January 2018

A big welcome to our Centre to all our new families and welcome to 2018 to our continuing families.

Growing a resilient early childhood community Part 1 Building Positive Relationships

Positive relationship are the key to quality education and care. With a new year most of us at WCCC are experiencing changes with some children moving onto school or preschool, transitions between rooms changing groups, new children and families joining us and possibly new educators and staff . Resilience helps us manage changes such as these. You can help develop your child’s resilience by helping them build and strengthen their relationships with other children, and with significant adults in their lives – including your parent-child relationship. In each room and across the Centre we will be working on establishing and growing positive relationships. The strategies that we use at WCCC to strengthen relationships will also work at home. These include:

Communicating with families both verbally and via a range of documents including child profiles, newsletters, and photos; asking questions and sharing information about each child’s strengths and interests with parents. When children observe educators in friendly conversation with their parents they are seeing that their parents trust the educators and are observing key skills that will support their social and emotional learning.

Connecting with children by being at their level, asking open ended questions about their family and pets and what they have done at home. Getting to know their strengths and interest.

Supporting them to engage in experiences that they enjoy at the Centre by being close and available. Offering comfort, closeness and reassurance when needed.

Building friendships is important to each child’s development. Educators help children to practice and improve their social skills so that they can form friendships with their peers. Using children’s names both in conversation and songs helps children feel part of the group and promotes their sense of belonging to WCCC. Educators plan experiences for children as a group or with a partner and encourage sharing, turn taking and helping others. Children learn how to manage relationships by observing the ways that other people around them relate to each other. Parents, extended family and educators are the role models for children.

Understanding emotions. As young children are learning about their emotions we help them to learn about how they feel, by labelling emotions in themselves and others. Being a

positive role model by interacting with others in a kind and caring way and naming our own feelings supports children’s learning. Children learn how to be empathetic by observing others. Being sad, angry, frustrated or disappointed, are

everyday feelings that children experience. We aim to help children work through these difficult emotions by labelling and validating the emotions and helping and supporting children to calm themselves. We also talk about positive emotions happiness, joy surprise and how they make us feel.

PARENT NEWSLETTER

New babes

Congratulations to Alice, Bernd and Sophie (R2) on the birth of Angela 23/12/17

And to Emily (educator R1) and family on the birth of Amber 28/12/17

Board and PAG Matters 2018 Adelaide University Childcare Services Inc (AUCS) meets on the last Monday of the month. The first meeting for 2018 is Monday 29th January. The Parent Advisory Group (PAG) meets monthly. First meeting for 2018 will be in February. Our main focus will be the 2017 parent review and drafting goals/outcomes for 2018. Please speak to Kaarin if you are interested in joining this group.

Early closure February 19th WCCC closes early two or three days a year so that all educators and staff have an opportunity to partic-ipate in professional development. On Monday February 19th WCCC will close at 4.30 pm for team planning for 2018.

Centre closure day 2018 This is advance notice that WCCC will be closed for professional development on Friday 25th May. Our EB includes one closure day for professional Development. There will be no fees charged for the closure day.

Program and Service Review Thank you to all the families who have completed the 2017 parent review. More than 40% of families have responded to the online survey and questionnaire. The survey will close for respondents this Friday 27th January so if you haven't done so already please take some time to give us your feedback. Responses will then be collated and used for our 2017 planning and establishing key goals.

Drop-off and pick-up times We are always striving to build strong ties with the families of our children and we encourage siblings, grandparents, aunties and uncles, and all the people who make up your family circle to feel part of our Centre. We hope you will appreciate that the we also need to ensure that all the children who attend WCCC feel safe and secure. As much as possible, it is preferable that families drop-off their older child first and pick-up their youngest child first. Room 1 is designed for babies and toddlers. We understand that it can be difficult for some older children to be patient while you collect their sibling from Room 1, or to be dropped off first. Room 2 and Room 3 educators are happy to provide special attention for your older child during these times, if required. Please talk to your child’s primary carer or the Room Coordinator. If you are wanting to have an extended conversation with other parents or educators when you have older children with you please be mindful that you must also be actively supervising them.

Welcome to Room 1 to the following siblings

Isabel and Airlie and to

Heidi and her family

Family books Our family books depict the everyday life of the children and families who attend our Centre providing a re-source that connects your child’s home with the Centre. They can be read and re-read many times. This allows your child to have at our Centre, photos of people and things that are special in their life. We would like each family to contribute by completing 1 or 2 A3 sheets (supplied by us). We would really like to get a new ‘story page’ from every child in the Centre. Educators have an A3 sheet for each family. Please tells us about your child at home in photos and words. Photos printed on copy paper may make it easier to collate and glue. We hope you will join us in gathering these stories so that by the end of March we have a story about every child in the Centre. If you would like too to see an example please

Parent Book Review You, Me and the Rainbow, written by Petra King, Illustrated by Patricia Howell and The Rainbow Garden, written by Petra King and Deb Warren, Illustrated by Patricia Howell Petra King says she wrote You, Me and the Rainbow after her 3yo son began having nightmares due to a parental separation with her husband. The technique within the story helped her son to feel loved and secure. The Rainbow Garden was written as an extension of this, offering themes of loving and appreciating all living things. You, Me and the Rainbow is the story of how every night Mariah's mother wraps her in all the colours of the rainbow. It's essentially a Mindfulness technique using touch and beautiful de-scriptors that children can visualise with each colour - "red, the colour of cherries, strawberries and a cosy open fire". Mariah's mother, after wrapping her in the rainbow, explains that there is also a rainbow that connects their hearts together and connects Mariah's heart to all those that she wishes to share her love. You may liken the story with your own bedtime rituals such as snuggle time or prayers. It offers a technique of calm, connection and security, as Mariah discovers she is "the pot of gold at the end of her mother's rainbow". As an appropriate book for our Waite kids, realistically, I think it is a little too long and detailed. It's also a little sickly sweet towards the end, but perhaps my heart has frozen??! The pictures are beautiful though. I do however think the book offers a really useful and important technique to use with our children, if you are having a hard time with separation anxiety and/or bedtime. You, Me and Rainbow offers something you could adapt to make your own little rainbow ritual. The Rainbow Garden is the story of a beautiful rainbow garden where four friends enjoy play-ing among the flowers, birds, bugs and worms. The caretaker of the garden, Jack, offers the children wisdom and support along the way - "everything and everyone needs love". Jack too has offered one of the children, Justin, a rainbow teddy called Sooky (which comes with the book). Justin has Sooky to offer strength and support when the school children tease him, he knows that Jack is con-nected at the end of Sooky's rainbow. The story continues, as we learn to be grateful for all creatures, even the worms. The garden begins to die, due to the worms leaving as they didn't feel loved and appreciated like the other creatures. This is until the children are able to admit their fault to their parents, in another fabulous theme - "When you know a truth it is important to speak up even though it may feel scary". Again, The Rainbow Garden is beautifully illustrated and has such powerful messages of positive regard for other living things, integrity and speaking up, forgiveness and of course the love and support of your family and friends by way of the rainbow. Similarly, as with You, Me and the Rainbow, I also think it may be a little old for our Waite children. The subplots within are a bit segmented and parts overly repetitive. It's also a little long and overly descriptive for Waite age attention, but generally an enjoyable book. What 3yo Frankie says: You, Me and the Rainbow: "The green forest is really scary" "I like the stars" The Rainbow Garden: "I like to snuggle Sooky" If you like these kinds of books, you may also like: The Invisible String by Patrice Karst In My Heart by Jo Witek Happy reading from Isabelle and Frankie x

Packing a lunch box, whether this is for a picnic for a day our or for school or work can be fun. However, for busy working parents who have had the benefit of a healthy meal being provided for their child at childcare it can also become a chore. Keeping within healthy guidelines becomes more difficult if you have a ‘fussy eater’. We are also presented with an overwhelming number of prepacked snacks in supermarkets. Most of these very unhealthy for our children. They are also very unhealthy for the planet with over-packaging and lots and lots of plastic. Most education and care services now have policies with respect to healthy foods and increasingly regarding the packing as well. You can have a litter free lunch box and avoid plastic by us-ing stainless steel, and reusable lunch wraps like beeswax wraps. Key points to remember when packing lunches are: Allow children to choose between a range of health alternatives Include plenty of fresh fruit, vegetables and healthy grains (snow peas, cucumber, cherry tomato, raw pop

corn, capsicum, dried cranberries, sultana, Pre pare snacks like mini muffins and freeze for use across the week Consider left overs from family meals Water is the best drink Here are some recipes you might like to try:

Carrot and yogurt muffins ( Chef Craig) Ingredients 2 cups self raising flour 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup oil 1 cup fruit yogurt 1egg 1 medium carrot, peeled and grated Method Pre-heat oven to 180C Mix all ingredients together in a bowl until mixture just starts to come together The batter should look slightly lumpy– overbeating will make the muffins tough Spoon into greased muffin tray, filling about two thirds full Bake for 20-25 minutes and cool on a rack CHEF’s note: you can substitute the carrot with dried fruits like sultanas or cranberries or zucchini or apple or blueberries.

Healthy Lunchboxes for young children

Apricot and sultana scones (Chef Grace) Ingredients 2 cups dried apricots (chopped) 1 cup sultanas 4 cups self raising flour 1/2 cup raw sugar Pinch salt 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 cup natural yogurt 1/2 cup canola oil Method Pre-heat oven to 180C Place apricots and sultanas in a saucepan just covered with water and bring to the boil Simmer for 5 minutes then drain the liquid Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix until combined Tip onto a floured surface, pat with your hands to a thickness of 1cm Cut with a scone cutter and place on a greased oven tray Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown and cool on a rack