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Early Learners

Dear Early Learners Families,

Firstly I would like to welcome our new friends Kobi, Laiken, Maddison, Taylah and Marlie to our Early Learners Room.

During the last few months the Early Learners children have been focusing on exploring various sensory activities and familiarising nursery rhymes while also encouraging gross and fine motor skills as they work towards their next milestone.

We also joined in celebrating all the different special days at our centre which included St Patrick's Day, Harmony Day, Easter, Anzac Day, Super Hero Day and Mother's Day. In the upcoming months we will be focusing on the new events which are 'Best Friends Day' and 'Crazy Costume Day' as well as encouraging our new friends to feel more comfortable with their new surroundings. We will also continue enhancing the children's skills in developing their milestones through various experiences and exploring.

We would like to take this opportunity to invite our families if you have any questions or input, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind Regards, Miss Cheri & Miss Maddison.

Junior Early Years

Welcome Families to Junior Early Years Families.

In the Junior Early Years Room we would like to welcome our new friends Scarlett, Grayson, Marlie, Elijah, Xander and Marylin we hope you are enjoying your time in in our room so far and making many friendships.

In the past months the Junior Early Years Room have been focusing on encouraging the children to identify their basic numbers, colours and shapes as well as getting familiar with their room routine.

It has been wonderful to observe the children as they learn their basic numbers, colours and shapes as we have noticed some of the children show their ability to identify these through reading books or exploring posters and cards with friends.

We have also joined in celebrating the various special events that have occurred and look forward to celebrating more special events in the upcoming months.

Our focus for the next few months will be on the alphabet letters and continuing to identify our basic numbers, colours and shapes, while also extending on the children's interests and creativity as we observe them through play.

Kind Regards, Miss Jill, Miss Nour & Miss Torrie.

Early Years

Welcome to the Early Years Room.

During the last few months in the Early Years Room, it has been a busy, fun and productive time for both the children and educators. It has been such excitement observing the children as they share their creative imaginations through play, learning and craft as well as enhancing their social skills through interacting with others and communicating both verbally and non-verbally while engaging in play.

During these past few months we have also joined in celebrating Waitangi Day, St Patrick's Day, Easter, Earth Day, Anzac Day, Super Hero Day and Our Special Mother's Day. We have also continued our learning of identifying our numbers, colours and shapes, counting from 1 to 20, children learning to say their full (First and Last) names, and also trying to identify their names and encouraging children to share their thoughts and ideas during group discussions.

The children's interests have been role playing in home corner, sensory play with play dough, sand and water play, exploring dinosaurs and animals, picnic and cafe play, as well as enhancing our physical skills during outdoor play.

In the months coming up we look forward to continuing to learn more about our numbers, colours and shapes, identifying our names and expanding more on the children's interests and creativity while also celebrating our exciting upcoming events. Thank you to all our families for all your support.

Kind Regards, Miss Christina, Miss Michelle, Mr Hayden and Miss Emily.

Pre-Prep

Welcome to our new and current Pre-Prep Families to our room newsletter!

We have been focusing on letters from A to I and numbers 1 to 10. We have also been focusing on name recognition and writing our names by ourselves. We have joined in celebrating our special events which include St Patrick's Day, Easter, Anzac Day and Mother's Day where we created some amazing artwork, as well as celebrating the children's birthdays.

We have also focused on sustainable practices and the children have had the opportunity to experiences production in recycling during their visit to the TOMRA recycle centre. Our next project is to cultivate our garden and plant vegetables to harvest in the upcoming months.

As we are coming into winter, a reminder to families to please make sure all belongings are clearly named to prevent anything getting lost. In the upcoming months we will continue to focus on the rest of our alphabet and numbers extend on our numbers moving up from 10 to 20 as well as continuing to observe the children's interests and creativity to implement further learning activities build on the children's developments skills.

Kind Regards, Miss Courtney and Miss Kara.

Before and After School Care / Vacation Care

Welcome Families to School Care and Vacation Care Room. Our School Care and Vacation Care children have been engaging in many different and exciting adventures, both at the centre and out and about in the community. We have participated in art experiences, board games and many outdoor activities.

During our Vacation Care Program the children experienced many new activities and traveled to many new destinations. The children got to visit and explore different places such as, mini golf, the movies, swimming pool, bowling, and a few new local parks. The Vacation care children also went on treasure hunts and ate picnics as they all worked together solving clues and finding different treasures at different locations. Miss Kara and Miss Michelle also had a lot of fun sharing these experiences and engaging in play with all of the children.

We hope to see you all again at our next Vacation Care Program!

Kind Regard's, Miss Kara and Miss Michelle.

I heard the sound of small feet trailing me, followed by his words " It's okay, Mum." I pushed the hair off my forehead and sighed, recognising that this was genuine empathy my son was showing me. A minute before, I'd been mumbling a familiar script under my breath, something about me being the one who does all the work around here and getting nothing but complaints in return. I was put out, and at 8 years old, my oldest child was old enough to notice.

Those words- "It's okay, Mum" - pulled me out of it. I softened and saw him as a human again (instead of one of my dependents). He was right. It was okay. Deep breath: We have everything we really need.

Sometimes we need a little reminder to slow down. Here is Erica Layne's 32 ways to enjoy the little moments.

1. Watch them when they sleep.

2. Inhale them after they bathe.

3. Steal some extra time brushing your child's hair. Keep on brushing it straight through the teen years.

4. Read the heartfelt things your kids write about you and let them sink in. (When our kids give us valentines or birthday cards, are we really taking their words in? It's time to start.)

5. Break a personal parenting rule or two. I recently took my 3-year-old daughter to get a pedicure. I mean, she's three! But as it turns out, it's a memory I'll savour for a long time.

6. Be silly. Sing at the top of your lungs in the car, dance in the grocery store, pull a harmless prank.

7. Let them climb into bed with you (sometimes).

8. Don't round UP on their ages. Even if your child turns 7 in two months, keep thinking of him as 6. There's no need to hurry childhood along, right?

9. Fill your home with photos of them.

10. Practice living simply so your mind is clearer, which-in my case-helps me experience more moments as they come.

11. See your children through a camera lens. Sometimes this change in perspective is all you need-to see your child in a new light.

12. Capture, whether with your camera or a pen and paper, not just their milestones but the scenes you see every single day.

13. Choose one thing you can accept, rather than tolerate. Letting go can alleviate so much agitation and allow you to live more in the now with your loved ones.

14. When they're hurting, try to place yourself in a similar situation from your past and really remember what it felt like to be where they are.

15.Prop your phone camera up and use the time lapse feature to record a family meal or a homework session. Looking at it later will help you appreciate the beautiful chaos of raising children.

16. Watch them closely when their minds are fully engaged in something they love.

17. Do something for you. Often. "You can't pour from an empty cup."

18. Climb under some blankets and read to them. (And for those moments, choose not to let it bother you when you get sat on and accidentally elbowed a dozen times during your reading session.)

19. Get rid of guilt. It's clouding your view.

20. Regularly take some time to remember your childhood. It'll help you better appreciate theirs.

21. Claim for yourself and your family a distraction-free block of time. A morning with your laptop closed an afternoon away from your phone...

22. Use this mental image to help you refocus on what-and who-really matters to you.

23. Make it your goal for a day to double the amount of eye contact you have with your children.

24. When you pack away a size of clothing your child has outgrown, make a little ritual of remembering this last stage and how quickly it passed.

25. Take more video footage!

26. Build yourself a supportive village. Not a lot of "savouring" goes on when you're parenting on an island. (Too much energy is going to survival.) We need each other.

27. Organize some (super simple) one-on-one dates with your children. If you need structure for this (and simplicity!), try letting your child stay up 15 minutes late-to do something just with you-on the date of her birthday every month. For example, a child born on April 16th would have one-on-one time every 16th of the month.

28. If you child is old enough to text, take screen shots of cute text conversations you exchange.

29. If hurrying makes you agitated, try building more free space into your schedule so you don't have to rush so much between activities.

30. Snuggle up with them for movie time.

31. Listen.

32. Experience something new with them-something they've never seen.

This is your motherhood. You only get to do it once

Source: Layne, Erica (2017). 32 Ways to Savour Your Children While You Have Them Retrieved from