Central Coast Home & Lifestyle Summer 2018

FOCUS ON CHILDREN

Quality time When you spend quality time with your child you let your children know they are important to you. Doing things together as a family can help strengthen a sense of belonging and togetherness in your family, which is also good for your child’s self-esteem. Develop family rituals. These could include a story at bedtime, a special goodbye kiss or other ways of doing things that are special to your family. Let your child help you with something, so that he feels useful. For example, your preschooler could help you set the table for dinner. Plan some regular one-on-one time with your child, doing something that they enjoy, whether it’s drawing, doing puzzles, kicking a soccer ball or baking cakes. Success and achievements can help your child feel good about himself. But your child can also build self-esteem doing things he doesn’t always enjoy or succeed at. You can still praise his effort and determination – and remind him that these will help him succeed in other areas, or next time. Keep special reminders of your child’s successes and progress. You can go through them with your child and talk about your special memories, and the things he has achieved. Teach your child that failing is a part of learning. For example, if he keeps missing the ball when he’s learning to catch, say ‘You’re getting closer each time. I can see how hard you’re trying to catch it’. Teach your child to treat himself kindly when he does fail.

S chool readiness encompasses physical, social, emotional, language and cognitive skills. Children need to grow and develop these skills so they can use them throughout their life. At Dinky Di Children’s Learning Centre’s, we believe that learning is a combination of both intentional teaching and child-based learning. We use this as our basis for our school readiness program which is practised throughout our centre. Not only do we focus on activities such as reading, writing, colour recognition, cutting and other activities you might associate with starting school we also look at self-care skills, attention and concentration, gross motor and fine motor development as well as building social skills. Children in our classes learn how to wash their hands correctly, how to throw and catch a ball and balance on one leg, how to safely hold scissors as well as life skills such as holding an adults hand when crossing the SCHOOL READINESS

road and who to call if there is an accident and they need help. School readiness is so much more than just being able to write your name; it also knows how to express our feelings and being able to listen to instructions and directions and carry these out. Our educators work with the children and their families to ensure that our school readiness program focuses on a range of learning and developmental areas. The structure is also a key part of our school readiness program, while free play and child- based learning are encouraged we also teach the children how to follow a routine including meal times, group times and designated outdoor play times. We recognise that each child is an individual and the same routine and program will not work with every child. We see children as unique and capable individuals, who come to our Service with their interests, talents, skills, and ideas. In Early Childhood Education,

the curriculum is not the focus, the children are. We feel that a meaningful, integrated, emergent curriculum using the Early Years Learning Framework is the most beneficial to children’s learning across all developmental domains and through this we have developed a strong and focused school readiness program. Phone: 4389 8888

P r e m i u m Q u a l i t y C h i l d C a r e a t a n a f f o r d a b l e p r i c e

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*Offer expires May 31, 2019

when you present this coupon and enrol upon inspection at our State of the Art Tumbi Umbi Centre The Best Care for your little ones from 6 weeks to 6 years!

www.dinkydikids.com

Call Lauren or Jessica now on (02) 4389 8888