some serious effort into the wellness of both educators and children. The best way to change the future is with wellness and some inspired leadership action. This is the mentality behind The Complete Wellness Works Educational Leaders Conference.

This is a conference like no other, designed specifically for educational leaders, management, directors and owners. It’s time to lead your centre with an early childhood revolution. You can learn more and register today at www.bonkersbeat.com/wellnessworks/.

Early childhood education needs a holistic approach, and the multi-faceted nature of wellness is the ideal foundation to build the future on.

Wellness in early childhood really does work, and The Complete Wellness Works Educational Leaders Conference is going to show you how to make it work for you and your centre.

Alina Dan is an internationally renowned early childhood presenter and business developer – her presentation will empower you to reach your full potential in your role as a leader.

Galina Zenin is a multi-award winning educator and her Seven Stone Philosophy is a clear path to incorporating wellness in early childhood. Her presentation is not only informative but gives you practical tools and inspiring insights into incorporating wellness to make your centre the best it can be.

Why does wellness work?

Here’s the simple answer: the path to wellness in early childhood is also the path to reaching our full potential. Let’s get started on the journey to wellness and watch as your team and the children in your care flourish – not to mention your centre.

Spots are filling FAST! Secure yours now – register at www.bonkersbeat.com/wellnessworks/

Posted on

Staying healthy in winter

Winter has arrived and this often means the beginning of colds, flus and other bugs. Parents and early childhood educators would have to agree that children and colds are not a good mix! Let’s look at how to avoid illness this winter, how to prevent it spreading and how best to treat viruses if they do sneak in.

Preventing colds and other viruses

Prevention is the ultimate goal for health at any age, and these tips will help you stay healthy, even through winter:

-Exercise

-Get enough sleep and make sure it’s quality sleep

-Head outside and get fresh air even when it’s cold

-Eat a balanced diet including protein, fibre, vitamins and antioxidants

-Stay hydrated to keep your body functioning optimally

Stopping the spread of germs

Adults and children alike can reduce the spread of colds by being paying extra attention to:

-Handwashing

-Avoid sharing drinks, food and cutlery

-Stay home from work/childcare/kinder/school

-Throw used tissues away straight away

-Avoid touching mouth/nose/eyes

-Cover your mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze

Treating colds and other viruses

While antibiotics are sometimes necessary, most colds and flus are viral infections, so antibiotics won’t help. Help the body get better faster with these tips:

-Plenty of fluids to keep hydrated

-Vaporiser or humidifier to break up mucus

-Lots of rest and quality sleep

-Honey to relieve coughs for children over 1 year old

-Keep warm, but don’t overheat

-Try eating a nourishing soup, like this one

In fact, what a fun opportunity to teach children about nutrition by cooking up a delicious, vitamin-packed soup! And as far as getting children to stay active in winter, rugging up with a coat and gumboots and having a splash in some puddles is always a hit!

Posted on

The Importance of Leadership

The Importance of Leadership

Leadership – it’s a natural skill for some, can be learned by most and is so important for the effectiveness of any team.

I recently returned from the USA and attended the Leadership Connections – National Leadership Conference. This event, run by the McCormick Centre for Early Childhood Leadership, specialises in bringing together leaders in early childhood education to inspire one another and build skills in a variety of sessions. The conference inspired everyone to consider how important leadership is when it comes to the success of any team.

Positive, strong and inspiring leaders and management are crucial to overcome the challenges facing many directors and principals every day. The conference highlighted the importance of providing opportunities for leaders to learn, grow and network.

Let’s explore the three main ways that good leadership can benefit your team – we’re considering the information from an early childhood education perspective, but realistically this applies to any team.

Empower Your Team

Effective leaders will empower the team to have their say, work together and identify ways to make everything more efficient and effective.

Maintain Stability

Systems and procedures can make life a lot easier, and leaders can ensure they are put in place and help teams to utilise them to everyone’s advantage. Tension in teams can be avoided with a central leader to guide everyone. Stress can’t be entirely avoided, but is only exacerbated when we are lacking direction – stability keeps a team feeling confident and better equipped to achieve goals.

Stay Focussed on Goals

Leaders are essential for setting and tracking goals. Without leaders to monitor progress and work with feedback from the team, goals can be forgotten and sometimes never achieved. With a leader who is working with the team to set and then plot out the path to achieve goals, amazing things can be achieved.

These are just a few of the points carried from my time at the Leadership Connections. To the entire team at McCormick Centre for Early Childhood Leadership, thank you for the warm reception and congratulations to you all on an outstanding conference. The venue and expo were exceptional, and I absolutely loved the structure of the conference. Such a unique opportunity to connect, support one another and share knowledge – and these are things we can all benefit from doing more of.

Take a look at photos from the Leadership Connections Chicago event here on Facebook.

If you’re a director or owner and you’re ready to empower your team and your centre, learn about our breakthrough formula here.

Posted on

Make life easier with systems and procedures

Make life easier with systems and procedures

While we all enjoy a little spontaneity and flexibility in our days, one thing is for certain – you can make life easier with systems and procedures.

This definitely applies to the way childcare centres are run – having systems in place reduces stress for educators, management, families: everyone! They are also vital for a successful operation of a centre, and can save money, time and headaches.

Systems and Procedures in Centres

Just about every element of the average day in a childcare/early learning centre needs to run to a schedule with a system in place to govern it. With so many children to guide and nurture, effective systems are a must for a centre that runs smoothly and successfully. Systems and procedures are also important for your NQS Rating – in fact, Standard 1.1 and Standard 7.3 specifically outlines the need for systems and processes in various areas of centres’ operation.

Here are some suggestions for systems and procedures to make sure your centre is set up to meet its full potential:

For Staff

  • Checklists – these are a fantastic way of tracking necessary tasks and systems on a daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly basis. So simple, so effective
  • Ensure educators have set days/times for planning and documenting children’s progress and a system of how to do this eg a book, template etc
  • Document all systems and procedures – a folder with standard operating procedures and guides for everything should be informative and accessible
  • Display procedures where possible: for example, have a script taped near the phone for answering calls and what to do with new enquiries etc

For Children

  • Transitional songs are an excellent element to add to your daily routines – whether it’s for packing away toys or washing hands.
  • Depict systems for arrival with clear images, steps and flowcharts around the centre. Eg reminder to put bag in its spot upon arrival, packing up bedding etc

For Parents and Families

  • Create a system for arrival and pick-up to ensure children’s safety and minimal disruptions to the other children
  • Provide families with a calendar of events well in advance to allow for adequate planning time (for centres and families)

Systems and Procedures in Life

Identifying patterns and turning them into systems can make your life less effortful and more enjoyable in a broader sense too…

With any systems and procedures, there should be an element of flexibility – it’s important to assess regularly and be open to change if something could be done better in some way. The goal should be to empower through effective systems and make life easier with more time for the fun things!

Posted on

How much sleep do children really need?

How much sleep do children need

How much sleep do children need to play, learn and grow? It’s often underestimated.

Most experts agree on the following:

Toddlers (aged 1 to 3 years): From 10 – 13 hours, which includes a day nap of 1 – 3 hours. Young toddlers may still take two naps but late afternoon should be avoided to avoid difficulties getting to sleep at night.

Preschoolers (aged 3 – 5 years): 10 – 12 hours per night, plus an afternoon nap of 1-2 hours.

School aged (5 years +): 10 – 12 hours each night.

Educators should remember that the National Quality Standards Quality Area 2, Element 2.1.2 specifically refers to centres making sure that “each child’s comfort is provided for and there are appropriate opportunities to meet each child’s need for sleep, rest and relaxation, which in turn directly supports Element 2.1 as a whole – promoting the health of the children. (See below from NQS Quality Areas).

Sleep (Blog Post)

The amount of sleep different children require is, as with adults, an individual thing. There should, however, still be an emphasis on ensuring that children are sleeping enough, resting enough and that these are quality sleeps and rests to maximise what your child/ren can get out of every day.

Don’t Neglect Naps

To get enough sleep, naps are a must for most children right through to age 5. As much as we tend to realise that the body needs sleep to physically rejuvenate us it also helps children to grow and assists the immune system. Our brains also rely on sleep to function properly – researchers often say that they believe the brain uses sleep to sort through information, solve problems, organise your thoughts and generally restore itself. 

Naps are important for children to enjoy happy, active days – without a nap, children can become overtired, moody and even struggle with falling asleep at night.

Spot the Sleepy Signs

It is safe to say that fulfilling the sleep and rest quota each day for children is imperative to their overall ability to function, both physically and mentally. It’s not surprising that children who don’t get enough sleep or rest time can be irritable and struggle to concentrate and perhaps feel clumsy.

Babies and younger toddlers may display the following:
Yawning
Crying
Eye rubbing
Irritated behaviour

Toddlers and young children may display:
Clumsiness
Eye rubbing
Yawning
Emotional distress
Irritated behaviour
We all know that sometimes it can be a challenge to get children to sleep even when they are obviously tired, but here are some strategies to try.

Four Tips to Promote Sleep

1. Keep up a regular routine where children can come to understand that rest or sleep time is approaching. Routine can help children mentally and physically prepare;
2. Try some relaxation exercises or reading a book in the lead up;
3. Make sure children get ample fresh air and physical activity;
4. Ensure children are comfortable and not hungry, thirsty etc before they settle down to rest/sleep.

It is so important to remember that even if children are sleeping well overnight, a day nap and/or rest is necessary right up to school age. Periods of napping, rest and relaxation are essential to maintain those high energy levels all day long.

Don’t forget to look at your own sleep patterns too – even adults can improve the way we function in our daily lives simply from ensuring we get a decent amount of sleep and that it’s quality sleep and rest. After all, you need all the energy you can muster to keep up with the kids!

Powered by WishList Member - Membership Software